Rounding and Other Considerations

All calculations within The Condition of Education are based on unrounded estimates. Therefore, the reader may find that a calculation, such as a difference or a percentage change, cited in the text or figure may not be identical to the calculation obtained by using the rounded values shown in the accompanying tables. Although values reported in the supplemental tables are generally rounded to one decimal place (e.g., 76.5 percent), values reported in each indicator are generally rounded to whole numbers (with any value of 0.50 or above rounded to the next highest whole number). Due to rounding, cumulative percentages may sometimes equal 99 or 101 percent rather than 100 percent.

Indicators in this volume that use the Current Price Index (CPI) use a base academic year of 2007-08 and a base calendar year of 2007 for constant dollar calculations. For more information on the CPI, see supplemental note 10.

Race and ethnicity

The categories denoting race and ethnicity in The Condition of Education are in accordance with the 1997 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standard classification scheme. These classifications are based primarily on the respondent's self-identification, as is the case with data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, or, in rare instances, on observer identification. Under the OMB standards, race and ethnicity are considered separate concepts. "Hispanic or Latino" is an ethnicity category, not a racial category. Race categories presented in The Condition of Education 2009 exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity; thus, the race/ethnicity categories are mutually exclusive.

Ethnicity is categorized as follows:

• Hispanic or Latino: A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

Racial groupings are as follows:

• American Indian or Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
• Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• Black: A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
• White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East.
• More than one race: A person who selected two or more of the following racial categories when offered the option of selecting one or more racial designations: White, Black, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or American Indian or Alaska Native.

In The Condition of Education, the following terms are typically used to represent the above categories: White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, and More than one race. Not all categories are shown in all indicators. For more information on race/ethnicity, see supplemental note 1.

Symbols

In accordance with the NCES Statistical Standards, many tables in this volume use a series of symbols to alert the reader to special statistical notes. These symbols, and their meanings, are as follows:

¹ This level of significance means that the chance is less than 5 out of 100 that a difference was found between two estimates when no real difference exists.