In this article, we will review the Enrollment Summary feature of PowerSchool and how to determine the number of students that are in your school separated by Ethnicity and Race Groups.
To start, we select Enrollment Summary from the Home Screen.
There are TWO different sets of Ethnicity/Race information included in the Enrollment Summary. It is very important that the differences between them are understood to avoid misreporting or misinterpreting your Ethnicity/Race Category enrollment numbers.
Entering Student Ethnicity Information
The screenshot below shows the “Demographics” screen of a student record in PowerSchool. In California, you can also find this section under State/Province – CA>Student Information.
RED: Federal Ethnicity and Race (US Dept of Ed and CA CALPADS Compliant)
The Federal Ethnicity and Race section boxed in red above follows the federal guidelines for reporting ethnicity and race. The California Department of Education provides guidance to some of the most commonly asked questions below:
- Every effort should be made to accurately collect Race and Ethnicity information. If no information is collected, a student can be categorized as missing in CALPADS and white for assessment and comparison purposes.
- If a student answers yes to “Is the student Hispanic or Latino?”, they will be listed as such in CALPADS regardless of their race codes.
- If multiple race codes are selected (up to five), the student will be listed as multiple race.
- According to the CDE FAQ’s at the date of publishing at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/dc/es/refaq.asp:
- What is the federal definition of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity?
- A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
- What are the definitions of the federal race categories?
- American Indian or Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains a tribal affiliation or community attachment.
- Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- Black or African American: A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
- White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
- What is the federal definition of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity?
BLUE: Scheduling/Reporting Ethnicity (Internal Use)
Scheduling/Reporting Ethnicity should be used for non-federal guideline reporting and internal use that is specific to the school should you want to track other ethnicity/race information or just prefer to have it reported in a different way.
Enrollment Summary View #1 – Federal Ethnicity and Race
If you are using the Federal Ethnicity and Race methodology to group your students, click the View: Pull-down menu and select Federal Ethnicity and Race as below:
Enrollment Summary View #2 – Scheduling/Reporting Ethnicity
If you are using the Scheduling/Reporting Ethnicity methodology to group your students, click the View: Pull-down menu and select Scheduling/Reporting Ethnicity as below:
Each method may produce different results based on how your school manages Ethnicity/Race data so if you are mindful of that, the Enrollment Summary View is a great tool to check your enrollment groups as needed!