Part Two: Racialization creates a stumbling block in education

Disregard the general consensus that academic performance discrepancies between the different ethnicities and races are due to socioeconomic factors.

Racial and ethnic compartmentalization not only is still present in our schools, it is getting more complicated.

According to the New Federal Standards for Collecting and Reporting Race and Ethnicity Categories guidance, reporting race and ethnicity data to the United States Department of Education (USDE) is required as a part of accountability reports and allows states to request federal funding.

Shouldn't federal funding be distributed according to economical status? What do race and ethnicity have to do with funding? According to the USDE, the preferable procedure for race and ethnicity data collection is self-identification out of respect for "individual dignity." The decision is made primarily by parents or guardians of students.

However, sometimes parents and students do not agree in this matter. A parent's choice of race and ethnicity is considered for the record.

What I found even more bizarre is the intervention in this process of a third party, the participant "observer." This person decides a student's ethnicity based on his or her appearance when information is not provided.

Reporting the race and ethnicity to the federal government is mandatory. "If a parent refuses to identify the race or ethnicity of a student, but the student later volunteers to self-identify, the data should be used, unless there is a reason to question the accuracy of the information.

"The designated observer should verify the response according to school district procedures. Students and parents who are reluctant to self-identify should be informed that observer identification will be used. All observers should be trained on the procedures for racial and ethnic identification."

USDE also uses the collected racial and ethnic data for the making of all these elaborated "colorful" reports by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). There is a list of 64 possible combinations of new race and ethnicity codes as found in NCES standards program.

The NCES is the chief federal entity in collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education.

After looking at ethnic based reports, I still do not see the point. I found that in 2007, 37.5 percent of a particular ethnicity of high school dropouts were born outside the United States. Students from this ethnicity born in the United States had lower status dropout rates.

Bottom line: Once again economical status and language barriers should be the decisive accountable factors for determining students' success rather than ethnicity or race.

The situation worsened in my mind when I read pseudo-cultural research studies claiming nonsensical conclusions such as defiance, disrespect, rudeness and disobedience being common conducts of a particular ethnicity. There are members from this ethnicity who could give numerous lessons about manners and courtesy to others.

Despite these complex ethnic classifications, supposed cultural sensitivity and non-discriminating politics, it seems that "minorities" still achieve lower test results and higher dropout indexes.

I am sure that the purpose of ethnically categorizing students is not the same as credit card companies, but I personally find it unethical and unconstitutional. I believe that the NCES contributes to stereotyping students, turning low expectations into self-fulfilling prophecies.

Ethnicity and immigration are not intertwined, and race does not imply background. The United States, as is the rest of the world, is multiracial.

Let us free our society from prefabricated stereotypes that keep feeding discrimination and creating false differences.

Cristina Stumbaugh is a senior. She is majoring in Spanish with a minor in education. Cristina is an incurable optimist whose compasses are justice and human rights. She believes the key for success is believing.