The following definitions are designed to accompany studies and materials on diversity, equity, equal opportunity, and nondiscrimination. The intent is to provide a common understanding to facilitate discussion and a common ground for discourse and action. The nature of the civil and human rights field, as well as human resources, is such that understandings change over time, circumstances, and technological developments. Hence these definitions are subject to change, and in the spirit of the need for a common understanding, feedback is welcome, as well as suggestions for additional terms that need defining.
Glossary of Terms Related to
Diversity, Equity, and Equal Opportunity
Accessions = Newly appointed employees.
Accountability = Being answerable for decisions. “Decision-makers in government, the private sector and civil society organisations are accountable to the public, as well as to institutional stakeholders. This accountability differs depending on the organisation and whether the decision is internal or external to an organization.” (Adel M. Abdellatif; Good Governance and Its Relationship to Democracy & Economic Development; GF3/WS/IV-3/S1; Global Forum III on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity; Seoul; 20-31 May 2003; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)) Accountability relates to overall system efficiency. Overall performance of any system can be measured by comparing outcomes to inputs. Optimization requires minimizing costs to achieve the same outcomes, or maximizing outcomes given the same level of inputs.
“Accountability in its basic sense implies rendering of accounts and, by extension, indicates answerability to an external agency or group and, further, implies ensuring propriety, legality and safeguarding public interest in satisfaction of the expectations of the external agency or group.” (S. M Vijayanand; Social Accountability And Participatory Planning – Lessons From The Kerala Experience; Prepared for the Workshop-cum-Training Programme On ‘Application of Social Accountability Mechanisms in Community Driven Development and Decentralization Programmes in South Asia at Hyderabad 16th to 19th May 2005 Organized by the World Bank and Centre for Good Governance)
“We see accountability not just as being a question about periodic elections, but also about a continuing dialogue between civil society and policy makers and about institutions holding each other accountable through appropriate checks and balances.”
(Bent Flyvbjerg; Megaprojects and Risk)
“[T]he responsible use by humanitarian agencies of the resources at their disposal. To achieve this, agencies need to
• explain how their programmes conform with best practice and commonly agreed commitments (for example, evidence-based standards accepted across the sector) by sharing results and reasons for action and non-action in a particular context in a transparent way.
• involve stakeholders in their work. With regard to affected populations, this means tak ing into account their needs, concerns and capacities at all stages of humanitarian response, respecting their right to be heard and to be involved in decisions affecting their lives, and providing them with the means to challenge agencies’ decisions.” (The Sphere Project)
As an antidote to implicit bias: “Having a sense of accountability, meaning “the implicit or explicit expectation that one may be called on to justify one’s beliefs, feelings, and actions to others,” can be another powerful measure to combat bias (Lerner & Tetlock, 1999, p. 255). Research finds that having a sense of accountability can decrease the influence of bias (Kang, et al., 2012; Reskin, 2005). When decision makers are not held accountable for their actions, they are less likely to self-check for how bias may affect their decision-making (National Center for State Courts). Jurors’ feelings of being held accountable by the judge to produce unbiased decisions can help jurors keep their implicit biases in check (Kang, et al., 2012).” (Kirwan Institute)
According to the ICMA, accountability is “the ways in which individuals and communities hold themselves to their goals and actions, and acknowledge the values and groups to which they are responsible. Accountability requires some sense of urgency and becoming a true stakeholder in the outcome. Accountability can be externally imposed or internally applied. To be accountable, one must be visible, with a transparent agenda and process. Invisibility defies examination; it is, in fact, employed in order to avoid detection and examination. Accountability demands commitment. It might be defined as “what kicks in when convenience runs out.” Accountability can be externally imposed (legal or organizational requirements), or internally applied (moral, relational, faith-based, or recognized as some combination thereof) on a continuum from the institutional and organizational level to the individual level. From a relational point of view, accountability is not about doing it right; sometimes it’s really about what happens after it’s done wrong.
Adverse Impact = “[A] substantially different rate of selection in hiring, promotion or other employment decision which works to the disadvantage of members of a race, sex or ethnic group…diverse impact is determined by a four step process.
(1) calculate the rate of selection for each group (divide the number of persons selected from a group by the number of applicants from that group).
(2)observe which group has the highest selection rate.
(3) calculate the impact ratios, by comparing the selection ratefor each group with that of the highest group (divide the selection rate for a group by the selection rate for the highest group).
(4)observe whether the selection rate for any group is substantially less (i.e., usually less than 4/5ths or 80%) than the selection rate for the highest group. If it is adverse impact is indicated in most circumstances…
Adverse impact is determined first for the overall selection process for each job. If the overall selection process has an adverse impact, the adverse impact of the individual selection procedure should be analyzed. For any selection procedures in the process having an adverse impact which the user continues to use in the same manner, the user is expected to have evidence of validity satisfying the Guidelines. Sections 4C and 5D. If there is no adverse impact for the overall selection process, in most circumstances there is no obligation under the Guidelines to investigate adverse impact for the components, or to validate the selection procedures used for that job. Section 4C.” (Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection; EEOC; 1979)
Affirmative Action = A broad range of policies and practices designed to promote equality in ways not strictly required by antidiscrimination law alone. A government or institutional or corporate policy or program of giving preferences or advantages or quotas to members of particular social groups, including races. Opponents contend that such preferential treatment by the government is a form of institutionalized reverse racism which unfairly discriminates against individuals by racial category. Proponents contend that such preferential treatment promotes racial integration, diversity, and economic equality of groups which have been historically harmed by racism. Affirmative action is sometimes ordered by courts as a remedy to class discrimination, and sometimes adopted voluntarily by institutions. When the latter is done, it must meet certain criteria, such as a compelling governmental interest, suffer strict scrutiny, be done in the least discriminatory way possible, and have a certain end date. State affirmative action cannot have the stated objective of remedying general “societal discrimination.” Instead, it must only remedy ongoing acts of discrimination or “lingering effects” of prior discrimination evidenced by particularized and reliable legislative, judicial, or administrative findings.
