In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (PICS), invalidated the student assignment policies of Seattle, Washington and Jefferson County, Kentucky. The Court ruled that the government has a compelling interest to promote diversity, while simultaneously arguing that racial balance and diversity should be considered different and separate goals. Thus, the PICS decision sent mixed messages to school districts across the country. To help school districts navigate the legally uncertain environment, the federal government created a small, one-time competitive grant called the Technical Assistance for Student Assignment Plan (TASAP) grant. The grant was designed in a way that gave school districts significant discretion over the types of technical assistance and the consultants that would support their projects.

Eleven school districts received funding from the TASAP grant. The districts faced common challenges, in particular, financial austerity, declining enrollments, and pressure to reduce achievement gaps between racial and socioeconomic groups. The most common topics of technical assistance were public engagement, including marketing and community forums, and geospatial analysis. Most of the districts that used TASAP funds to continue existing policies maintained an emphasis on diversity. On the other hand, most of the districts that used TASAP to help change their student assignment policies moved away from diversity as a priority. Districts that had expressed a commitment to diversity in their TASAP applications could not necessarily sustain those commitments in the face of competition with other local interests and needs. Federal management of the grant did not provide leverage on districts to ensure that the local work remained true to its initial goals. federal government did not insist that diversity remain a priority.

We present six recommendations for future federal diversity policy, based on the TASAP experience:

1. Construct a more deliberate theory of change so that all elements of the grant, including the proposal evaluation criteria and funded activities, are aligned.

2. Solicit grant proposals for a longer period of time.

3. Include inter-district approaches to diversity

4. Provide sufficient federal involvement and guidance to support project implementation at the local level, and increase accountability for federal program goals.

5. Build on local capacity.

6. Situate diversity as central to educational improvement to increase the relevance of diversity programs.