Change is coming to Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) magnet programs. District staff presented an update on magnet program demographics and changes for the 2024-25 school year at the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) workshop on Wednesday. The changes included lower academic requirements for applicants and efforts to make the magnet demographics as diverse as the district’s.
According to the presentation, racial demographics across the district are 40% white, 32% Black and African American, 14% Hispanic and Latino, 7% multi-racial, 5% Asian and less than 1% American Indian and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. In magnet programs, the demographics shift to almost 52% white, with no other demographics above 15.5% representation, with Black and African American being the most significant drop, to 15.5%, and Asian the most significant jump, to about 14%.
District staff has made it a goal to make magnet program diversity mirror the district’s demographics. Much of the divide is seen before schools or lottery make a selection, as white students account for almost half of magnet school applications.
“My hope is that, as students see other people that look like them getting into programs, they will say, ‘Well I do have a chance. I will bother to apply,’” Shannon Ritter, director of Career & Technical Education (CTE), said.
Kim Neal, director of magnet and career and technical academies, said the magnet team and district leadership felt part of the problem is that current academic requirements are too exclusionary. Previously, elementary school students who had a N, U, D or F grade on their transcript could not apply to a magnet program. With the new changes, that requirement will no longer apply.
The district will also lower the required middle school grade point average (GPA) from a 3.0 to a 2.5, and the high school GPA from a 3.5 to a 3.0 for academic programs. The 2.5 GPA minimum for CTE will remain the same.
Students can be accepted to a magnet program either by “school selection,” where a school sees an application and chooses that student to fill a seat, or by lottery.
Neal said some schools have been accepting students with lower grades anyway through the school selection process. She told the board that 11 elementary school students with Ns, Us, Ds and Fs were accepted into programs this year, and 51 high school students got into academic programs with GPAs as low as 2.8. Those students, she said, are successful, and if the rule is already not followed, the district may not need it anymore.
Yet discretions in school selection may become less relevant, as the district increases use of the lottery system to ensure equal chances for all students. Starting next year, the lottery system itself will select 50% of magnet students, up from 25% this year.
Neal said the district’s equity plan from 2018 designed the lottery system to begin at 25% and annually increase its responsibility by another 25% until it reached 100%. If the district had followed that plan, all magnet program students would already be selected by lottery.
To help improve magnet program communication, the district will contact both parents and the student when a decision has been made about their application. There will also be a dedicated magnet program phone line in addition to the existing email address, both which Neal said staff should respond to within 1-2 business days.
Neal said the magnet team is also increasing recruitment efforts.
On Nov. 16, the district will hold a high school magnet showcase for eighth graders, which will include academic programs, not just CTE programs, for the first time. The team plans to increase communication about magnet programs on ACPS platforms and will use data to invite students with specific interests to apply.
“We can’t change those demographic outcomes if we don’t get students to apply,” Neal said. “That’s part of our issue, is we need students to apply and believe they have the opportunity and the chance to get into a program.”
Board Member Kay Abbitt said she was not surprised to see an undersized representation of Black and African American students in magnet programs, saying that those students, largely from eastern Gainesville, are set up to fail.
“I don’t think the answer is to water down the programs,” Abbitt said. “I think the answer is to allow students in east Gainesville to be able to qualify for these magnet programs based on their own merit. And that will happen when they get a quality education, which by law they are entitled to have. So if you want a diverse magnet program, then fix the problem.”
Abbitt said the root of the problem is in elementary schools that are not sufficiently educating young students, pointing to Idylwild Elementary School and Lake Forest Elementary School, which are the only schools in the state performing poorly enough to be submitting turnaround option plans. She said the district and board should be focusing on underperforming schools, not magnet programs that are already functioning well.
Board Member Sarah Rockwell said she thinks the lower GPA requirements are a positive move, especially for middle school students applying to high school programs. She said these students are still a little “silly” and not driven to prioritize schoolwork, so their attendance and behavior are better indicators of whether they will succeed in a magnet program.
“My son decided he was going to take Mandarin through Florida Virtual Schools,” Rockwell told the group. “And that was a really, really bad decision, and I wouldn’t want that grade to be what kept him out of a magnet program… And I mean, if they fill out the magnet application, and do the essay, and get the recommendation letters, they’re showing a commitment and a desire to be there.”
Mary Benedict, an ACPS parent, called in as the only citizen comment of the workshop. She asked the board to reconsider the move to 50% lottery selection and lower high school GPA requirements, saying that already the 25% lottery selection has watered down instruction levels at some programs because students cannot keep up.
“At high school magnets, academic magnets like IBM Cambridge, this will be an incredible disservice to students who were not properly prepared for that level of academic rigor,” Benedict said.
Several board members requested retention data out of concern that increased access to magnets could lead to students struggling and leaving the programs. Neal said she does not directly have that data but can work to get numbers from the Skyward system.
Neal also said the district is currently developing a Magnet Review Committee, to help monitor retention. The committee will also deal with student support, academic and behavioral probation and dismissal from magnet programs.
Magnet program applications will be open from Jan. 16 until Feb. 13, with notification emails sent to families by March 25.
Perhaps the powers to be should (sic) just eliminate any and all criteria to ensure that noone is offende, noone is “left out” and everyone is equal regardless of the effort some put in (and others did not). Just a thought.
I moved to Florida, so my children could receive a better education. For them to be challenged, to be able to use their minds and to learn to work hard for what they want and believe in. My child had to work hard, study, excell and get good grades in order to apply for this program. It was not a handout. He had to learn and is continuously learning that if you want something in this world, he has to work hard for it, it isn’t given to him. My children were taught that integrity, grit, and discipline is what they need to learn and do in order to succeed in life.
Teaching children that it doesn’t matter if you work hard or not your still going to be given something is absolutely wrong. It’s entitlement at a whole new level, and it is showing the children that do work hard, that it was all in vain. It is creating a society to be weak and careless and dependent on others to carry them through life.
This is shameful, and a slap in the face to these children that are already in the program.
Florida does have a wonderful program called “Step Up For Students” where you can pull your child out of these wretched public schools and place them in the private school of your choice. Very, very few states give you options like this.
I don’t think they should do this. If you put in the work to make it in, then fine but lowering the magnet program requirements is a joke. Being mediocre shouldn’t be rewarded. If these students can’t make decent grades in regular classes, they’re supposed to keep up in the magnet program?
Harrison Bergeron was a warning, not a blueprint
I believe this is called “dumbing down”. Perhaps there is fodder here for a lawsuit. But then this board is no stranger to lawsuits. Anyone remember the mask mandate lawsuit?
This continues the descent of the school system
We can’t improve student capabilities and results so less expect less. Inevitably all students perform lower.
Either get a new school board or forget about resurrecting what was once a great school system
The American public school model is dead. Has been for a while. Home school your kids NOW.
Everyone but Abbitt should be fired and replaced with people intelligent enough to educate the kids. This political group focuses everything but school studies. They’re taking a giant leap backwards.