The Changing Politics of Diversity: Lessons from a Federal Technical Assistance Grant

• In Event: Politics of Diversity and the Future of Desegregation

Abstract

Many school districts identify diversity as a priority of their policies for assigning students to schools. However, a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision largely rules out policies that consider individual students’ race in their school assignments. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education awarded grants to eleven school districts to help them develop diversity policies consistent with the 2007 decision. The proposed paper analyzes how political participants in the grantee districts defined diversity, in terms of race and other factors, as well as the extent to which they framed diversity as part of educational improvement. The research contributes to the literature on the political effects of legal decisions, as well as to literature on the changing politics of race.

Authors

• Erica Frankenberg, The Pennsylvania State University

• Elizabeth H. DeBray, University of Georgia

• Kathryn A. McDermott, University of Massachusetts - Amherst