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Combined geographic-zone and open-enrollment attendance policy for revitalization magnets

Design · All designs
Evidence · no claims cited

Description

A magnet attendance design combining a residential attendance boundary with voluntary regional open enrollment, so the school both serves its immediate neighborhood and draws integrating families from the wider region. The report describes "implementing an attendance policy in which 50% of a school's enrollment is drawn from a particular geographic zone and 50% is drawn as open enrollment from the larger region." In a low-income segregated area, zone students are likely nonwhite and lower-income while open-enrollment students are more likely white and affluent, and strong demand can make the attendance zone housing attractive, supporting residential integration.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Strong demand for magnet seats so families seek housing in the geographic attendance zone

Constraints

  • The report warns poorly designed magnets can lose their ability to attract enrollment, and high-demand schools risk becoming heavily white and affluent without enrollment-weighting policies

Target Learners

  • K-12 students in racially and economically segregated urban neighborhoods

Learning Goals

  • School integration
  • Neighborhood revitalization through school quality

Claims

Examples

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Key Sources

  • Orfield, M., & Stancil, W. (2022). Magnet schools and metropolitan civil rights planning: A strategy to revitalize and stabilize distressed communities. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/197.312
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id half-zone-half-open-enrollment-magnet-attendance
title Combined geographic-zone and open-enrollment attendance policy for revitalization magnets
description A magnet attendance design combining a residential attendance boundary with voluntary regional open enrollment, so the school both serves its immediate neighborhood and draws integrating families from the wider region.
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-10
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — orfield-2022

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