Algorithmic discrimination = “The term “algorithmic discrimination” refers to instances when automated systems contribute to unjustified different treatment or impacts disfavoring people based on their actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, sex (including based on pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions; gender identity; intersex status; and sexual orientation), religion, age, national origin, limited English proficiency, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by law.” (Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government; February 16, 2023)
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) = The ADA is a federal law that gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities in many areas of life. The ADA guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to enjoy employment opportunities, participate in state and local government programs,2 and purchase goods and services. For example, the ADA protects people with disabilities from discrimination by social services agencies; child welfare agencies; courts; prisons and jails; medical facilities, including hospitals, doctors’ offices, and skilled nursing facilities; homeless shelters; and schools, colleges, and universities.
American Indian or Alaska Native = The category “American Indian or Alaska Native” includes all individuals who identify with any of the original peoples of North, Central, and South America. It includes people who identify as “American Indian” or “Alaska Native” and includes groups such as Navajo Nation, Blackfeet Tribe, Mayan, Aztec, Native Village of Barrow Inupiat Traditional Government, Tlingit, etc.
Applicant Flow Data = “A chronological compilation of applicants (including internet applicants) for employment or promotion showing each individual, categorized by race, sex and ethnic group, who applied for each job title (or group of jobs requiring similar qualifications) during a specific period.” (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, U.S. Department of Labor)
Antibias education and multicultural education = This type of intervention draws variously on theories addressing the socialization of prejudice, cognitive and moral development, and learning. The form of these interventions ranges widely.
Anti-racism pledges = Aspen Digital has established an Anti-racism pledge tracker, identifying organizational commitments to anti-racism activities. Such a tracker needs to be continuously updated and contain accountability mechanisms. Such an effort might be based upon a tech executive tracker, such as that developed by Sherrell Dorsey, Grace McFadden, and Ashley Stewart of tpinsights.com, but with a specific focus on cybersecurity. See “The Aspen Digital Anti-racism Pledge Tracker,” Aspen Digital, June 25, 2020, https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/aspen-digital-anti-racism-pledge-tracker/ and Sherrell Dorsey, Grace McFadden, and Ashley Stewart, “Tech Statements: Statements Made by Top Tech Companies on Racial Justice, BLM, and George Floyd,” The Plug, accessed June 12, 2021.
Apologies = Organizations such as universities and governments sometimes offer apologies for their past involvement with slavery and discrimination. “Professional psychology offers a cautionary tale regarding the risks of an inadequate apology. In 2021, the American Psychological Association issued an apology for its historical role in upholding white supremacy and scientific racism. Soon after, the Association for Black Psychologists rebuked the apology: in their view, apologizing for past complicity without acknowledging enduring disparities (e.g., low numbers of practicing Black psychologists; the APA’s failure to pull accreditation from psychiatric hospitals with records of misdiagnosing Black patients), and without naming steps to address those disparities, meant that the apology was wholly insufficient, “pandering,” or even “an obfuscation of the truth.”” (Loyola Maryland Connections to Slavery)
Asian = The category “Asian” includes all individuals who identify with one or more nationalities or ethnic groups originating in East Asia, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent. Examples of these groups include, but are not limited to, Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese. The category also includes groups such as Pakistani, Cambodian, Hmong, Thai, Bengali, Mien, etc. In the US, the term more properly would be Asian-American.
Assessment = A formal method of evaluating a system or a process, often with both qualitative and quantitative components. (Public Health Agency of Canada) Environmental professionals conduct assessments to determine contamination presence and characterization. Two phases of assessments identify the potential for hazardous releases and the severity of contamination. The Phase I environmental assessment investigates the historical use of the site and tests for various contaminants to determine the likelihood of contamination and possible levels of severity. The Phase I assessment determines whether or not a Phase II assessment will be needed. If the Phase I assessment reveals no suspect prior usage or onsite hazardous issues, then there is likely no need for a Phase II assessment, and redevelopment planning or implementation can begin.
When the Phase I assessment indicates that further investigation is needed, a Phase II assessment is conducted. The Phase II assessment should accurately characterize the levels or volume of contamination and the type of contaminants. Phase II assessments are sometimes divided into levels of investigation. Proper documentation of the investigation is important. The Phase II assessment often is a requirement for parties that receive or apply for private and public funding. Also, to legally establish liability relief or innocent landowner defense through the Brownfields Law, the Phase II documentation must be in accordance with the all appropriate inquiry rule or the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards E1527-05 (applicable after November 2006). The closing Phase II assessment report sometimes is useful for determining liability. (National Association of Development Organizations, NADO)
“[T]he process of establishing (i) the impact of a disaster or conflict on a society; (ii) the priority needs and risks faced by those affected by disaster; (iii) the available capacity to respond, including coping mechanisms of the affected population; (iv) the most appropriate forms of response given the needs, risks and capacities; and (v) the possibilities for facilitating and expediting recovery and development. An appropriate response depends on an understanding of the political, social and economic context within which aid is to be provided. It also depends on adequate evidence of needs and risk factors, including information derived from consultation with those affected by disaster.” (The Sphere Project)
Asset framing = “Using language that focuses on the strengths, rather than deficits, of individuals or communities. Asset framing is the opposite of deficit framing.” (Education-to-Workforce Indicator Framework Chapter V. Data equity principles; Mathematica; no date; accessed 8/30/2023)
