Comments on the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)

February 11, 2022

Director of Strategic Collections and Clearance
Office of the Chief Data Officer
Office of Policy, Evaluation, and Policy Development
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20202-8240

RE: Docket Number: ED-2021-SCC-0158

New America is an independent, nonprofit policy and research organization, and the Education Policy Program focuses on strengthening and improving public educational systems to better ensure all students have equitable access to high quality learning opportunities. The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) remains a critical mechanism for upholding the Department of Education’s commitment to civil rights enforcement especially for the most vulnerable communities of students. As such, we thank the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for the opportunity to provide comments for the proposed 2021-22 CRDC, and have outlined our reactions below, including recommendations that are offered at the end of each section where applicable.

Annual CRDC Data Collection

The CRDC has been a biennial collection since 1968but the 2021-22 CRDC breaks with typical tradition by offering the opportunity for access to data collected in 2021, 2022, and 2023. New America believes this is an important step in building more accurate and effective repositories of data, and will allow states to remain in better compliance under the Every Student Succeeds Act requirement to use CRDC data in state and local report cards. New America commends OCR for taking these steps, and encourages the continued use of universal collection, as it will allow policymakers and other stakeholders to compare changes over time.

Covid-19 & Digital Equity

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented changes in the ways we approach schooling, and collecting data on virtual and in-person instruction and access to wifi-enabled devices and broadband for virtual learning. This data will give policymakers, advocates, and other stakeholders a clearer understanding of what students and teachers day-to-day looks like, as the “norm” has shifted so drastically in this time. Although access to devices and increased bandwidth have improved since the pandemic, many children from families with incomes below the national median still lack essentials according to a recent study. Even among families with computers and broadband internet access at

home, a majority are under-connected meaning that they report insufficient and unreliable access to the internet and interconnecting devices. The digital challenges of remote learning hit families in the lowest income bracket and those headed by Black or Hispanic parents hardest.

The digital equity challenge also includes how educators are using technology with their students. Studies have shown that "low-income, nonwhite children more often used technology in math class for drill and practice, while affluent white children were more likely to use technology for graphing, problem-solving and other higher-order exercises." Even as the technology gaps close, a digital-use divide becomes increasingly apparent. Understanding of student access to teachers qualified to offer technology-powered opportunities to drive learning in the classroom and remotely will provide valuable information for improving professional development.

Recommendations:

● New America commends OCR for including data points on access to devices and wifi, but also recommends collecting data to understand student access to teachers qualified to offer technology-powered opportunities and the impact of teacher training on digital equity.

English Learners

Over the years, New America’s work on English learners (ELs)has shown how the deficit view of this ever growing population deeply impacts the educational experiences and opportunities these students have, and where education policy can shift toward a more strength-based approach. Through the data collection changes OCR is proposing on EL preschool enrollment, EL school discipline rates, and ensuring that data is disaggregated for students with disabilities-IDEA and 504-only status, as well as those who identify as nonbinary, OCR has the opportunity to create a more clear picture of ELs’ access to educational opportunities and identify where deeper investments are needed.

Dual language learners (DLLs), that is ELs in early childhood education, represent roughly 33 percentof all children ages 0-8 in the U.S. Yet, there is a dearth of data for these children which creates significant barriers for schools’ ability to adequately meet their diverse needs. As research indicates, preschool and early learning are imperative for children’s healthy cognitive, physical, and emotional development. Enrollment data broken down by race, ability status, and language level are crucial to having and understanding data for all subgroups and ensure equal access to these critical experiences. For this reason we commend the Administration for proposing to collect data on preschool students who were ELs as well as the number of ELs in preschool enrolled in EL programs, and disaggregating both of these by race, sex, disability-IDEA. To that end, we recommend the Department clarify what is meant by “EL program” and whether there will be additional information provided about what qualifies as an EL program such as dual language or bilingual programs.

