The "Observer Identification"
If you decline to answer the district's "Ethnicity and Race Report" question, you get this:
"By law, you are not required to identify race and/or ethnicity on school forms. However, if Seattle Public Schools does not receive a response, by law, district staff must use 'observer identification' to select the race and ethnicity of the student."
Here's a fascinating explanation and guidelines.
"The Federal Guidance recognizes the burden placed on school and district personnel in observer identification, and that the practice may not yield data as accurate as those from self-identification. However, absent self-identification or existing records, observer identification is considered preferable to having no data at all.
There is no federal requirement to “flag” a student’s record in the information management system if his or her race and ethnicity categories are selected by an observer. However, while this is an additional expense, it would be a helpful piece of information kept at the school or district level. It need not be transmitted to the state."
Never heard of this before. Color me updated.
"By law, you are not required to identify race and/or ethnicity on school forms. However, if Seattle Public Schools does not receive a response, by law, district staff must use 'observer identification' to select the race and ethnicity of the student."
Here's a fascinating explanation and guidelines.
"The Federal Guidance recognizes the burden placed on school and district personnel in observer identification, and that the practice may not yield data as accurate as those from self-identification. However, absent self-identification or existing records, observer identification is considered preferable to having no data at all.
There is no federal requirement to “flag” a student’s record in the information management system if his or her race and ethnicity categories are selected by an observer. However, while this is an additional expense, it would be a helpful piece of information kept at the school or district level. It need not be transmitted to the state."
Never heard of this before. Color me updated.
Given my own experience, I think they should ask Director Hampson to do this work; she seems to think she's very good at deciding what ethnicity and/or race that people are.
Comments
How is this “full racist?” We as a country have been collecting race data for years. Is it a good idea to rely on this method for students who don’t self identify? Let’s have a discussion before dropping the “r” word. We have enough of that going in already.
Data, Please