In March 2024, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget announced new federal reporting standards regarding data on race and ethnicity, including three approaches for presenting data on multiracial and multiethnic individuals. A new report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy has analyzed the benefits and tradeoffs of each proposed approach, highlighting how these new standards could improve the visibility of multiracial populations.
The first approach, “alone or in combination,” would include all students who identify with a given racial or ethnic group, regardless of additional race or ethnicity categories selected. For example, a student who identified as both White and Black would be counted in both the “White alone or in combination,” as well as the “Black or African American alone or in combination” categories. While this would inclusively count all students within each racial or ethnic group, data collection totals would contain duplications and may be difficult to interpret.
The second reporting suggestion, “most frequent multiple responses,” would report all single-race categories alongside certain combinations. For example, students identifying as both Black and Hispanic would be counted once as Afro-Latino if this approach was implemented by government agencies and universities. While this would result in all categories adding up to 100 percent, the volume of different combinations would be complex to implement and could limit consistency and comparability.
Similar to the current Department of Education process, the third approach, “combined multiracial or multiethnic groups,” would combine all individuals who select more than one race or ethnicity into a single “two or more races” category. Although this is the simplest method to implement, it could undercount students who identity with a particular race or ethnicity group.
Using current data reporting standards that group all multiracial students into one category, the report authors found 13 percent of higher education students in 2020 were Black or African American alone. However, if multiracial students who identify as Black were counted in the Black or African American category using the “alone or in combination” method, Black students’ representation would jump to 19.7 percent.
As multiracial students continue to make up a larger share of the U.S. college-age population, the report authors suggest government agencies, universities, and colleges should disaggregate multiracial and multiethnic student data. Reporting methods that provide more detailed information on multiracial individuals could represent a major improvement to existing standards and provide a clearer picture of representation across specific groups.
Additionally, the authors stress that the Department of Education must provide clear guidance when implementing its new reporting standards, ensuring institutions have the structure needed to align their own data practices. The authors also recommend government agencies and higher education institutions should begin investing in staffing, technical infrastructure, and support systems for data reporting, ensuring reporting teams have the necessary resources to provide accurate and timely data.
“When data reflect the full complexity of students’ identities, decision makers are better equipped to identify disparities and design policies that support the needs of all students,” the authors write. “By improving data practices for multiracial and multiethnic students, the higher education field can move closer to ensuring every student is fully seen, counted, and supported.“
However, it must be noted that in the current political environment with funding and staffing at the Department of Education facing steep cuts, it seems highly unlikely that the recommended changes will be considered or implemented.