In the future, the Administration may want to consider strengthening early childhood education data by disaggregating data on the preschool and kindergarten length offered (full-day or part-day) by race, sex, disability-IDEA, and English learner status as well. Recent research has shown that DLLs enrolled in full-day pre-k programs do better linguistically and academically in the long-term. However, there is no nationally representative data on this issue. The department may wish to explore the potential of collecting this data without creating an undue burden on local educators.

Furthermore, English learners disproportionately did not have access to Wi-Fi and/or personal learning devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although schools worked diligently to get hotspots and devices out to students throughout the pandemic, anecdotal evidence shows that these services are being rolled back leaving ELs and their families disconnected once again. We commend the department’s decision to collect data on the number of students who needed Wi-Fi enabled devices and/or Wi-Fi hotspots from the school for student learning use. In order to maximize this opportunity, New America recommends that these data be disaggregated by race, sex, EL status, and disability-IDEA. Additionally, since English learners generally graduate at lower rates than their non-EL peers, we respectfully request that data on the number of students who participate in at least one credit-recovery program that allows them to earn missed credit to graduate from high school be disaggregated by race, sex, EL status, and disability-IDEA.

Lastly, we also support the department’s decision to collect a full-time equivalent (FTE) count of teachers certified to teach in specific areas (i.e., mathematics; science; special education; and English as a second language), and urge the department to consider including bilingual and dual language programs to the list of areas for which this data is collected in the future.

Recommendations:

● Clarify what is meant by “EL program” and whether there will be additional information provided about what qualifies as an EL program such as dual language or bilingual programs. ● Disaggregate data on the preschool and kindergarten length offered (full-day or part-day) by race, sex, disability-IDEA, and English learner status.

● Access to Wi-Fi and personal learning devices should bedisaggregated by race, sex, EL status, and disability-IDEA.

● Include bilingual and dual language programs in data collection for FTE educators.

Students with Disabilities

We support the collection of data on students who are on 504 plans. Our ability to improve services to students with disabilities, which includes students on both IEPs and on 504 plans, hinges on our understanding of this population and how it’s changing over time. Aside from CRDC, the only other comprehensive data source for this population is IDEA, which does not include data on 504 plans. Because CRDC collects data on both IEP and 504 status, we can assess the growth and change of the 504 and IEP populations individually and as a total population. This vastly improves our ability to project population change and plan for services and supports.

We additionally support expanding the collection of data on 504 plans for the youngest learners. Understanding the full population of preschool children with disabilities is essential for ensuring proper early intervention services, which has been shown to improve child outcomes and lead to lower levels of special education services in later years (and thus lower spending). This can only be accomplished if data is collected for children who qualify for services under IDEA (an IEP/IFSP), as well as those who are served with 504 plans.

Discipline

OCR has made a number of proposals that would expand discipline data collection and provide greater insight into disparities and exclusionary discipline practices. New America supports OCRs proposals for collecting preschool discipline data, instances of bullying and harassment, and others. We would strongly recommend that OCR collect data on the use and outcomes of threat assessments in addition to discipline and safety strategies like suspension, expulsion, and referrals to law enforcement. While the proposal includes collecting documented incidents of school shootings, we believe more data is needed on how students are experiencing discipline and safety measures in addition to how effective these measures are.

Recommendations:

● Collect data on the use of all discipline & safety strategies employed in schools, including threat assessments, suspension, expulsion, referrals to law enforcement, and any others.

Educators

New America supports OCR’s proposal to restore data elements previously dropped, including the number of first and second year FTE teachers, and data on teacher absences. The CRDC data collection of novice teacher experience data and teacher absence data allows the government and the public to identify inequities in distribution of experienced teachers, and where teachers are absent most. For example, because of the CRDC data collection, we know that Black, Latino, American Indian and Native-Alaskan students are three to four times more likely to attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers than white students. We also know that English learners attend these schools at higher rates than native English speakers. Without this data collection, we would no longer have access to valuable school-level information about which groups of students lack access to reliable, experienced teachers, or attend schools that heavily rely upon ill-prepared substitute teachers to lead classrooms.

