Attendees

Materials

Agenda

• Welcoming and briefing about the DEI SIG 
• Group members’ self-introduction 
• Discussion on Ed-Fi Data Standard adjustments to address concerns/needs related students’ birth sex and self-identified gender information records
• Discussion on Ed-Fi Data Standard adjustments on students’ parent/legal guardian situations to have more inclusive language
• Summary of the discussions and preview of recommendations/guidance on subject matters discussed
• Wrap up and planning of next meeting

Notes

• During the briefing about this SIG, we decided to meet every 3 weeks on Thursdays at the same time frame. Three meetings are currently scheduled, with up to three additional meetings possible. The need for a gender identity descriptor in the Ed-Fi Data Standard and renaming the Parent domain entity in the system have emerged as the discussion topics for the current meeting.  The group is reminded to that we are open to recommendations for discussion topic for the following meetings.
• During the self-introduction section, all group members introduced their roles in their organization and briefly explained what end result they are expecting to see from the DEI SIG. The three common goals indicated by the group members are:
  • Learn about what other states have or planning to have implemented to improve the equity practices relating the data collection
  • Learn how to lead data collection systematically and strategically to have better inclusion and equity practices
  • Guide distill common practices on diversity, equity and inclusion related matters in Ed-Fi standards to provide required tools to the state and local educational agencies
    
    
• Discussion on the Ed-Fi Data Standard adjustment on Sex and Gender started with the depiction of the currently available tools in the Ed-Fi standards. The Gender Questionnaire that is created based on the discussion from the Data Standard ticket DATASTD-1888 - Getting issue details... STATUS is presented to the group members, and their guidance and feedback are requested. Group members discussed the difference between the terms Sex and Gender and noted that the Ed-Fi standard system should align with the definition of these two terms and prevent them to be used interchangeably. As an action, item it is recommended that the definition of SexDescriptor in the Ed-Fi standard needs to be updated, since gender is used to define the descriptor, which is confusing.
  
  Group also recommended that the creation of a GenderDescriptor as another action item. It is discussed that state educational agencies and local educational agencies could have different use cases for Sex and Gender descriptors, considering federal data collection requirements that state agencies have, and how local agencies would like to use gender identity information collected to create safe spaces and more inclusive environment for students and staff members. Therefore, having both of them listed under the StudentEducationOrganizationAssociation in Ed-Fi standard and keeping them as optional data collection is recommended to fulfill both agencies' data collection practices and requirements. The group advised the Ed-Fi Data Standard team to do its own research in defining different categories for the GenderDescriptor and suggested to sharing the proposed changes with the Ed-Fi community members to collect their feedback.
  
  

•  During the discussion on the Ed-Fi Data Standard adjustment on Parent, the unanimous decision of the group was that the name Parent was not inclusive despite the fact that in the field of education the term Parent can be used very liberally. The majority of the group members did not agree on the term Responsible Adult which was recommended in the Data Standard ticket DATASTD-1536 - Getting issue details... STATUS , since the term Adult is not always correct in referring the person who is responsible for the student, considering cases of self-responsibility and siblings being responsible for other siblings. Some members talked about guardian, legal guardian and caregiver as their preferences for renaming the parent domain entity, but no consensus was reached by the group. The group concluded that the renaming of the domain entity is a necessity and implicitly left it to the Ed-Fi Data Standard team to find a more inclusive term as a replacement. During this discussion, it is also pointed out by group members that the creation of a new GenderDescriptor as a result of the previous discussion needs to lead the replacement of data collection for the contact persons' Sex with their Gender identity, even as an optional data collection. Group members agreed that schools would never need information about the birth Sex of the contact person, yet data collection on the Gender identity could be useful in referring these individuals as a third person.

• After summarizing the discussion, during the wrap up section of the meeting, group members were asked to share their opinions for the discussion topic for the following meetings. Group members recommended having a discussion on adding pronouns and preferred name fields into the Ed-Fi standard. It is also recommended by a group member that on a longer vision, it is beneficial to have a discussion on how we can use data to inform larger strategic conversation with school districts and state agencies around diversity, equity, and inclusion related issues. As a closure, members are reminded that they can continue the conversation and provide topic suggestions via emails.

Next Meeting 16 Mar 2023