How do school districts determine what minorities to list? Can we petition for change?

The federal government determines the categories, not the local government or the school districts. The whole purpose is to compare schools under NCLB, and to distribute funding. Schools with large proportions of economically disadvantaged students get extra money to make up for the lack of support they get at home. It's called Title 1 money. To illustrate the point, in the largely middle class school my granddaughter went to, the math teacher told us last year that he had just gotten a Smart Board, paid for by money the PTA had raised. His previous school was a Title I school, and he had a Smart Board there years ago. That sounds unfair, but most of the kids at the middle class school had computers and other resources at home. Now, to your question- the ethnic categories on the 2010 census were the weirdest collection of nationalities, ethnic groups and made up terms I have ever seen. It's a problem of trying to put a label on who is disadvantaged. If your Arabic speakers are not receiving ESOL support, that's another issue. Have they tested as English proficient? If not, it is illegal for the school not to give them services, unless the parents have opted them out (which it sounds like they might have done). The government investigates schools that are not offering adequate support- you can contact the Bilingual Coordinator in the DOE in Pennsylvania if you think students are being denied services. That has NOTHING to do with anyone asking them their ethnic status. All children entering public schools answer a set of questions about languages spoken at home. Certain answers trigger the proficiency testing in English, which determines whether they get services.

People need to answer the census when it comes out. You can't do much of anything until 2020 now. Those second generation kids have parents who came from places where the government would kill you. They don't trust the u.s. govt. This is a good idea as the govt.is run by morons. The problem is that demographic information is obtained from the census. Since immigrant neighborhoods have an absolutely awful reply rate the census winds up with bad data. I am afraid your district just has to make do for the next 9 years. I worked for the census in Trenton nj and the response rate for the immigrant neighborhoods was awful. Even when we knocked on doors the occupants would pretend not to b. e home. Until the residents of your district cough up the data (in 2020) there will be inaccurate and faulty data. You district has itself to blame. There is a middle eastern box to check. One thing you can do locally is to get a candidate into office as a local rep. If you get someone in at the city level you can get someone who is representative of the district. The next step is county and then state. Then you get a rep at the federal level. It is a long campaign. There will probably be a new census before your neighborhood could even have someone lose at the federal level bit it is past time that the congress represents the nation. Good luck.

I disapprove of them even asking, and have always checked the "decline to state" option. If it is illegal to use race as a basis of educational benefits (scholarships or even acceptance to colleges) then they need to completely stop asking for students to identify by race. In my city they have a new middle school program for only one group of students, based on race. If they maintain good grades they are guaranteed acceptance to the University. My children can get better grades and not be guaranteed that!

People need to answer the census when it comes out. You can't do much of anything until 2020 now. Those second generation kids have parents who came from places where the government would kill you. They don't trust the u.s. govt. This is a good idea as the govt.is run by morons. The problem is that demographic information is obtained from the census. Since immigrant neighborhoods have an absolutely awful reply rate the census winds up with bad data. I am afraid your district just has to make do for the next 9 years. I worked for the census in Trenton nj and the response rate for the immigrant neighborhoods was awful. Even when we knocked on doors the occupants would pretend not to b. e home. Until the residents of your district cough up the data (in 2020) there will be inaccurate and faulty data. You district has itself to blame. There is a middle eastern box to check. One thing you can do locally is to get a candidate into office as a local rep. If you get someone in at the city level you can get someone who is representative of the district. The next step is county and then state. Then you get a rep at the federal level. It is a long campaign. There will probably be a new census before your neighborhood could even have someone lose at the federal level bit it is past time that the congress represents the nation. Good luck.

I disapprove of them even asking, and have always checked the "decline to state" option. If it is illegal to use race as a basis of educational benefits (scholarships or even acceptance to colleges) then they need to completely stop asking for students to identify by race. In my city they have a new middle school program for only one group of students, based on race. If they maintain good grades they are guaranteed acceptance to the University. My children can get better grades and not be guaranteed that!