Attitudes and behaviors = “Although attitudes and behaviors are correlated, the prejudice reduction interventions often seem more successful at changing discriminatory behaviors than at reducing negative stereotypes or animus.” (Paluck; Implicit Bias Remedies; National Institutes of Health)
Audit = A systematic and documented process for obtaining evidence from inspections, interviews and document review, and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which relevant criteria are fulfilled. “Audit can be distinguished from monitoring and evaluation by its financial, and financial management, focus. It is primarily an assessment of the legality and regularity of project expenditure and income and whether project funds have been used efficiently and economically and for the intended purposes.” (European Commission, EuropeAid Co-operation Office; Result Oriented Monitoring Handbook; July)
Automated employment decision tool = The term “automated employment decision tool” means any computational process, derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence, that issues simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, that is used to substantially assist or replace discretionary decision making for making employment decisions that impact natural persons. The term “automated employment decision tool” does not include a tool that does not automate, support, substantially assist or replace discretionary decision-making processes and that does not materially impact natural persons, including, but not limited to, a junk email filter, firewall, antivirus software, calculator, spreadsheet, database, data set, or other compilation of data.” (New York City regulations, 20-870, Subchapter 25)
Availability = An estimate of the number of qualified people of color and women available for employment, from which an organization may reasonably expect to recruit to fill positions in a given job group. Availability estimates are derived from Census data, data from colleges, local job service offices, and other relevant entities, and current promotion-eligible workforce demographics. The purpose of the availability determination is to establish a benchmark, against which the demographic composition of the contractor’s incumbent workforce can be compared, to determine whether barriers to equal opportunity may exist within particular job groups. “As described in 41 CFR 60-2.14, an estimate of the number of qualified minorities or women available for employment in a given job group, expressed as a percentage of all qualified people available for employment in the given job group. The purpose of the availability determination is to establish a benchmark against which the demographic composition of the contractor’s incumbent workforce can be compared to determine whether barriers to equal employment opportunity may exist within particular job groups.” (OFCCP)
Avenues of influence = Broad ways or content areas through which an entity or individual working in collaboration with others can influence the health, safety, well-being, and/or equity of people. Specifically, the four avenues of influence are interventions in the physical work environment, interventions in the psychosocial work environment, health promotion in the workplace, and involvement in the enterprise community environment.
Barrier Analysis = The process described in EEOC Management Directive 715. That Directive provides that “[w]here an agency’s self-assessment indicates that a racial, national origin, gender, [or disability] group may have been denied equal access to employment opportunities, the agency must take steps to identify the potential barrier. Workplace barriers can take various forms and sometimes involve a policy or practice that is neutral on its face. Identifying and evaluating potential barriers requires an agency to examine all relevant policies, practices, procedures and conditions in the workplace.” (Equal Employment Opporutnity Commission; Management Directive 715)
Baseline = Data that we start with or know for sure. We can compare changes to this baseline to help determine if anything is changing or working.
Belonging = Some companies are amending their approach to DEIA, even renaming their departments to include “belonging.” Some critics worry it’s about making white people comfortable rather than addressing systemic inequality, or that it allows companies to prioritize getting along over necessary change. “Belonging is a way to help people who aren’t marginalized feel like they’re part of the conversation,” according to Stephanie Creary, assistant professor of management at the Wharton School of Business who studies corporate strategies for diversity and inclusion. She believes an abstract focus on belonging allows companies to avoid tough conversations about power and the resistance those conversations often generate. “The concern is that we are just creating new terms like belonging as a way to manage that resistance.”
Benchmark = Information/data that can help measure whether progress is being made toward a desired result. It usually takes several benchmarks to determine whether a result is being achieved. Indicator and milestone are two other terms often used for the word benchmark. There are several methods of benchmarking: (1) applying target of plan or strategy, (2) applying international benchmarks, (3) using results of specific study, (4) consulting experts in each areas, and (5) using average means.
Bias audit = “The term “bias audit” means an impartial evaluation by an independent auditor. Such bias audit shall include but not be limited to the testing of an automated employment decision tool to assess the tool’s disparate impact on persons of any component 1 category required to be reported by employers pursuant to subsection (c) of section 2000e-8 of title 42 of the United States code as specified in part 1602.7 of title 29 of the code of federal regulations.” (New York City regulations, 20-870, Subchapter 25)
Biased samples = These may obscure substantial differences among groups that would otherwise be apparent if researchers employed comparable samples via randomization or statistical controls.
Bias mitigation = This involves more than merely increased knowledge; rather, it is demonstrated by improved application of that knowledge resulting in unbiased judgments. Together, bias knowledge and performance (i.e., application of bias mitigating strategies) form the basis for improved decision-making competency. (Implicit and explicit training in the mitigation of cognitive bias through the use of a serious game; Norah E. Dunbar , Claude H. Miller , Bradley J. Adame , Javier Elizondo , Scott N. Wilson , Brianna L. Lane, Abigail Allums Kauffman , Elena Bessarabova , Matthew L. Jensen , Sara K. Straub , Yu-Hao Lee , Judee K. Burgoon , Joseph J. Valacich , Jeffrey Jenkins , Jun Zhang; (Computers in Human Behavior 37 (2014) 307-318)
Black or African American = The category “Black or African American” includes all individuals who identify with one or more nationalities or ethnic groups originating in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. Examples of these groups include, but are not limited to, African American, Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, Ethiopian, and Somali. The category also includes groups such as Ghanaian, South African, Barbadian, Kenyan, Liberian, Bahamian, etc.
