ERIC Number: EJ1258515
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-189X
EISSN: N/A
What Do We Know about "Race Unknown"?
Ford, Karly; Rosinger, Kelly; Zhu, Qiong
Educational Researcher, v49 n5 p376-381 Jun-Jul 2020
One ethnoracial reporting category perplexes higher education researchers: "race and ethnicity unknown." Using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), we constructed a 28-year panel of 4,401 institutions. We find that the for-profit sector ranges from 5% to 18% "race unknown" students. In addition, almost 10% of students attending the most selective institutions were reported as "race unknown" in 2009 before dropping off precipitously. The size of the "race unknown" category can be attributed to some combination of student responses and data collection practices. We suggest researchers refrain from dropping "race unknown" from their studies as doing so may bias findings for the other ethnoracial categories, especially when comparing rates of student enrollment across institutional types.
Descriptors: Racial Identification, Institutional Characteristics, Higher Education, Enrollment Trends, Race, Problems, Data Collection, Student Surveys, Self Disclosure (Individuals)
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Information Analyses
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A