Memorandum

To:All developers, collection custodians, and business users

From:Peter Fritz – Information Management Services

Re: Changes to Race and Ethnicity Data Reporting for Students and Staff – filelayout, data elements and definitions, and edit specifications

Since 1997, federal agencies – including the Department of Education - have been working to adopt the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. These standards will replace those that have been in effect since 1977.

The Final Guidance, effective as of December 3, 2007, drives future reporting of racial and ethnic data to all programs within the US Department of Education. The guidelines specify both the new categories for individual-level data, and the aggregated categories to be used for racial and ethnic data reported to the US Department of Education. The Final Guidance also requires all states and districts to report data to the USDE using these new standards by the fall of 2010 for the 2010–11 school year. As a result, the Colorado Department of Education will make the changes outlined in this memo to all data collections which require the reporting of ethnicity and race information for students or staff. These changes must be in place, approved by the Educational Data Advisory Committee, and communicated to district respondents and software vendors well in advance of the opening of the 2010-11 school year.

For additional information about the new ethnicity and race reporting categories and CDE’s efforts to date to prepare district staff and the public for these upcoming changes, please visit the Race/Ethnicity page on the CDE website at:

File Layout

The seven new ethnicity and race reporting fields below should replace any previous ethnicity and race field(s) in your collection starting in the 2010-11 year. The new fields should be placed in your file layout specifications in the order listed below:

Name of Field / # of bytes / Field Type
Ethnicity: Hispanic or Latino / 2 / Numeric
Race: American Indian or Alaska Native / 2 / Numeric
Race: Asian / 2 / Numeric
Race: Black or African American / 2 / Numeric
Race: White / 2 / Numeric
Race: Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander / 2 / Numeric
Federal Race/Ethnicity Reporting Category / 2 / Numeric

Data Elements and Definitions

Ethnicity: Hispanic or Latino – a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term “Spanish origin” can be used in addition to “Hispanic/Latino or Latino.”
00 / No – Not Hispanic or Latino
04 / Yes – Hispanic or Latino
Race: American Indian or Alaska Native – a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains a tribal affiliation or community attachment.
00 / No – Not American Indian or Alaska Native
01 / Yes – American Indian or Alaska Native
Race: Asian – a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
00 / No – Not Asian
02 / Yes – Asian
Race: Black or African American – a person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
00 / No – Not Black or African American
03 / Yes – Black or African American
Race: White – a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
00 / No – Not White
05 / Yes – White
Race: Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
00 / No – Not Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
06 / Yes – Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
Federal Race/Ethnicity Reporting Category – the single category used to classify the student or staff member in aggregated federal or state reporting such as pupil counts, graduation rates, and assessment results. This designation is based on the race and ethnicity information provided to the reporting district by the student (or his or her parent/guardian) or staff member.
01 / American Indian or Alaska Native
02 / Asian
03 / Black or African American
04 / Hispanic or Latino
05 / White
06 / Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
07 / Two or More Races

Collection custodians may also want to provide a link to the race/ethnicity support documentation available on the CDE web site in the Data Elements & Definitions for your collection:

Edit Specifications

VALID CODES

  • “Ethnicity: Hispanic” must = “04” (yes-Hispanic) or “00” (no-not Hispanic). No other coding options are valid for this field.
  • “Race: American Indian” must = “01” (yes-American Indian) or “00” (no-not American Indian). No other coding options are valid for this field.
  • “Race: Asian” must = “02” (yes-Asian) or “00” (no-not Asian). No other coding options are valid for this field.
  • “Race: Black” must = “03” (yes-Black) or “00” (no-not Black). No other coding options are valid for this field.
  • “Race: White” must = “05” (yes-White) or “00” (no-not White). No other coding options are valid for this field.
  • “Race: Pacific Islander” must = “06” (yes-Pacific Islander) or “00” (no-not Pacific Islander). No other coding options are valid for this field.
  • “Federal Reporting Category” must = “01”, “02”, “03”, “04”, “05”, “06”, or “07”. No other coding options are valid for this field

LINKING THE COLLECTED ETHNICITY AND RACE FIELDS TO THE FEDERAL REPORTING CATEGORY

•If “Ethnicity: Hispanic” = 04 (yes – Hispanic), then “Federal Reporting Category” must = 04 (Hispanic).

•The five race fields (“Race: American Indian”, “Race: Asian”, “Race: Black”, “Race: White”, and “Race: Pacific Islander”) cannot all = 00 (no). At least one race category must not equal 00.

•If “Ethnicity: Hispanic” = 00 (no-not Hispanic) andif more than oneof the five race fields (“Race: American Indian”, “Race: Asian”, “Race: Black”, “Race: White”, and “Race: Pacific Islander”) arenot equal to 00 (no),then “Federal Reporting Category” must = 07 (two or more races).

•If “Ethnicity: Hispanic” = 00 (no-not Hispanic) and “Race: American Indian” = 01 (yes – Native American) and all other race categories = 00 (no), then “Federal Reporting Category” must = 01 (Native American).

•If “Ethnicity: Hispanic” = 00 (no-not Hispanic) and “Race: Asian” = 02 (yes – Asian) and all other race categories =00 (no), then “Federal Reporting Category” must = 02 (Asian).

•If “Ethnicity: Hispanic” = 00(no-not Hispanic) and “Race: Black” = 03 (yes – Black) and all other race categories =00 (no), then “Federal Reporting Category” must = 03 (Black).

•If “Ethnicity: Hispanic” = 00 (no-not Hispanic) and “Race: White” = 05 (yes – White) and all other race categories = 00 (no), then “Federal Reporting Category” must = 05 (White).

•If “Ethnicity: Hispanic” = 00 (no-not Hispanic) and “Race: Pacific Islander” = 06 (yes –Pacific Islander) and all other race categories = 00 (no), then “Federal Reporting Category” must = 06 (Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander).

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