Blood quantum = “[Native American] ancestry is also measured by a concept known as blood quantum, which was integrated into federal law in 1887, for the purpose of dividing communal Indian lands into parcels and thereby pushing the concept of private land ownership onto Indians. Blood quantum cannot be measured directly but is typically inferred based on family lineage and has been used for sociopolitical purposes, underscoring the social construction of race in the U.S. (Rodriguez-Lonebear, 2021). As discussed in Chapter 2, race and ethnicity are social constructs, without a basis in biology. Despite its colonial and racist roots, blood quantum is used by many Indian Tribes to determine individual Tribal membership (Rodriguez-Lonebear, 2021), and the Bureau of Indian Affairs still requires that each American Indian or Alaska Native submit paperwork proving that they are entitled to a Certificate of Degree of Indian or Alaska Native Blood, known as a CDIB. Some Tribes rely on provable lineage such as having an ancestor who appears on the Dawes rolls and can be directly traced back (National Archives and Records Administration, 2016).” (National Academy of Sciences; Biomedical uses of race and ethnicity; 2024)
Bogardus Social Distance Scale = A psychological testing scale created by Emory S. Bogordus to empirically measure people’s willingness to participate in social contacts of varying degrees of closeness with members of diverse social groups, such as other racial and ethnic groups, sex offenders, and gays. The scale asks people the extent to which they would be accepting of each group (a score of 1.00 for a group is taken to indicate no social distance):
- As close relatives by marriage (score 1.00)
- As my close personal friends (2.00)
- As neighbors on the same street (3.00)
- As co-workers in the same occupation (4.00)
- As citizens in my country (5.00)
- As only visitors in my country (6.00)
- Would exclude from my country (7.00)
The Bogardus Social Distance Scale is a cumulative scale (a Guttman scale), because agreement with any item implies agreement with all preceding items. The scale has been criticized as too simple because the social distance in intimate relations may not be to attitudes concerning far-away contacts, such as citizens or visitors in my country. Research by Bogardus first in 1925 and then repeated in 1946, 1956, and 1966 shows that the extent of social distancing in the US is decreasing slightly and fewer distinctions are being made among groups. A Web-based questionnaire has been running since late 1993. (Psychology Wiki)
Boundary analysis = Boundaries are the lines between entities or concepts. Boundary locations reflect complex underlying physical, biomedical, and/or social processes. Boundary analysis allows investigation of complex and dynamic spatial processes. We ask what is and is not included in a certain category. It is helpful to know when one have moved from one entity to another. Boundaries can be porous. Boundaries can by physical, psychological, legal, and ethical. Sometimes overstepping boundaries will open on to punishment. Boundaries determine what is in and what is out. “Structured problems assume that the boundaries are well-defined and preferences, alternatives, and their relationships are well defined (William N. Dunn; Problems Structuring in Public Policy Analysis; 1988). The policy analyst must conduct a boundary analysis in order to review whether the problem estimation is as complete as possible.” Boundary analysis is important to make sure we are not attempting to solve the wrong problem.
Bridging = Making data collected using one set of categories consistent with data collected using another set of categories.
Caste discrimination = “Differentiated treatment based on someone’s perceived ancestry…In the United States, there have been reports of members of the Dalit community, a historically underrepresented group of individuals, being subject to social and housing discrimination as well as bullying in the workplace…Caste-based discrimination takes place in covert ways, such as via attempts to find out someone’s social position by posing apparently innocent questions about individuals’ surnames, past ancestors’ occupations, and eating habits…The four “varnas” or levels of the Indian caste hierarchy are in descending order: Brahmin (priest), Kshatriya (warrior and ruler), Vaishya (trader or merchant), and Shudra (servant or peasant). Shudras have typically experienced caste-based atrocities. The situation is worse for Dalits, who have been excluded from the varna system altogether and have faced severe socioeconomic dispossession and suppression, along with stigma. Although the practice of caste discrimination is far from eradicated, India has adopted several affirmative action plans to remedy systemic and structural discrimination. For example, quotas for protected caste groups are used in the appointment and promotion in public sector employment, admission to educational institutions, and seats in the legislature…[In the US] caste is not completely covered under any existing protected grounds… two U.S. cities—Seattle and Fresno—as well as some educational institutions such as Harvard University, Brandeis University, California State University, Brown University, Colby College and University of California, Davis have recognized caste as a separate protected category. In jurisdictions such as Canada and the United Kingdom with significant South Asian diasporas, similar developments can be observed… The Equality Act of the United Kingdom was amended in 2013 to include Section 9(5), which allows the government to bring forth legislation classifying caste as an aspect of race, thereby making caste discrimination a sub-ground within race.” (Sangh Rakshita and Sofia Ranchordas; California’s Attempt to Outlaw Caste-Based Discrimination; Regulatory Review; November 20, 2023)
Causal analysis goes beyond description to try to identify whether one variable in a situation or set of data actually determines the outcome of interest. Causal analysis asks whether changing one variable leads to change in the outcome of interest. If we make a specific intervention, does that produce a “causal effect” on the outcome of interest? While descriptive analysis can show associations between independent variables and an outcome, it cannot demonstrate that those variables caused the outcome. In contrast, causal approaches to data analysis ask targeted questions about what might be directly responsible for certain outcomes. “Causal analysis uses experimental (e.g., randomized controlled trials) and quasi-experimental (e.g., difference-in-difference, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables) methods to isolate the effect of a specific cause and ascertain the magnitude by which it changes a desired outcome. (Nicole P. Marwell and Cameron Day; Emerging Directions in the Data-Society Interface; Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice; University of Chicago; no date; accessed 1/29/2023)
Causal Hierarchy = “Epidemiologists evaluate evidence to determine whether an exposure is directly responsible for an outcome. Studies follow a hierarchy in terms of the quality of evidence that they can provide.” (Misra S. Randomized double blind placebo control studies, the “Gold Standard” in intervention based studies. Indian J Sex Transm Dis AIDS. 2012 Jul;33(2):131-134. doi: 10.4103/0253-7184.102130. PMID: 23188942; PMCID: PMC3505292)
Child Opportunity Index 2.0 (COI 2.0) = A composite index measured at the Census tract level that captures neighborhood resources and conditions that matter for children’s healthy development in a single metric. The index focuses on contemporary features of neighborhoods that are affecting children. It is based on 29 indicators spanning 3 domains: education, health and environment, and social and economic. (Noelke, C., McArdle, N., Baek, M., Huntington, N., Huber, R., Hardy, E., & Acevedo-Garcia, D. (2020). Child Opportunity Index 2.0 Technical Documentation)
Civilian Labor Force (CLF) = The sum of the number of people who are employed and those who are unemployed but looking for work in a specified area, e.g., nationwide or in a particular state.
