Racial and Ethnic Data for the U.S. Department of Education

Today, I learned about how the U.S. Department of Education (ED) wants race and ethnicity reporting for federal education eligibility and accountability reports by 2010-11. It is very different from how California has typically handled race and ethnicity data.

Basically, the ED gave guidance that a two-part question should be asked when collecting race and ethnicity data on students or school staff:

The first part should consist of a question about the respondent’s ethnicity:

• Hispanic or Latino
• Not Hispanic or Latino

The second part asks respondents to select one or more races from the following categories:

• American Indian or Alaska Native
• Asian
• Black or African American
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
• White

In reporting race and ethnicity, a respondent must answer both parts of the question. The individual will be reported as part of one of the following seven groups:

• Hispanic/Latino of any race
• American Indian or Alaska Native
• Asian
• Black or African American
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
• White
• Two or more races

The guidance does not direct groups to disaggregate any of the racial sub-populations. This is unlike in California, where California Government Code Section 8310.5 requires the detailed collection of Asian and Pacific Islander sub-populations, including, but not limited to, Asian Indian, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Samoan, Tahitian, and Vietnamese.

Basically, as people try to pigeonhole our heritage into seven convenient groups, we are unable to recognize the diversity within them. It seems to me that we should advocate for better federal practices when dealing with race and etnicity data collections.