http://educationnext.org/exam-schools-from-the-inside/Exam Schools from the Inside
By Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Jessica Hockett
Education Next
FALL 2012 / VOL. 12, NO. 4
Stuyvesant. Boston Latin. Bronx Science. Thomas Jefferson. Lowell. Illinois Math and Science Academy. These are some of the highest-achieving high schools in the United States. In contrast to elite boarding and day schools such as Andover and Sidwell Friends, however, they are public. And unlike the comprehensive taxpayer-funded options in affluent suburbs such as Palo Alto and Winnetka, they don’t admit everyone who lives in their attendance area.
Sometimes called “exam schools,” these academically selective institutions have long been a part of the American secondary-education landscape. The schools are diverse in origin and purpose. No single catalyst describes why or how they began as or morphed into academically selective institutions. Some arose from a desire (among parents, superintendents, school boards, governors, legislators) to provide a self-contained, high-powered college-prep education for able youngsters in a community, region, or state. Others started through philanthropic ventures or as university initiatives. A number of them were products of the country’s efforts to desegregate—and integrate—its public-education system, prompted by court orders, civil rights enforcers and activists, or federal “magnet school” dollars.
Exam schools are sometimes controversial because “selectivity” is hard to reconcile with the mission of “public” education. Even school-choice advocates typically assert that, while families should be free to choose their children’s schools, schools have no business selecting their pupils. Other people are troubled by reports of insufficient “diversity” among the youngsters admitted to such schools.
With such criticisms in mind, we set out to explore this unique and little-understood sector of the education landscape. Wanting first to determine how many there are and where they are located, we also wondered whether the “exam school” could be a worthy response to the dilemma of how best to develop the talents of our nation’s high-performing and high-potential youth in a climate consumed with gap closing and leaving no child behind. Could the selective public high school play a larger role in educating our country’s high-achieving pupils?
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The table of contents of the authors' forthcoming book on exam schools is at
http://press.princeton.edu/TOCs/c9811.html . Here is a list of chapters featuring individual schools.
Chapter 4: Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Aurora, IL 61
Chapter 5: School Without Walls, Washington, D.C. 71
Chapter 6: Central High School Magnet Career Academy, Louisville, KY 79
Chapter 7: Liberal Arts and Science Academy, Austin, TX 88
Chapter 8: Jones College Prep, Chicago, IL 96
Chapter 9: Benjamin Franklin High School, New Orleans, LA 106
Chapter 10: Townsend Harris High School, Queens, NY 114
Chapter 11: Pine View School for the Gifted, Osprey, FL 122
Chapter 12: Oxford Academy, Cypress, CA 131
Chapter 13: Bergen County Academies, Hackensack, NJ 140
Chapter 14: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Annandale, VA 149
