Study Blasts Proposed Changes in Race, Ethnicity Data

Proposed changes in the way schools and states report data on students’ race and ethnicity to the federal government “would make it extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible,” to conduct research, monitor civil rights compliance, and enforce accountability, according to a report by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.

The proposed guidelines, published in the Federal Register on Aug. 7, require the use of a two-question format to identify students’ race or ethnicity. Students would be first identified as Hispanic or non-Hispanic and then identified by one or more races.

When institutions, including schools and districts, aggregate the data, any student who is Hispanic would no longer be classified by race, such as white or black. In addition, any student identified as more than one race would be counted in a multiracial category with no further breakdown. ( "New Rules on Student Racial Data Proposed," ...