Outcomes Data and
Equity
April 19th, 2016
ACES meeting
Objective
• Provide recommendations to PBC:
– How will we act on this?
– What other data do we need to improve our
decision making?
Our opportunity:
“How can we expect to challenge old mindsets
and deconstruct implicit biases to reach new
horizons for students’ success in college and
beyond when only a portion of students and
educators are engaging in the conversations
necessary to do so?”
The Equity Imperative
The Time Is Now: Committing to Equity and
Inclusive Excellence
By Tia Brown McNair, Association of American
Colleges and Universities
Equity Minded look at Data
• Color-conscious (as opposed to color-blind) in a critical sense. [Can include
criticality toward gender, age, and other socio-economic factors]
• Aware that beliefs, expectations, and practices assumed to be neutral can have
outcomes that are racially disadvantageous.
• Willing to assume responsibility for the elimination of inequality.
• Aware that while racism is not always overt, racialized patterns nevertheless
permeate policies and practices in higher education institutions.
– When policies have a disproportionate impact on students of color, they have the effect of
maintaining racial hierarchies.
From the “Five Principles for Enacting Equity by Design:
By: Estela Mara Bensimon, Alicia C. Dowd and Keith Witham
Looking at the ILO data
• What are the narratives we have to explain
the disparities?
• What more information do we need to make
sense of this?
• What can we recommend to PBC: a
representative body of campus stakeholders?
Relevant Information about our
students
• Course Success:
–Average is 62%, but closer to 50% for Black, Hispanic, Native and Pac Islander,
Vet, FY, Low income.
• Transfer/Completion: how many students
MAKE it to this level?
–Black Students are 3.4% of student body, but 1.7% of transfer cohort and 2%
of degrees/certificates.
–Hispanic students are 40% of students, but only 11% of transfer and 16% of
degrees/certificates.
From the ACES conversation 4/19
Data-set:
• Self-reporting data has limitations on its own
• Email survey introduces self-selection bias
–May not be representative / Small groups may
skew certain results
• Scales Exaggerate differences: most fall
between 3.05 and 3.9
From the ACES conversation 4/19
Narrative/Assumptions
• Women show less confidence with equations (but
it’s the least popular overall!)
• Black and Latino have lower success/retention, but
report high confidence:
– Are these students trying to “overcompensate” (pp.16 - 17 black, latino,
males as most confident)
– related to social/cultural pressures to be strong
– Stereotype threat: fear of confirming stereotypes (Steele, Shih, Pittinsky et
al.)
Recommendations
• PBC could provide support for college-level
discussions of data AND include more than
just self-reporting
–Surface assumptions and narratives surrounding
gaps
• PBC could request PD to address disparities
• Incorporate Equity-minded data discussions
into Program Review and Planning
What Does It Mean to Be Equity-Minded?
Equity-minded practices are created through
1. Willingness to look at student outcomes and disparities at all educational levels
disaggregated by race and ethnicity as well as socioeconomic status.
2. Recognition that individual students are not responsible for the unequal outcomes of groups
that have historically experienced discrimination and marginalization in the United States.
3. Respect for the aspirations and struggles of students who are not well served by the current
educational system.
4. Belief in the fairness of allocating additional college and community resources to students
who have greater needs due to the systemic shortcomings of our educational system in
providing for them.
5. Recognition that the elimination of entrenched biases, stereotypes, and discrimination in
institutions of higher education requires intentional critical deconstruction of structures,
policies, practices, norms, and values assumed to be race neutral.