Proposed magnet school gains Gray's support

School Superintendent Ed Gray speaks to Noon Rotary aboout a proposed magnet school for Bedford County Thursday. (T-G Photo by John I. Carney) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Last month, Gray and other school officials made a proposal for a magnet school to Bedford County Board of Education. The opening next fall of Learning Way Elementary will require that bus routes and transportation districts be redrawn anyhow, giving a window of opportunity to open a magnet school at the same time.

A magnet school would be open to "high-achieving" students who meet a strict set of criteria, primarily based on academic test scores. Parents from anywhere in the county whose children meet the criteria could apply to have their children admitted to the school.

Gray said "high-achieving" is not the same as "gifted." The term "gifted" applies to a certain specific subset of students who are already receiving indivualized education plans, known as IEPs, through the special education program. But the net of "high-achieving" students would be a wider one and would also include many students who aren't now getting any special attention.

The requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act have forced educators to focus more and more of their attention on students who are at risk or at the bottom of the achievement scale, according to Gray. NCLB requires that each particular economic, ethnic or educational subgroup have a certain level of proficiency. The effect of NCLB is that school system officials concentrate on making sure that as many students as possible in each particular demographic pass the required tests.

"We cannot afford to waste one child's life," said Gray.

He said that's a good thing, and praised the way in which NCLB holds teachers accountable. He said that early in his teaching career, he felt that if he did a good job teaching, and a student refused to learn, it was the studen't own misfortune. But NCLB forces teachers to concentrate, not only on whether they are teaching, but on whether students are learning. In some cases that emphasis on students at risk of failure can keep the children at the other end of the scale from getting the attention they need.

The idea of a magnet school curriculum isn't necessarily to move high-achieving students far past their grade level so much as to take the chance to broaden the scope of what they're learning at their current grade level. At one magnet school Gray visited in Rutherford County, kindergarteners were producing their own audio podcasts.

Critics of the magnet school concept say that it hurts non-magnet schools by siphoning away their best students and most active parents, and that it is elitist and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for which students will and won't excel.

Gray said he strongly opposed the idea of a magnet school when it was first proposed here 14 years ago. But he said changes in demographics and requirements have changed his mind and he now believes a magnet school is the best way to reach high-achieving elementary students. And he said it will allow the other schools to better focus on the needs of average and lower-achieving students.

Gray said a magnet school, if approved by the school board, would probably be located either at what is now Thomas Intermediate School or what is now East Side Primary School. The population of the magnet school would depend on which of those facilities was chosen; East Side has a capacity of 340 students while Thomas can hold 550.

The magnet schools Gray has visited while researching the concept do not offer transportation, but Gray said Bedford County's income levels would probably make transportation a necessity. At last month's school board meeting, a two-stage transportation process was discussed; a student would ride the normal school bus to his local district school, and then be ferried by a special bus from that school to the magnet school.

Because it would tend to have a lower percentage of disadvantaged children, Gray said a magnet school would not be eligible for various federal funds tied to poverty. But he does not foresee the cost to run a magnet school to be especially higher than at the other elementary schools.

Gray said school officials can often predict a student's future success or failure by the time of the third grade.

"By the end of the third grade is when kids are dropping out," he said. "They wait until later to quit."

Gray said there's less need for a magnet school in the high school grades because the choice of classes tends to take care of each student's individual needs. A high-achieving student can take advanced placement or dual credit classes, for example, within the current school environment, while students with different academic goals can take a vocational course track.

A grant from the Niswonger Foundation will take that idea a step further by providing the equipment to offer distance learning classes at the high school level. For example, a handful of students at Community High School might not be enough to justify holding a particular advanced placement course at that school, but using distance learning they could take an advanced placement course being taught to a larger group at Central High School. Or a student anywhere in Bedford County who needed a credit in Latin could take a class being offered in East Tennessee.

Gray was introduced at the Rotary Club meeting by club member and school board chairman Barry Cooper. Cooper said he knows of some families who work in Bedford County but who have deliberately settled in adjoining counties because of the educational implications of Bedford County's diverse, even fragmented, student population.

School board members have said they must make a quick decision on the magnet school idea in order to be able to implement it by the fall of 2009.