While New America supports collect data collection on teacher licensure/certification, we are concerned that, as currently requested, the data could obscure the true picture of what is actually occuring with school staffings. For example, a high school science teacher may teach biology, chemistry, and physics but only have a state endorsement in biology. It is unclear whether this teacher belongs in the “Number of FTE of teachers meeting all state licensing/certification requirements” category or not based on the explanations included in attachment A2 (DG990 and DG1009), leading different schools to potentially make different choices in reporting these data. In order to make these data consistent across all schools reporting, we recommend that the OCR collect data on fully certified FTE teachers for each specific subject taught (i.e., “biology” or “chemistry,” not “science”). If this is not feasible, then OCR must clearly specify whether a teacher who teaches multiple subjects but does not have full certification/endorsements for each should be counted in DG990 or DG1009 to ensure

consistent data reporting. New America recommends they be counted in DG1009, as doing so will give a clearer picture about the investments needed to certify more high quality teacher candidates.

We support the comments submitted by New Leaders, Education Trust, and Latinos for Education that call for data collection and reporting on school principals. Additionally, OCR should consider collecting data related to FTE assistant principals. This is another area where we have almost no national data, yet we know that assistant principals are often assigned many responsibilities associated with student discipline. Given that the CRDC attempts to better understand trends in discipline, harassment, and bullying, having clear data about the employment of assistant principals in schools—as compared to security guards, which is a school employee that the CRDC does collect information on—would be helpful in understanding how assistant principals’ presence may be related to certain discipline trends and outcomes.

We also encourage OCR to consider adding data collection related to FTE instructional assistants (also known as paraprofessionals/paraeducators) to help fill gaps in national data on these essential school support staff. Paraeducators are often charged with supporting students with unique learning needs such as English learners and students with disabilities, but little is known about the characteristics and reach of the workforce within the schools that employ them.

Finally, we recommend that all “Teachers & Other Personnel” data collected, including new data on assistant principals and instructional assistants, should be reported in total, and disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and sex.

Recommendations:

● Collect data on fully certified FTE teachers for each specific subject taught (i.e., “biology” or “chemistry,” not “science”).

● Clearly specify whether a teacher who teaches multiple subjects but does not have full certification/endorsements for each should be counted in DG990 or DG1009 to ensure consistent data reporting. New America recommends they be counted in DG1009 ● Collect data related to FTE principals and assistant principals.

● Collect data on FTE instructional assistants (also known as paraprofessionals/paraeducators). ● “Teachers & Other Personnel” data collected should be reported in total, and disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and sex.

Pathways to College and Career

We propose adding data points related to Career Technical Education (CTE). Access to CTE courses is an important civil rights indicator because evidence shows that CTE concentrators graduate high school at higher rates than their peers. CTE makes academic content accessible to students by providing it in a hands-on context. Additionally, CTE prepares learners for the world of work by introducing them to workplace competencies and, as is becoming more frequent, connecting students to work-based learning opportunities. Tracking who has access to these opportunities is challenging

since there are not standardized definitions for the different types of work-based learning. CTE participation can serve as a proxy for who may have access to work-based learning.

Recommendations:

● Add data points on the number of different Career Technical Education (CTE) courses provided by career cluster.

● Add data points on the number of students enrolled in at least one CTE course (disaggregated by race, sex, nonbinary, disability- IDEA, disability-504 only, EL).

● Add data points on the number of CTE Concentrators - students who have earned two or more credits within a single CTE career cluster (disaggregated by race, sex, nonbinary, disability IDEA, disability-504 only, EL).

We thank the Department and the Office of Civil Rights for the opportunity to provide comments on this year’s data collection. Please contact Jazmyne Owens (owens@newamerica.org) with any questions or follow up.

The PreK-12 Education Team at New America