""You Got Into Where?"" is the first college admissions guide written by a student who is fresh out of the college admissions process. Learn how I was admitted to schools like the University of Southern California and New York University with full tuition scholarships. The guide features copies of my admissions essay, writing supplement, and activities resume that I used to apply to college the fall of my senior year. Get advice on all the secrets of the admissions process from start to finish. ""I can't believe that a 17 year-old has written a college admissions books that is so well-written, clear and accurate. No wonder USC jumped at the chance to have her become their student. My sense of things is that mostly parents read college admissions books; high school students just don't want to take the time. Given what she says and how she says it, I truly believe that teens will rush to read "You Got Into Where?" It is well worth their time."" -Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz Author, adMISSION POSSIBLE

I estimate the impact of attending a magnet school on student achievement in mathematics in a moderately large Southern district. Admission to magnet schools is through lotteries. Actual attendance by lottery winners is of course voluntary. I use lottery outcomes as instruments to control for bias due to self-selection of enrollees. Because lottery winners would have attended zoned schools of varying quality in the absence of magnet schools, the response to treatment is necessarily heterogeneous. Even so, these instruments are capable of identifying the effect of treatment on the treated for all students who enter magnets through the lottery. I also exploit lottery outcomes to estimate the effect of peers on student achievement. Conditional on attendance zone, a magnet lottery determines whether a student is assigned to a school with the characteristics of the magnet school or one with the characteristics of their neighborhood school. Thus, within this group, there is randomized assignment with respect to the entire set of school characteristics, including peers. This furnishes a way of identifying peer effects free of bias caused by endogenous choice of peers. Results indicate that race and income of peers have a substantial impact on achievement: the estimated difference between a school where students are 75 percent black and one in which students are 25 percent black is more than half a year's normal growth in mathematics. Further analysis indicates that these peer characteristics are not proxies for other determinants of achievement, such as teacher quality or heterogeneity in the response to treatment. (Contains 9 tables and 8 notes.).

The Wiley Handbook of School Choice presents a comprehensive collection of original essays addressing the wide range of alternatives to traditional public schools available in contemporary US society. A comprehensive collection of the latest research findings on school choices in the US, including charter schools, magnet schools, school vouchers, home schooling, private schools, and virtual schools Viewpoints of both advocates and opponents of each school choice provide balanced examinations and opinions Perspectives drawn from both established researchers and practicing professionals in the U.S. and abroad and from across the educational spectrum gives a holistic outlook Includes thorough coverage of the history of traditional education in the US, its current state, and predictions for the future of each alternative school choice

In recent decades, magnet schools have become a way for districts to provide school choice. Magnet schools are one of the many options provided to parents so that they can select a school to meet their children's educational needs and interests. After a short gap in federal grants for magnet school implementation, Congress established the current Magnet School Assistance Program (MSAP) in 1984. This study examined 21 MSAP-supported elementary schools from around the nation to see how their student body composition and academic achievement changed over time. The group of schools contained 17 that converted to become what might be called "traditional" magnet schools and another 4 that converted to become "destination" magnet schools. This study relied on administrative data collected directly from the districts. This study found that schools were more diverse after conversion but the evidence that this was related to conversion was limited (only significant for the concentration of minority students in traditional magnet schools). Achievement was higher after conversion in traditional magnet schools. The comparative interrupted times series (CITS) analysis suggests that this rise in achievement may have been due to other factors such as the changing student population rather than the magnet program or new peers as this analysis did not find evidence that magnet conversion itself was associated with a change in neighborhood student achievement gains. However, there was a significant amount of variation across individual district results which suggests that converting magnet schools or their contexts may be so different that an average look across them (even separately by traditional versus destination) may be less meaningful, or at least that it would be important to study a larger number of these schools in the future. Tables and figures are appended. [For the full study, "What Happens When Schools Become Magnet Schools? A Longitudinal Study of Diversity and Achievement," see ED556800.].

Updated to reflect the latest developments and increasing scope of school-based options, the second edition of the Handbook of Research on School Choice makes readily available the most rigorous and policy-relevant research on K–12 school choice. This comprehensive research handbook begins with scholarly overviews that explore historical, political, economic, legal, methodological, and international perspectives on school choice. In the following sections, experts examine the research and current state of common forms of school choice: charter schools, school vouchers, and magnet schools. The concluding section brings together perspectives on other key topics such as accountability, tax credit scholarships, parent decision-making, and marginalized students. With empirical perspectives on all aspects of this evolving sphere of education, this is a critical resource for researchers, faculty, and students interested in education policy, the politics of education, and educational leadership.