Civil Rights Audit = “[A]n independent, systematic examination of significant civil rights and racial equity issues that may exist in a company and provides a plan of action to address those issues in a thorough, deliberate, timely, and transparent manner. Auditors with civil rights expertise will assess a company’s business policies, practices, products, and services to determine whether and how those components have a discriminatory effect and/or disparate impact on people historically subject to discrimination. After an initial assessment, the auditors work with the company to issue a public report to provide a blueprint for corrective action and proactive, equitable outcomes, and to ensure that structures are in place to implement civil rights changes and prevent future civil rights harms. (Laura Murphy, The Rationale for and Key Elements of a Business Civil Rights Audit; Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; no date; accessed 4/118/2022)
Climate = Sue Rankin, a faculty member in education policy studies and college student affairs at Pennsylvania State University and a senior research associate at the Center for the Study of Higher Education defines climate as the “current attitudes, behaviors and standards of faculty, staff, administrators and students concerning the level of respect for individual needs, abilities and potential.” “The atmosphere or ambience of an organization as perceived by its members that can influence whether an individual feels personally safe, listened to, valued, and treated fairly and with respect. An organization’s climate is reflected in its structures, policies, and practices; the demographics of its membership; the attitudes and values of its members and leaders; and the quality of personal interactions.” (University of Puget Sound)
“Clinical trials are prospective studies in which humans are exposed to “something” at the discretion of the investigator and followed for an outcome. The purpose is to draw inferences about the potential effect of the “something” on a target population represented by trial participants. To explain in detail, a “clinical trial” is a planned experiment (1) designed to assess the efficacy [or effectiveness] (2) of a treatment [or intervention] (3) in men (4) by assessing the outcomes (5) in a group of patients [or participants] (6) treated with the test treatment and usually by comparing these outcomes with those observed in a comparable group (7) of patients receiving a control (8) treatment.” (Misra S. Randomized double blind placebo control studies, the “Gold Standard” in intervention based studies. Indian J Sex Transm Dis AIDS. 2012 Jul;33(2):131-134. doi: 10.4103/0253-7184.102130. PMID: 23188942; PMCID: PMC3505292)
Cognitive or emotional training = A type of diversity intervention or training which train individuals to use thinking and emotion regulation strategies to fight off their personal prejudices. Some forms seek to alter a particular aspect of a person’s cognitive association with or assessment of an outgroup through practice or repeated contradictory pairings…this training targets automatic or implicit negative associations. Some trainings encourage thinking “safe” thoughts when encountering Black people. “Other interventions use classical conditioning techniques, such as pairing representations of members of stigmatized groups with positive stimuli.” (El Paluck; Prejudice Reduction: What Works; Annual Reviews; 2009))
Cohort Analysis = “A nonstatistical comparison of the treatment of similarly situated individuals, or small groups of applicants or employees.” (OFCCP)
Colorblind = An idea and approach that “the evaluation, perception, and treatment of individuals is equal without the consideration of race and ethnicity information of those individuals. It assumes that all individuals are on a level playing field, and often ignores experiences of individual racism, structural racism, and other unique factors that occur on the basis of race.” (Committee on Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEM Organizations, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. “Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations: Beyond Broadening Participation.” Edited by Gilda A. Barabino, Susan T. Fiske, Layne A. Scherer, and Emily A. Vargas. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press) Progressives and civil rights advocates almost universally disapprove of this approach.
Colorblind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) = This scale assesses three cognitive aspects of colorblind racial attitudes: awareness of white racial privilege, acknowledgment of institutional racism, and attentiveness to blatant racism. CoBRAS is concerned with awareness of racial disparities and privilege. (Neville, Helen A., Lilly, Roderick L., Durham, Georgia, Lee, Richard M., and Browne, LaVonne. 2000. “Construction and Initial Validation of the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS).” Journal of Counseling Psychology 47 (1): 59–70)
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) = “Participatory research involves key stakeholders from the community and places high value on sharing methodological knowledge with participants. Not only does such an approach recognize and draw on the strengths and resources of a community, it also provides a long-term mechanism for creating sustainable change and building capacity.” (Hasnain, R.; Fujiura, G.T.; Capua, J.E.; Bui, T.T.T.; Khan, S. Disaggregating the Asian “Other”: Heterogeneity and Methodological Issues in Research on Asian Americans with Disabilities. Societies 2020, 10, 58)
Community bias = “To date, most of the research focusing on explicit and implicit racial attitudes has occurred at the individual level of analysis; however, the relationship with individual-level behaviors is tenuous. On the other hand, Payne and colleagues have shown that prejudice can take on a shared property at the community level. Members of a community—whether a city, metropolitan area, county, or even state—generally have similar social interactions, exposures to media, and collective experiences, all of which can shape their explicit and implicit attitudes. The collective experiences can influence how any one individual reacts to a particular situation, and therefore, contextual factors likely attenuate the relationship between bias and outcomes at the individual levels. However, when taken as a whole, aggregate responses should converge such that people within a given community respond in similar ways. In this way, prejudice represents a bias of the crowd.” (Cunningham GB, Wigfall LT (2020) Race, explicit racial attitudes, implicit racial attitudes, and COVID-19 cases and deaths: An analysis of counties in the United States. PLoS ONE 15(11): e0242044) An organization can be a community.
Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) = The CRA links regulators’ decisions to permit banks to expand with those banks’ record of lending to historically marginalized communities. To assess commercial banks’ compliance with the CRA’s community-lending mandate, the statute subjects banks to periodic examinations by their primary federal regulator. 12 USC §§ 2901-2908. The Act “require each appropriate Federal financial supervisory agency to use its authority when examining financial institutions, to encourage such institutions to help meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered.” 12 U.S.C. § 2903(a)(1). “The Act arose out of concerns that banks engage in redlining, or the practice of curtailing credit provision to neighborhoods that are seen as “high risk” — with that supposed risk closely correlated with the proportion of African American or other minority borrowers in that neighborhood.” (McBride, Stewart Dill. 1977. A Nation of Neighbors: Chicago’s West Side: How a Community Won the Redlining Battle. Christian Science Monitor, October 14) “there is little direct mention of race, ethnicity, or gender in the CRA. The exception is that regulators can consider a bank’s donation or sale on below-market terms of a branch to a minority- or woman-owned depository institution as a factor in that bank’s CRA evaluation. 12 U.S.C. § 2907(a). This provision was added to the CRA in 1991. See Resolution Trust Corporation Refinancing, Restructuring, and Improvement Act of 1991, Pub. L. 95-128, § 808, Dec. 12, 1991.”
Comparable worth = Proponents of comparable worth challenge the pattern of wages of women earning less than men, arguing that occupations dominated by female workers are paid less than comparable male-dominated jobs because of systematic discrimination against women. Under the concept of comparable worth, employers would be required to set wages and salaries to reflect differences in the “worth” of jobs, with worth largely determined by job evaluation studies, not by market forces. Advocates expect comparable worth to increase pay in jobs dominated by women and to sharply narrow the overall gender gap in wages. The campaign for comparable worth policies has generated controversy. Advocates of the concept also refer to it as “pay equity.” Opponents argue that comparable worth would reduce economic efficiency and would reduce employment opportunities for women.
Comparison group = “Impact evaluations estimate program effectiveness usually by comparing outcomes of those (individuals, communities, schools, etc) who participated in the program against those who did not participate. The key challenge in impact evaluation is finding a group of people who did not participate, but closely resemble the participants, and in particular, the participants if they had not received the program. Measuring outcomes in this comparison group is as close as we can get to measuring “how participants would have been otherwise.” Therefore, our estimate of impact is only as good as our comparison group is equivalent.
There are many methods of creating a comparison group. Some methods do a better job than others. All else equal, randomized evaluations do the best job. They generate a statistically identical comparison group, and therefore produce the most accurate (unbiased) results. Or stated more strongly: other methods often produce misleading results—results that would lead policymakers to make exactly the opposite decision relative to where the truth would have directed them.
These other methods don’t always give us the wrong answer, but they rely on more assumptions. When the assumptions hold, the answer is unbiased. But it is usually impossible, and always difficult, to ensure that the assumptions are true. In fact, it is likely that most debates about the validity of an evaluation are fueled by disagreements over whether these assumptions are reasonable.” (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab; MIT)
Communities of concern = In transportation planning, “communities of concern” are defined at the census tract or block level according to some guidance from Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but the methodology differs across metropolitan planning organizations, state transportation departments, and public transit agencies (Ezike, Tatian, and Velasco; Defining Communities of Concern; Urban Institute; 2020)
Co-production = The process is generically described as one that ‘‘brings together diverse groups to iteratively create new knowledge and practices,’’ whether to generate actionable knowledge or spur the redistribution of power and societal transformation.’’ Co- production is a methodology that leverages the expertise of practitioners and community members to develop holistic solutions to multifaceted problems at the intersection of society and the environment. By fostering collaboration and integrating diverse perspectives, co-production enables a deeper understanding of causes and potential remedies of environmental stressors. (Community Engagement: An Essential Component; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
Control = “In clinical trial jargon, the term “control” refers to a person unexposed to the test treatment or intervention under study. A control may be on a placebo or on a reference treatment.” (Misra S. Randomized double blind placebo control studies, the “Gold Standard” in intervention based studies. Indian J Sex Transm Dis AIDS. 2012 Jul;33(2):131-134. doi: 10.4103/0253-7184.102130. PMID: 23188942; PMCID: PMC3505292)
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Movement = Some see CSR as simply philanthropy by a different name, but it can be defined broadly as the efforts corporations make above and beyond regulation to balance the needs of stakeholders with the need to make a profit. Traces of modern-day CSR can be found in the social auditing movement of the 1970s. Corporate Social Responsibility embraces three main concepts—reputation, accountability and transparency. A widely quoted definition by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development states that “Corporate social responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.” Corporate Social Responsibility is the overall relationship of the corporation with all of its stakeholders and the larger society. These include customers, employees, communities, owners/investors, government, suppliers and competitors. Elements of social responsibility include investment in community outreach, employee relations, creation and maintenance of employment, environmental stewardship and financial performance. It can include developing and implementing ethical and sustainable business or manufacturing processes, championing diversity-inclusion, enhancing corporate reputation and employer brand through philanthropic endeavors, investing in alternative energies, etc. We maintain that corporate social responsibility includes diversity, ethics, and sustainability.
Correspondence studies = A way of studying the existence of discrimination, as opposed to audit studies. Audit testing for discrimination has been criticized because applicants from different groups may not appear identical to employers. Correspondence studies address this criticism by using fictitious paper applicants whose qualifications can be made identical across groups. “Evidence of group differences in outcomes – for example, blacks getting fewer job offers than whites – is generally viewed as compelling evidence of discrimination.” (David Neumark; Detecting Discrimination in Audit and Correspondence Studies; Discussion Paper No. 5263; October 2010; Institute for the Study of Labor)
Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses compare a program’s outputs or outcomes with the costs to produce them. One method of cost-effectiveness, that used by MIT’s Poverty Action Lab, “shows the impact against a specific policy goal that can be achieved for a given expenditure (e.g. additional years of education per $100 spent). All the impact estimates are based on the evidence from rigorous randomized evaluations. A number of judgment calls have to be made about how to measure costs and benefits. In most cases there is no single “right” answer—different approaches are appropriate in different contexts (for example which exchange rate or discount rate to use will depend on whether it is an international donor or developing country government that is making the decision about what to invest in).”
