1. Toward Diversity in Public Service
Findings from an Evaluation of the PPIA Fellowship Program
Keith MacAllum, Ph.D., AED
Adria Gallup-Black, Ph.D., NYU
APPAM Conference
November 6, 2003

2. Program Objectives
The Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Fellowship program, inaugurated in 1980, sought to increase the number of people of color in the fields of public policy and international affairs by preparing its participants for success in graduate schools and for leadership roles in public service.

3. Program Components Junior Institutes (aka Summer Institutes)
Senior Options and Deferral
Graduate Fellowships

4. Other Facts
41 Participating schools of public policy and international affairs since 1980
Over 2,500 PPIA Fellows

5. Two-Part Evaluation Strategy
Survey of the PPIA Fellows
Survey of the schools participating in PPIA

6. Data Collection Strategy for PPIA Fellows and Applicants
824 PPIA Fellows completed mail survey
Comparison group of 121 Applicants completed survey
In-depth telephone follow-up for a subgroup of 100 Fellows
Study conducted in 2000

7. PPIA Fellows Survey Sample

8. Fellows/Applicant Sample Breakdown

9. Fellows’ Impressions of Program Quality

10. Educational Path of Fellows Participating in Junior Institute (1996, 1997, 1998) and Comparison Group

11. Educational Path of Participants in Junior Institute, 1995 or Earlier (% of Sample)

12. Career Plans and Paths of Applicants and Fellows

13. Sector Status of First Job by Cohort

14. Public Service vs. Public Sector Status of First Professional Position by Cohort

15. Involvement in Public Service through Career, Volunteerism, and Professional Associations

16. Relationship Between Program Participation and Ability to Advance
To what degree did participation in the program enable you to:
Play a leadership role in public service?
Obtain / exercise decision-making authority?
Break through a "glass ceiling"? 56 58 42
Answering "somewhat," "just a little," "not at all,"
or "don't know"
Answering "considerably" or "a great deal"
Source: AED survey

17. PPIA Institutional Study
Telephone surveys with representatives of 22 schools of public policy and international affairs
Quantitative analysis of enrollment trends (from NCES and NSF data)
Conducted in the summer of 2001

18. PPIA’s Overall Impact for Institutions
“PPIA energized the faculty and gave us something meaningful. We felt that we were contributing to a bigger cause of preparing minority students for public service. It was the value of doing something good, but it also made us feel as if we were major players in the public policy world. We are now with the Big Boys.”

19. PPIA’s Impact on Recruitment
PPIA reduced the labor intensity of identifying and targeting qualified and motivated students of color, and gave many schools the operational capacity of craft creative strategies of their own to attract students of color.

20. “We didn’t have to think of ten other ways to find minority students, because PPIA provided a great group of students. They self-selected themselves, so we knew that they were interested in this field. We knew they were devoted because they were going to the Summer Institute; because they were at the Summer Institute, their quantitative skills were beefed up enough so they were successful in the program. So it really was a wonderful pool.”

21. “One the major benefits of the program is that it caused all of the institutions to think in a more cooperative way about ways to increase the overall size of the minority applicant pool to international affairs programs.  There are more unified efforts across the board. PPIA increased the quality of the students but also increased recruiting synergies across the schools.”

22. PPIA’s Impact on Enrollment and Funding
The story is mixed as to whether PPIA was instrumental in increasing minority enrollment at the graduate schools of public service, and to the efficacy of the funding mechanism that subsidized the schools at $15,000 per Fellow.

23. Minority enrollment in PPIA vs
Minority enrollment in PPIA vs. non-PPIA Schools: (5 year averages)

24. “The interesting thing is that [the percentage of students of color] hasn’t changed all that much from the late 70s to the present. The impression of PPIA is that it brought in minority students that were much better prepared academically for graduate programs. So, even though the percentage of enrollments hasn’t changed, the subjective impression is that there has been a qualitative change. “

25. “I think it was harmful for all but Princeton and Harvard
“I think it was harmful for all but Princeton and Harvard. We were forced to reject a number of promising candidates because we could not afford to enroll them. Similarly, those we offered admission to were strong candidates frequently admitted by several schools. It was difficult to actually enroll them.”

26. PPIA Fellows’ Impact on the Institutions
Many of the representatives felt that PPIA left its mark on the culture of the school through the Fellows themselves: first, as strong students by virtue of participation in the Summer Institute, and, second, as leaders.

27. “These [PPIA] students are often the leaders
“These [PPIA] students are often the leaders. For example, PPIA students took leadership roles in our curriculum review two years ago. Some of their input included adding an elective during the first year and restructuring the classes. Was that a PPIA idea? I don’t know. But it was the PPIA students who had a big impact on what was decided.”

28. PPIA’s Impact on Career Directions
“I think that the minority students who came in with PPIA Junior Institute training behind them were better educated about what public policy academic training was about on the graduate level, and were a little more focused in their career direction than those minority students who came without PPIA training.”

29. Challenges in recruiting people of color in schools of public policy and international affairs
The bottom line for almost all of the respondents was visibility: seeing professionals of color in the fields of public policy and international affairs, and seeing them doing well. Equally important is having students know that public policy is a viable career option.

30. “If you have the option to go to a business school or a law school and make a lot of money, and you’re trading that off against getting a degree in planning or public policy where you are not going to make a lot of money, then it’s hard to do if you have to incur great debt to do it. It’s hard to encourage people to make that choice.”

31. “I’m not sure it’s exclusive to minority students, but, at the end of the day, do you want to work in an environment where you can see some sort of tangible benefit that you’ve made for a community organization or something where you can feel good about yourself for having made a substantive contribution? Whether it’s poverty issues, or doing foreign affairs, or working for the foreign service, it’s more about the connection where the heart plays a role in your job satisfaction. And I think where that that is a primary objective, which pulls applicants of color into careers of public policy.”

32. The PPIA Report is available through the AED website:
For more information about PPIA: