Students are admitted into magnet schools based on academic performance and various assessments, such as an essay, interview or audition. But trustees today are expected to discuss proposed revisions to the magnet policy.

Trustee Edwin Flores, who chairs the board’s policy briefings, said he knew of no proposal for a lottery system and wondered how the idea began circulating.

“In a nutshell, I don’t know who invented this stuff,” Flores said.

However, he acknowledged that a proposed change would reserve 10 percent of magnet admission slots for “students of promise” who don’t otherwise meet admission criteria.

“As a general idea, I think it’s a good idea,” he said, adding that it’s a way to help students who are on the upswing.

But some magnet parents are concerned that underqualified students would be admitted under such a rule, diminishing the program. And they question how a “student of promise” would be defined.

“There is no formal definition for a ‘student of promise’ that I am aware of, so it will be interesting to see how that definition plays out,” Mike MacNaughton, a magnet parent and founding member of Dallas Friends of Public Education, wrote in an e-mail.

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