Managing an Identity Crisis: Forum Guide to Implementing New Federal Race and Ethnicity Categories

NFES 2008-802 October 2008

Exhibit 3.3 Suggested Training Frameworks for State and School District Personnel and Vendors

Background (for All Participants)

• Review lists of data currently reported to ED (with an indication of which reports are funding-related).
• Review state requirements for collecting race and ethnicity of students and staff (if applicable).
• Review current race and ethnicity data maintained at the state level, by data sets.
• Understand key requirements under the ED's Final Guidance (use Figure 1.1):
  • Two-part question format
  • New race categories
  • Multiple race selection
  • Federal aggregate reporting requirements.

Policies and Procedures (for State Personnel)

• Understand guidelines that will be conveyed to school districts.
• Identify specific changes to be made in their data systems to accommodate new requirements.
• List the personnel/department assigned for making such changes, both in-house personnel and vendors, and identify contact person(s) for each area.

Implementation (for State Personnel)

• Review calendar of implementation, taking into consideration the agency's current data collection schedule.
• Discuss coding scheme and structure to be adopted.
• Understand and evaluate data bridging options and identify methodologies to be used by the state, if the decision is to bridge.

Implementation (for School District Personnel)

• Understand guidelines that will be conveyed to schools.
• Identify specific changes to be made in districts' data systems to accommodate new requirements.
• List personnel/department assigned for making such changes, both in-house personnel and vendors; and identify contact person(s) for each area.
• Understand the self-identification process: rationale, requirements, methodology (See issue #3 in chapter 4)
• Understand the difference between self versus observer identification, and the observation process (see issue #3 in chapter 4.)
• Understand record retention requirements.

System Requirements (for Vendors)

• Understand the two-part question format and new race categories.
• Understand the federal aggregate reporting requirements.
• Identify specific changes to be made in vendor systems or products and provide minimum data standards.
• Assign responsibilities for making such changes and identify a contact person. 
• Determine the calendar of implementation, taking into consideration the agency's current data collection schedule.
• Make user-friendly software changes to data entry screens that reflect the two-part question.