Analyzing the Design and Causal Effects of Frames in Inequalities Grant-Making in U.S. Postsecondary Education

• In Event: 61.027 - The Role of Higher Education in a Neoliberal Reality

Abstract

This mixed-methods analysis examines the 45-year history of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) and its efforts to cultivate field-level innovation to improve outcomes for underserved students. Longitudinal analysis of FIPSE’s documents reveals that after decades of employing a hybrid color-blind and multicultural frame, an Obama-era change shifted FIPSE’s focus toward racial and class justice. I draw causal inferences from this natural experiment using a difference-in-difference-in-difference model which demonstrates that FIPSE systematically favored White, higher resourced institutions prior to the exogenous shock, which had a positive effect on funding delivered to institutions with high proportions of minoritized students. Further, as FIPSE’s frame shifted, so did elements of its policy design with some significant and potentially inequitable consequences.

Author

• Heather McCambly, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy Human Development and Social Policy