ACTION REQUIRED
April 30, 2009
To the Superintendent Addressed:
Re: New Federal Ethnicity and Race Data Reporting Requirements
Beginning with the 2009-2010 school year Texas schools will begin reporting ethnicity and race data for students and staff using the new requirements issued by the United States Department of Education. In October 2007, the United States Department of Education (USDE) issued their final guidance to educational institutions on the adoption of new federal standards for collecting and reporting ethnicity and race data for students and staff. A copy of the final guidance published in the Federal Register can be found at http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.pdf. This new reporting standard was used during the 2000 Census.
TEA published the guidelines for collecting this data in the PEIMS 2009 - 2010 Data Standards In December of 2008 and again in March 2009.
In addition, for the 2009 – 2010 school year only, the PEIMS systems will collect this information using both the old (1977), and the new (1997) federal reporting standards. This will enable the agency to link the data collected under the two different systems across multiple years.
Summary of Changes
1. The USDE requires that ethnicity and race be collected separately using a specific two-part question, presented in a specific order. Respondents may select only one category for ethnicity, but may select multiple designations for race. Both parts of the question must be answered.
Part 1. Ethnicity: Is the person Hispanic/Latino? Choose only one.
_____Hispanic/Latino
_____Not Hispanic/Latino
Part 2. Race: What is the person’s race? Choose one or more regardless of ethnicity.
____a. American Indian or Alaska Native
____b. Asian
____c. Black or African American
____d. Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander
____e. White
The categories for ethnicity are “Hispanic/Latino” and “Not Hispanic/Latino”. Regardless of the category selected for ethnicity, respondents must still select one or more categories for race.
2. One of the major changes is the recognition that members of Hispanic populations can be of different races. The federal government would like to afford Hispanic/Latino populations the opportunity to better describe themselves according to their culture and heritage.
3. An additional category for race was created by separating “Asian or Pacific Islander” into two separate categories. The categories for race include “American Indian or Alaskan Native”, “Asian”, “Black or African American”, “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander”, and “White”. Note that Hispanic/Latino is not a racial category.
4. The categories to be used when reporting aggregate data to the USDE differ from the categories to be used for data collection. Each student or staff member is associated with only one of the seven aggregate reporting categories listed below. Use of these seven categories for aggregate reporting eliminates the possibility of counting an individual twice.
- Hispanic/Latino
- American Indian or Alaskan Native
- Asian
- Black or African American
- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
- White
- Two or More Race
Respondents who select “Hispanic/Latino” for ethnicity will be counted in this category for aggregate reporting to the USDE, regardless of the responses provided to the question on race.
Respondents who select “Not Hispanic/Latino” for ethnicity, and select more than one category for race, will be counted in the category “Two or More Races” for aggregate reporting to the USDE.
Respondents who select “Not Hispanic/Latino” for ethnicity, and select only one category for race, will be counted in the single racial category for aggregate reporting to the USDE.
5. Educational institutions must retain all original, individual responses for a minimum of 3 years, unless there is litigation, a claim, an audit, investigation or other action involving the records that has commenced before the three-year period ends, in which case the responses must be retained until the action is complete.
Collecting the Information
To ensure uniformity, TEA has developed a standard form for use by all charter schools and school districts in collecting ethnicity and race information. Please see Exhibit 1.
For Students
All families are to be given an opportunity to re-identify ethnicity and race information for their school aged children. The district should request that a student’s parent or guardian identify the student’s ethnicity and race. However, the parent or guardian is not required to provide this information; nor is it a requirement for enrolling the student. If the parent or guardian declines to provide the information, the USDE requires that the school district employ observer identification as a last resort to gather this information for federal reporting.
For Staff
All staff persons are to be given an opportunity to re-identify their ethnicity and race information.
The district should request that individuals self-identify their own ethnicity and race. If a person declines to provide the information, the district is required to employ observer identification as a last resort to gather this information.
Please refer to the PEIMS 043 - Staff Demographic record, the PEIMS 101 - Student Demographic record, and Appendix F (http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/peims/standards/0910/appf.doc) of the 2009-2010 PEIMS Data Standards for additional information, including sample letters to parents and staff, regarding this new reporting requirement.
If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact the Division of Enterprise Data Management at (512) 936-7346.
Sharon Lewellyn, Acting Director,
Enterprise Data Management
Texas Education Agency
Exhibit 1 - Texas Public School Student/Staff Ethnicity and Race Data Questionnaire
