Human Relations Programs in Desegregated Elementary Schools

This evaluation of the Emergency School Aid Act finds that human relations services funded under the Act had favorable effects on student intergroup relations and affect, but those effects were generally weak. We attribute the weakness of effects to the nature of services at our sites. Apparently, services were not always targeted directly at human relations needs and were often not intensive enough to register strong effects. Our work underscores the importance of combining process with impact evaluation and of examining effects at the individual level as well as the site level.