This type of analysis conforms with program evaluation when applied systematically to existing programs and when measurable outputs and outcomes are monetized. Program evaluations are retrospective, quantitative assessments of existing programs. The purpose of evaluation is not merely to comply with funding guidelines or to lend an air of legitimacy to a research and development effort. Rather, the goal is improvement. Program evaluation differs fundamentally from research in the purpose of data collection and standards for judging quality. Research aims to produce knowledge and truth. Useful evaluation supports action. A successful evaluation (one that is useful, practical, ethical, and accurate) emerges from the special characteristics and conditions of a particular situation — a mixture of people, politics, history, context, resources, constraints, values, needs, interests, and chance.
Counter-storytelling = A type of narrative change in admissions and hiring, reframing the purpose of admissions, shifting the focus to awarding the assets offered by structurally excluded applicants rather than fighting against deficit narratives. (Delgado R, Stefancic J.Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. 3rded. NYUPress; 2017)
Cultural Competence = A set of congruent and effective behaviors, actions, attitudes, and policies that function in a workplace, system, agency, among workers, and other people to enable effective work in cross-cultural and inter-cultural situations. It reflects the ability to acquire and use knowledge of the beliefs, attitudes, practices and communication patterns of employees, residents, clients, students, etc. and their families to improve work, services, strengthen programs, increase community participation, and close the gaps in status, power, and understanding among diverse population groups. (Derived from Cross et al; Definitions of Cultural Competence; Georgetown University; 1989)
Cultural norms = “The standards we live by. They are the shared expectations and rules that guide behavior of people within social groups…Norms often differ across cultures, contributing to cross-cultural misunderstandings.” (Winston Sieck; Cultural Norms: Do they Matter? Global Cognition; Sept. 11, 2021) Some organizations care a lot about their cultural norms, insisting on strong conformity to them. They reflect “cultural tightness.”
DAC = Disadvantaged communities. Term used in Justice40 Initiative, under Executive Order (EO) 14008 “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” The Justice40 goal to deliver 40 percent of the benefits of certain Federal investments – including in climate and environment, health, and economic opportunity – to disadvantaged communities.
Dark Data = “Hidden data, sometimes known as dark data, is collected and stored by an organization that is not actively used. IBM estimates that 80% of all data today is dark data. In many cases, it’s a wasted resource that many organizations don’t even know exists—even though it can account for more than half of an average organization’s data storage costs.” (FirstEigen; Autonomous Data Trust and Monitoring)
Dashboard = A reporting mechanism that aggregates and displays metrics and key indicators in one place so they can be examined at a glance by all users. Often colors and arrows are used. Dashboards allow numbers to be associated with the quality of data and are snapshot-in-time reports.
Data dictionaries = Define and clarify the meaning of each piece of data.
Data Ethics = Ethical issues that arise from recognizing that the evaluation of data collection, sharing, and use practices has the potential for adverse impacts. In order to minimize adverse impacts of data processes, ethical concerns should be addressed at all stages of the data life cycle: Data stewardship: the collection, maintenance, and sharing of data Information generation: using data to create products and services, analysis and insights, and stories or visualizations Data decision making: bringing together data with practical experience and knowledge to make informed policy or practice decisions. (Open Data Institute)
Data integration = Data sharing that includes identifiable information such as name, date of birth, social security number, so that records can be linked or integrated at the individual level.
Data-society interface = The ways in which the availability of new data, more data and new analytic methods are changing the social practices of individuals, groups, organizations and societies.
Deadweight = Being able to determine what would have happened anyway and is therefore not attributable to the program or initiative. The “do-nothing” alternative.
DEIA in Federal Workforce = in July 2021, President Biden issued an executive order to revitalize efforts to promote DEIA in the federal workforce. This order defines DEIA terms as follows:
- Diversity is “the practice of including the many communities, identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, cultures, and beliefs of the American people, including underserved communities.”
- Equity is “the consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment.”
- Inclusion is “the recognition, appreciation, and use of the talents and skills of employees of all backgrounds.”
- Accessibility is “the design, construction, development, and maintenance of facilities, information and communication technology, programs, and services so that all people, including people with disabilities, can fully and independently use them.”
DEIBJ = Diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice. A little-used acronym, among many others.
DEI, Conservative Definition = The 2024 version of Kentucky’s Senate Bill 6 defined DEI “initiatives” as policies or practices that promote “differential treatment or benefits to individuals on the basis of religion, race, sex, color or national origin.” Other initiatives would include trainings, presentations and meetings that promote “discriminatory concepts.” The bill also opposed, among other things, “presenting as truth, rather than as a subject for inquiry, that an existing structure, system, or relation of power, privilege, or subordination persists on the basis of oppression, colonialism, socioeconomic status, religion, race, sex, color, or national origin.” The bill further defined DEI “offices” as institutional units responsible for promoting these “discriminatory concepts” or DEI initiatives.
Delphi Techniques = A method of group decision-making and forecasting that involves successively collating the judgments of experts. “The Delphi technique is primarily used by researchers when the available knowledge is incomplete or subject to uncertainty and other methods that provide higher levels of evidence cannot be used. The aim is to collect expert-based judgments and often to use them to identify consensus…Delphi studies are typically carried out in two to three rounds with a deliberately selected panel of experts…This is based on the assumption that a group of experts and the multitude of associated perspectives will produce a more valid result than a judgment given by an individual expert, even if this expert is the best in his or her field.” (Marlen Niederberger and Julia Spranger; Delphi Technique in Health Sciences: A Map; Frontiers in Public Health; Sept. 22, 2020; “The quality of the evidence they produce depends on the inputs available to the experts (e.g. systematic reviews, experiments, qualitative studies, personal experience) and on the methods used to ascertain consensus”. (Jorm AF. Using the Delphi expert consensus method in mental health research. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. (2015) 49:887–97. doi: 10.1177/0004867415600891)
Demographics = The science of quantifying human populations. The figures come from surveys and censuses, such as the decennial US Census, and the American Community Survey, a sample taken every year. There are many other sources of demographic data, much of it based on surveys. Some is based on proxy measures. It is extremely helpful, and necessary for many planning purposes, to know basic facts about people and groups, such as their racial and ethnic identity, where they live, their income, and their health status.
