Against the majoritarian story of school reform: The Comer schools evaluation as a critical race counternarrative

Abstract

AbstractCritical race theory (CRT) is a relatively new theory that has been little used in evaluation practice. The authors explore an example of critical race evaluation working with James Comer's School Development Program. In this evaluation common tropes associated with CRT were used to construct a counternarrative of school reform. The authors conclude that CRT has a place in evaluation, but that it also makes some demands on evaluators and those being evaluated that may make it less likely to be used than other theories. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc., and the American Evaluation Association.