Welcome to Seattle Public Schools. What race are you?

by Sharon H Chang

Enrolling your child in Seattle Public Schools means choosing their race and ethnicity from a confounding list of checkboxes.

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“This is the first time I’ve seen a form that’s so specific and yet not specific enough,” she criticized, “My reaction at first was amused — as in, ‘Oh, Seattle!’ — and then kind of offended.”

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“If we’re going to list separate countries, why not also list Bangladesh and Sri Lanka?” She also questioned “African American/Black” being designated as a single category given that our region represents large communities of Ethiopians, Eritreans, and Somalis.

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Then look how choices are grouped. “African-American/Black” (as Gupte observes) but also “White” are weirdly devoid of subcategories.

Source: seattleglobalist.com

Thank you for sharing Sharon H Chang!

When my daughter started kindergarten I asked what happens if I do not complete the race question. I was told the teacher will complete the question for me.

At that time, one check box was allowed. My daughter is being counted as Latina – now in 5th grade.

My son will be counted as both Latino and White. Now we are allowed to check more than one box.

Some reporting recalculates people’s race based on the social construct of hypodescent, so when we read the student’s test scores broken down by race, I still do not know how accurate that data is.

Plus, wouldn’t it also be valuable to report test scores by zip code? Then we could add a library in zip codes that need it most.