Magnet schools face tighter rules

Alonso making it tougher to transfer struggling students

"You see a lot of students who just didn't make it," said Williams, whose daughter is now a graduating senior. "It breaks the child's spirit because Western is a school they wanted to go to, but, academically, it's just too hard. It's not that they can't do it. It's that they didn't have the start [in middle school] to be successful."

Earlier this year, Alonso took on another issue involving access to the city's flagship schools. In February, at the CEO's recommendation, the school board approved a policy change requiring the schools to give city residents first preference in admissions, even if nonresidents rank higher on their applications. Previously, qualified city students could be turned away if nonresidents had better grades and test scores, a policy that Alonso called an injustice. Now, nonresidents are permitted to apply only for spots that city students do not fill.

The city's vocational high schools - Carver, Mergenthaler and Edmondson-Westside - also have academic admissions requirements and are affected by the changes. Another prestigious city school, Baltimore School for the Arts, admits its students based on their performance at an audition. While it has admitted more nonresidents than any other public high school in Baltimore, officials said its student retention rate is extremely high.

Under a new funding structure that will take effect this summer, all city schools will be funded based on their enrollment. Roger Shaw, the system's executive director of secondary schools, said it will be to principals' financial advantage to keep as many students as possible enrolled.

At Dunbar, where Shaw was principal until he was promoted in December and where retention has typically been higher than at other elite schools, he said students failing two or more classes were candidates for transfer. But the transfer was the last resort, Shaw said. First, he would meet with the parents, have the students sign a contract pledging academic improvement, pair the students with tutors and arrange for them to make up missed credits in summer school. He would monitor their progress constantly and, often, their status would improve.

"I tried to hold onto my students," he said. "Once we accept a kid, then we own a kid for four years. So what do we have in place to sustain that child and make sure that child graduates from our school?"

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