Directive 15 » Agenda » Panelists
Convening on OMB Race and Ethnicity Data Standards Revision
Thank you for joining us for A Renewed Direction for Directive 15: A Convening on OMB Race and Ethnicity Data Standards Revision. We are so grateful for your participation in these important conversations as we work together to ensure accurate race and ethnicity data collection for all of our communities.
Convening presentations
Brief History of OMB Race and Ethnicity Data Standards
- Terri Ann Lowenthal, Census expert and consultant to The Leadership Conference
Initial Proposals For Updating Statistical Policy Directive No. 15
- Bob Sivinski, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Chair of Federal Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards
- Karen Battle, U.S. Census Bureau, Co-Chair of Federal Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards
- Nicholas Jones, U.S. Census Bureau, Senior Advisor, Race/Ethnicity Research and Outreach, Population Division
- Roberto Ramirez, U.S. Census Bureau, Assistant Division Chief, Special Population Statistics, Population Division
Disaggregating Data by Age and Administrative Records
- Dr. Bill O’Hare, consultant to The Leadership Conference Education Fund and The Count All Kids Campaign
Resources
History and Implications of OMB Race and Ethnicity Data Standards. This recent webinar from The Leadership Conference includes a history of the standards and efforts to revise them, an overview of research findings supporting the need for several key revisions to the standards, and a discussion of the uses and implications of federal race and ethnicity data for civil rights programs, research, and policy development. Slides and other resources from the webinar are available here.
Directive 15 Fact Sheet: This fact sheet provides guidance on the U.S. Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 and explains why OMB Directive 15 no longer reflects the full racial and ethnic diversity of the nation’s population or the way many people choose to identify themselves. It also outlines improvements that many civil rights stakeholders are calling for to modernize the standards.
Full text of Directive 15: Last updated in 1997, OMB’s Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (Directive 15) sets forth the minimum set of categories that federal agencies must use when they collect information on race and ethnicity.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 Census Race and Hispanic Origin Alternative Questionnaire Experiment (AQE). Conducted during the 2010 Census with a sample size of roughly 500,000 addresses, the AQE focused on improving the race and Hispanic origin questions by testing different questionnaire design strategies. The results of the AQE showed that a combined race and ethnicity question format significantly reduced the proportion of respondents selecting “Some Other Race” (which is harder to analyze) and improved data accuracy and reliability.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 National Content Test – Race and Ethnicity Analysis Report. Conducted using a nationally representative sample of 1.2 million housing units in the United States, including Puerto Rico, the 2015 National Content Test (NCT) assessed optimal design elements for questions on race and ethnicity in preparation for the 2020 Census. Analysis of the NCT showed that a combined question with a distinct Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) category more accurately reflects how many people self-identify, yielding higher quality data. The results also showed that a combined question would not reduce reporting for any of the major race categories except White, compared to data collected through separate questions.
Federal Register Notice providing initial proposals from the Federal Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards for revising OMB’s Directive 15. Responses to this notice will be shared with the working group to help the working group develop their final recommendations to OMB for revisions to Directive 15.