Principals Uneasy About Classifying Students

Excerpts from a recent

Howard County Times article written by Jennifer Broadwater:

New federal guidelines for reporting students’ race, which require a principal to identify a child’s race if the parent refuses to do so, have some school officials, principals and parents uneasy.

The federal government and the U.S. Department of Education requires states to collect information about the race and ethnicity of public school students. The data is linked to the disbursement of federal funds and also to reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind legislation that analyze student achievement.

The government has compiled race data since 1977, revising the standards in 1997. The newest standards will take effect in the 2010-2011 school year.

However, Howard County schools and other public school systems in Maryland will begin collecting students’ race data under the new standards beginning this month.

Also included in the guidelines is a new requirement called “observer identification,” in which someone other than a child’s parent identifies the child’s race if the parent or guardian refuses.

In Howard, school officials have decided the “observer identification” responsibility will fall to principals.

Tom Saunders, principal of Elkridge Landing Middle School, said there’s been some buzz about the new requirement among principals since the information was presented at a county-wide administrators meeting in November.

Although it gives him an “uneasy feeling,” he said he was hopeful parents would work with him if the new requirement was explained to them. If a parent is unwilling to identify a child’s race, Saunders said he would make the selection to the best of his ability.

“I would have a conversation with the parent, explain the dilemma and hope they would pick,” he said.

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