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

Abstract

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education made grants to eleven school districts under the Technical Assistance for Student Assignment Plans (TASAP) program. The impetus for the program came from the Council of Great City Schools, which was concerned that school districts would respond to a recent Supreme Court decision by dismantling policies with integrative aims. We analyze the design of the TASAP program, its implementation by the USED, and how the grantee districts used the funds, and find that TASAP’s effects were mixed. Five districts represented examples of “successful” implementation, using the grant funds in ways that prioritized diversity. Six demonstrated “subverted” implementation, using funds in ways that met local needs but moved away from the diversity goal.

Reforming School Discipline: Responses by School District Leadership to Revised State Guidelines for Student Codes of Conduct

“…Such widespread change across multiple levels of government raises questions about implementation efforts and success. Common challenges in education reform include the following: inconsistent interpretation of the policy by all actors (Roberge, 2012), a mismatch between the goals of a reform and local capacity to achieve these goals (McDermott, 2006), and the influence of local politics on policies generated at higher levels (Debray et al, 2015). For example, a study of zero tolerance policies found that school districts tended to expand the list of offenses to which exclusionary policies applied beyond those required by state law (Curran, 2019).…”

Assessing Segregation Under a New Generation of Controlled Choice Policies

“…Other districts such as Washington, D.C., or New York City have considered controlled choice proposals as a means to alleviate segregation, stabilize racially transitioning schools, and improve academic outcomes (Archer, 2014; Lander & Torres, 2015). Yet other districts, such as Coral Gables, Florida, Rockford, Illinois, and Boston, have ended their use of controlled choice, typically because parents and community members dislike the lack of stability in student assignment when neighborhoods aren’t linked to schools (DeBray, McDermott, Frankenberg, & Blankenship, 2015; McDermott & Fung-Morley, 2015; Veiga, 2015).…”

The New Politics of Diversity

“…However, the U.S. Department of Education ( 2009) announcement of TASAP in the Federal Register also cited the goal of helping districts ''use strategies to avoid racial isolation and resegregation in their schools, and to facilitate student diversity, that are permissible within the parameters of current law'' (p. 36175). Directly reversing the situation of the 1970s, when federal courts insisted on integration while Congress and the president restricted use of federal funds for busing, with TASAP, the legislative and executive branches funded local efforts to pursue diversity within limits set by the courts (DeBray, McDermott, Frankenberg, & Blankenship, 2012).…”

“…In this changed legal environment, some school districts are responding to pressure to serve goals other than diversity. To the extent that diversity remains connected to equity, educational equity now depends on a new, more deliberately designed and possibly more prescriptive set of intergovernmental policies (for more details, see DeBray et al, 2012). In particular, future federal efforts in this area should be based on a theory of action that explicitly links diversity to educational quality and should be implemented in ways that hold districts accountable for following through on their initial commitments to diversity.…”