In the educational equity report “Monitoring Student Growth” from 2019, the Washington school district North Thurston Public Schools (NTPS), which supervises 22 schools and a total of around 16,000 students, analyzed the achievements and opportunities of its students by race and financial situation. A negative response arose on account of the report classifying Asians with White students instead of the “Student with Color” group—which according to the school district’s website, consists of “Black, Indigenous, multi-racial, Pacific Islander and Latinx students.” On Twitter, the report led to many Asians identifying themselves as Whites, as well as many Whites welcoming Asians to the new group. However, many Asians do not have the same privileges as white people due to racial discrimination.
Many perspectives came along with the situation. Robby Soave from reason.com criticized that the school district action of measuring data by race categories was absurd. He said that the report’s socioeconomic categories of “‘students of poverty’—those who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches—against non-poverty students, and unsurprisingly found a much more significant achievement gap.” Zaid Jilani used the word “racecraft” to describe the NTPS grouping students by race. He also questioned whether school performances define one’s race. Besides, people thought that the inclusion of Asians with White students was a move to hide that the achievements of minority students are catching up to white students.
In reaction to the negative impacts brought to the Asian community, officials of the Washington school district removed the report from their webpage. They explained that they categorize Asian and White students together because of their Continuous Growth- All Students, All Subjects plan, which they said aimed for an “increased growth rate of underperforming groups eliminating achievement and opportunity gaps.” The officials apologized for the problems they caused and guaranteed to change the way they observe achievement data. However, they believe that it is important to have disaggregated data to make fair decisions since data has shown a continuous growth of Asian and White students and the inadequate growth of other colored students.