Five Takeaways From WestEd’s Magnet School Evaluation Guide

April 22, 2024

By Aylin Bell, Director, School Choice and Sara Allender, Senior Research Associate

As public schools with a specialized area of focus, such as a theme-based curriculum in STEM, magnet schools can provide innovative and high-quality educational options to students and families. At WestEd, we frequently partner with magnet schools to help evaluate whether and how these programs are meeting their academic and equity goals. With the announcement of this year’s federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) grant competition, we’re revisiting what makes for an effective evaluation of magnet programs.

WestEd’s Magnet School Evaluation Guide offers local educational agencies (LEAs) or consortia of LEAs insights and resources for facilitating the successful evaluation of magnet programs—whether funded by MSAP or other funding sources—to ensure students of all backgrounds receive a high-quality and equitable education. Below are five takeaways from the guide, which you can download in full to help support your magnet school evaluation efforts.

1. Prepare for an evaluation by choosing the right evaluation partner, whether in-house or external, identifying your goals, and building a team of key personnel. Together, your team and your evaluation partner can determine goals for the proposed evaluation and facilitate meetings with core collaborators who can help shape and contribute to evaluation goals. Collaborators can include district leaders, school staff, professional development providers, students, and parents, including those who share the same background and experiences as the program participants. Including collaborators at the outset and throughout the evaluation ensures the accuracy of the findings and increases trust in the evaluation process.
2. Develop a theory of change and logic model to help you clarify your program goals while providing a framework for evaluating their effectiveness. A theory of change is the overarching description of how your program will reach its intended goals, while a logic model is a visual representation of how your magnet program will improve student, school, and community outcomes. The guide provides examples of a theory of change as well as templates, including the one below for creating a logic model, that can help shape your evaluation planning.

3. Gather high-quality data to conduct your evaluation. Consider what qualitative and quantitative data sources are available to you now and what data you may be missing. As you develop a better understanding of the strengths and gaps of your existing data, you will be able to better plan for the kind of data collection you will need to conduct for your evaluation. The guide offers additional questions and considerations as you embark on data collection for your evaluation.
4. Evaluate the implementation, outcomes, and impact of your magnet program. Evaluating the fidelity of implementation is an often overlooked part of magnet school evaluation. Without a full picture of how your magnet program is being implemented, you cannot completely understand the outputs and outcomes. With a better understanding of program implementation, you can better determine the underlying drivers of student outcomes and your program’s impact.
5. Disseminate your findings and make recommendations. Once you’ve completed your evaluation, share your findings not only with your funders but also with your collaborators and the community you serve. Having the partners and participants involved in your evaluation validate your findings can strengthen your evaluation conclusions and help uncover gaps or biases. The final step is to make recommendations on where your program can continue to build on its successes and address opportunities for improvement.

Bonus: The guide provides additional recommendations for MSAP grantees to help self-assess current evaluation plans and in selecting an evaluation partner.

Access the Magnet School Evaluation Guide today for assistance with ensuring an effective evaluation of your magnet program and providing a high-quality education for all learners. For questions about the guide or to inquire about partnering with WestEd, contact Sara Allender, Research Director on WestEd’s School Choice team.