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Hammond, Matthew A. Lenard, Melinda Morrill, Thayer  \nMorrill, and Colleen Paeplow 1  \nPEPG 25-15  \nThis paper was presented at the School Choice Tradeoffs and Evidence-Based Policy Making conference held at the Harvad Kennedy School, May 8-9, 2025  \nHarvard Kennedy School  \n79 JFK Street, Taubman 220  \nCambridge, MA 02138  \nTel: 617-495-7976 Fax: 617-496-4428  \n[www.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/](www.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/)  \n1 Dur: North Carolina State University; Hammond: University of Alabama; Lenard: Florida State University; Morrill, M.: North Carolina State University; Morrill, T.: North Carolina State University; Paeplow: Wake County Public School System  \nThe Attraction of Magnet Schools: Evidence from Embedded  \nLotteries in School Assignment ∗  \nUmut Dur†  \nRobert G. Hammond‡ Thayer Morrill ‖  \nMatthew A. Lenard§ Colleen Paeplow∗∗  \nMelinda Morrill¶  \nFebruary 28, 2025  \nMagnet schools provide innovative curricula designed to attract students from other schools within a school district, typically with the joint goals of diversifying enrollment and boosting achievement. Measuring the impact of attending a magnet school is challenging because students choose to apply and schools have priorities over types of students. Moreover, magnet schools may influence non-cognitive skill formation that is not well-reflected in test scores. This study estimates the causal impact of attending a magnet school on student outcomes by leveraging exogenous variation arising from tie breakers embedded in a centralized school assignment mechanism. Using a rich set of administrative data from a large school district, we find robust evidence that attending a magnet school significantly increases student engagement, as measured through absenteeism and on-time progress rates. Students are significantly less likely to change schools when attending a magnet. We find suggestive evidence that attending a magnet school led to higher performance in mathematics and that attending non-language immersion magnet schools increased students’ reading scores. Together, these results suggest that magnet schools—atypically understudied school choice option—can benefit student learning and increase student engagement while enabling the system to achieve its goals of promoting racial and socioeconomic balance through school choice.  \n∗ For support throughout the project, we thank current and former Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) staff members Tamani Anderson-Powell, Glenn Carrozza, Eric Chancy, Beth Cochran, Elc Estrera, Laura Evans, Kimberly Lane, and Brad McMillen. We thank seminar participants at Appalachian State University, Stanford University, TCU, University of California-Davis, UNC-Charlotte, University of Kentucky, and the Association for Education Finance and Policy and Triangle Economics of Education Workshop conferences for helpful comments and suggestions, as well as seminar participants at UNC-Greensboro, University of Missouri, and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management conference for comments on an earlier version of this paper. We thank De Fen Hsu, Siyan Liu and John Westall for excellent research assistance.  \n†Department of Economics, North Carolina State University. Contact: [udur@ncsu.edu](udur@ncsu.edu)  \n‡Department of Economics, Finance, and Legal Studies, University of Alabama. Contact: [robert.hammond@ua.edu](robert.hammond@ua.edu).  \n§Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Florida [State University. Contact:](State University. Contact: mlenard@fsu.edu)[ mlenard@fsu.edu](State University. Contact: mlenard@fsu.edu)[ ](State University. Contact: mlenard@fsu.edu)¶ Corresponding author. Department of Economics, North Carolina State University. Contact:  \n[melinda](melinda morrill@ncsu.edu)[ ](melinda morrill@ncsu.edu)[morril","cbCaianO1KbaTR3V","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaianO1KbaTR3V","pdf",674901,59,"English","# Introduction\n# Magnet Schools and School Choice Background\n# Study Design and Identification Strategy\n# Data Sources and Outcomes\n# Results on Engagement and Mobility\n# Performance Effects in Mathematics and Reading\n# Implications for Policy and Equity","[{\"question\":\"Why is it challenging to measure the impact of magnet schools?\",\"answer\":\"Families choose to apply for magnet schools and schools may have priorities over different types of students. Magnet schools can also affect non-cognitive skills that are not fully reflected in test scores.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper estimate the causal effect of attending a magnet school?\",\"answer\":\"It uses exogenous variation from tie breakers embedded in a centralized school assignment mechanism, combined with administrative data from a large school district.\"},{\"question\":\"What outcomes does the study find affected by attending a magnet school?\",\"answer\":\"Attending a magnet school increases student engagement, including lower absenteeism and higher on-time progress rates. Students are also less likely to change schools, with suggestive evidence of improved math performance and higher reading scores for non-language immersion magnet students.\"}]","The Attraction of Magnet Schools: Evidence from Embedded Lotteries in School Assignment | PDF",1792060663,149]