Lessons From a Federal Grant for School Diversity: Tracing a Theory of Change and Implementation of Local Policies

• In Event: Examining Intergovernmental Assumptions About School Integration

Abstract

Following the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools barring race-based assignment, the federal Education Department awarded Technical Assistance for Student Assignment Plans grants to eleven school districts seeking to prevent racial and/or socioeconomic isolation. These grants represent a new direction for the federal role in education and social opportunity, as the supporter of local diversity initiatives rather than the enforcer of desegregation mandates. Applying a policy implementation framework, and using qualitative methods, this paper traces two specific themes related to initial local-level implementation in all eleven districts in 2011 and early 2012: (1) The theory of change of the TASAP grant program (2) the specific policies adopted and activities undertaken by grantees during this same period.

Authors

• Elizabeth H. DeBray, University of Georgia

• Kathryn A. McDermott, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Erica Frankenberg, The Pennsylvania State University