The career magnet high school programs of the New York City (NYC) public school system were evaluated in an experimental study. The experimental design compared the ninth-grade performance of students randomly selected for magnet schools with those who "lost the lottery." It included 91 pools of students: 3,272 with average reading scores and 986 with scores in the bottom 16% or who had not taken the reading test. The career magnet programs in NYC are of two types: one dedicated to career magnet education and the other placed within comprehensive high schools as schools-within-a-school. The self-contained schools encouraged students to enroll in high school and helped students earn more graduation credits. The programs within comprehensive schools raised students' reading scores. Programs with hands-on computer work encouraged attendance and programs with strong placement efforts encouraged poor readers to stay in school. (Seventeen tables, 4 references, and 3 appendices are included. The appendices discuss using the experimental results to estimate the impact of career magnets on students and the program administrator survey; a sample page from the directory of NYC public schools is provided.) (NLA)