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We answered questions we’re often asked in a new posting under the “About” tab.

More than a dozen Monroe County school superintendents representing the east and west side BOCES, Rochester City School District, and several suburban school districts have met twice with Great Schools for All since the beginning of 2022 to explore issues related to the possible creation of one or more pilot integrated public magnet schools. Such …

School District Superintendents Meet to Discuss Planning for Integrated Crossdistrict Magnet Schools Read More »

A recent Siena College Research Institute poll of Monroe County residents indicates strong support for the establishment of magnet schools with specialized curricula that would draw students from both urban and suburban schools.  As indicated in the graphs below, 75 percent of all respondents support the creation of such schools.  Support was consistently strong across …

Countywide Survey Shows Support for Creation of Crossdistrict Magnet Schools Read More »

Hello Great School supporters, Although we’ve had a low profile for a while, Great Schools for All has been quietly developing a proposal for interdistrict magnet schools that would be socioeconomically and racially diverse, jointly administered by two or more school districts and open to students from across Monroe County. We have been meeting with …

Seeking social-media skills Read More »

Yes, we’re still at it! Quietly but steadily, Great Schools for All continues to work behind the scenes to build support for the creation over time of a network of voluntary cross-district socioeconomically diverse magnet schools offering opportunities not otherwise available in our current schools – new schools designed to improve outcomes for all students, …

GS4A: quiet, but still very active Read More »

In the Raleigh/Wake County public school system, more than 35 magnet schools of varying grade levels have been established over the years, each deliberately drawing a socioeconomically diverse student population. GS4A representatives spent three days visiting the district several years ago, and were impressed with the strong schools and the student outcomes. There have been …

Raleigh/Wake County graduation rates continue to increase for all subgroups; disparity gaps cut in half Read More »

Excerpt from a Rochester Beacon opinion from April 22, 2019 by Mark Hare and Don Pryor “GS4A is not advocating the creation of a single countywide school district. Rather, we support a network of voluntary interdistrict schools. Our niche at GS4A has been to insist on a public school system that does its job to …

Rochester needs socioeconomically diverse, cross-district magnet schools Read More »

NY Times opinion by Myron Orfield  and Will Stancil: “George Floyd and Derek Chauvin Might as Well Have Lived on Different Planets” – June 3, 2020 “Minneapolis also operated an aggressive school desegregation plan…This new approach focused more on improving segregated schools than eliminating them, and uplifting impoverished neighborhoods without directly addressing the region’s racialized …

Minneapolis unrest stems from segregated schools and neighborhoods  Read More »

From the LA School Report: “Haves and have-nots: The borders between school districts often mark extreme segregation. A new study outlines America’s 50 worst cases”  by Mark Keierleber, January 22, 2020 “The Rust Belt city of Rochester in upstate New York has the most economically segregating school district border in the country, walling off the …

Rochester’s extreme school segregation, worst in U.S. Read More »

From Children of the Dream by Rucker Johnson “We are frequently told that school integration was a social experiment doomed from the start. But as Rucker C. Johnson demonstrates in Children of the Dream, it was, in fact, a spectacular achievement. Drawing on longitudinal studies going back to the 1960s, he shows that students who …

School integration actually drives social mobility Read More »