Data Interoperability and Equity Glossary

Anti-racism: beliefs, actions, policies, and movements developed to actively identify and eliminate prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination on the basis of race.

Asset framing: an approach that focuses on strengths, viewing diversity in thought, culture, and traits as positive assets and valuing intersectionality. Staff and students are valued for what they bring to the classroom. Teaching focuses on leveraging assets and strengths.

At-risk students: term often used to describe students or groups of students who are considered to have a higher probability of failing academically or dropping out of school.

Deficit thinking: refers to the belief that students underperform in school because they and their families experience deficiencies that obstruct the learning process. This narrative often impacts students of historically marginalized/minoritized groups and often shows up in data visualizations. 

Foster care youth: According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, foster care (also known as out-of-home care) is a temporary service provided by states for children who cannot live with their families.

Homeless student population: According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a homeless student is defined as a child without a regular, fixed, and adequate nighttime residence and are subsequently sheltered (living in emergency or transitional shelters, hotel/motel) or  living in hotels, motels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations. 

Identity: usually defined by physical, social, and mental characteristics, including race/ethnicity, gender, social class/socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, (dis)abilities, and religion/religious beliefs. 

Implicit bias: are the attitudes and beliefs that occur outside of our conscious awareness and control.

Inclusion: an approach that aims to reach out to and include all people, honoring the diversity and uniqueness, talent, beliefs, backgrounds, capabilities, and ways of living of individuals and groups.

Interpretive or interpretation bias: an information-processing bias and a form of cognitive bias in which ambiguous situations are appraised as negative or threatening.

Intersectionality: a term coined by Black feminist legal scholar Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the ways in which our identities (such as race, gender, class, ability, etc.) intersect to create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Kinship care youth: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, kinship care refers to the care of children by relatives, or in some jurisdictions, close family friends (often referred to as fictive kin).

Probation youth: According to the National Juvenile Defender Center, probation youth are adjudicated juveniles who are released back into the community under certain conditions and under the supervision of a probation officer for a specified period of time.

Race: a social construct designed to divide people into groups. Created to classify people on the arbitrary basis of skin color and other physical features.

Racial identity: how individuals define themselves with respect to race and/or ethnicity.

Transient student population: The National Institute for Urban School Improvement defines transient students as any learners “who change schools 6 or more times in their K-12 careers, or for some, those who change schools 3 times through 3rd grade.”