Desert = “A normative concept pertaining to what one is morally owed. Desert is a notion central to the debate over affirmative action, as it is often unclear what applicants to societal institutions are owed. Advocates of affirmative action often claim minority applicants deserve different standards of evaluation than what is applied to other applicants. Critics of affirmative action claim that all applicants deserve to have identical standards applied to them.” (Deviant Philosopher; Normativity in Metaethics; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Diffusion score = An unusual measure used by the U.S. Census to show the percentage of the population that is not in the first-, second- or third-largest racial and ethnic groups combined. This metric tells us how diverse and unconcentrated the population is relative to the three largest groups. “This metric tells us how diverse and unconcentrated the population is relative to the three largest groups.
For example, the diffusion score for the United States was 7.7% in 2010, as 7.7% of the population was not one of the three largest racial or ethnic groups. When we look across the country, we see a lot of variation in the diffusion scores by state in 2010.
- The diffusion score was highest in Hawaii at 20.1%, indicating that one-fifth of the population was in a racial or ethnic group that was not one of the three largest groups for the state.
- The next highest diffusion score was for Alaska with 15.1%, followed by Oklahoma with 14.3%.
- The lowest diffusion score was in West Virginia at 2.1%.” (Measuring Racial and Ethnic Diversity for the 2020 Census; U.S. Census Bureau; no date; accessed 1/10/2022; https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/measuring-racial-ethnic-diversity-2020-census.html)
Disability = Formerly called “handicap.” Disability is much broader, deeper and more varied than most other diversity classes, except perhaps for religion. The types of accommodations are also different and more varied, including physical barrier lowering.
“Disability is a social category the boundaries of which are determined by the rule-based solidarity judgements of the disability rights movement.” (Review of Elizabeth Barnes’ The Minority Body; CM Lim – Mind, 2020)
Disability rights basics include the following:
- Self-Determination – People with disabilities are the most knowledgeable about their own needs. “Nothing About Us Without Us”.
- No “One Size Fits All“ – People with disabilities do not all require the same assistance and do not all have the same needs. No blanket determinations.
- Equal Opportunity – People with disabilities must have the same opportunities to benefit from programs, services, and activities as people without disabilities.
- Nondiscrimination. No discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived disability, or association with people with disabilities, or the existence of a prior disability.
- Inclusion and Participation– People with disabilities have the right to participate in and receive the benefits of programs, services, and activities provided by governments, private businesses, and nonprofit organizations.
- Integration – Programs, services, and activities typically must be provided in an integrated setting.
- Physical Accessibility – All programs, services, and activities must be provided at locations that all people can access, including people with disabilities. Work sites should be accessible.
- Program Accessibility – People with disabilities must be able to access and benefit from programs, services, and activities equal to the general population and other employees. This includes information technology, travel, and provision of interpretors.
- Effective Communication – People with disabilities must be effectively given information comparable in content and detail to that given to the general public, as well as accessible, understandable, and timely, and be able to communicate with the rest of the staff.
- Program Modifications – People with disabilities must have equal access to programs and services, which may entail modifications to rules, policies, practices, and procedures.
- Reasonable Accommodation. The interactive process, in work situations and job application.
- Essential Functions. People with disabilities must be able to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodations. In general, supervisors determine essential functions. Not all functions of a job are essential.
- No Charge – People with disabilities may not be charged to cover the costs of measures necessary to ensure equal access and nondiscriminatory treatment.
- No Paternalism.
- Self-Identification of Disability. And no retaliation or harassment for such self-identification. The records of such self-identification should be kept confidential, and separate from other human resources records.
- Recognition that there are many types and kinds of disability, including physical, mental, emotional mobility, cognitive, vision, hearing, hidden, invisible, and appearance. However, certain conditions are not disabilities under the law, such as pedophilia, fire starting, and some aspects of alcoholism and drug addiction. No accommodations are necessary to illegal acts.
- No Segregation. Workers with disabilities should not be separated. Under special circumstances, there are exceptions for sheltered workshops for people with certain disabilities. But even here, the separation would only be for purposes of a specific sheltered workshop, and not extend into spheres.
- No Fear or Stigma. Do not make assignments on the basis of what customers might or might not be afraid of or repelled by.
- No Assignment of Jobs on the Basis of Disability. (E.g., don’t assign only deaf employees to noisy environments.)
- In general, no changes to standards of conduct are necessary, unless they were discriminatory in the first place.
- In general, service dogs must be allowed on the worksite.
- A person with a disability is more than that disability.
- No personal or medical assistance is necessary for the employer to provide to the person with a disability. The employer does not have to pay for special transportation from residence to job site.
- Some federal contractors may be required to perform affirmative action to hire more people with disabilities, including obtaining and maintaining records.
- Various federal and state laws cover people with disabilities. These include the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act, Section 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Executive Order 11246, and many state nondiscrimination laws.
- Note that certain jobs may have physical requirements that may conflict with disability access and opportunity. These requirements must be job-related to actual duties required to be performed.
(1)Reasonable accommodation = For disability in employment purposes the term reasonable accommodation means modifications or adjustments:
(i) To a job application process that enable a qualified applicant with a disability to be considered for the position such applicant desires; or
(ii) To the work environment, or to the manner or circumstances under which the position held or desired is customarily performed, that enable a qualified individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of that position; or
(iii) That enable the contractor’s employee with a disability to enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment as are enjoyed by the contractor’s other similarly situated employees without disabilities.
(2) Reasonable accommodation may include but is not limited to:
(i) Making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities; and
(ii) Job restructuring; part-time or modified work schedules; reassignment to a vacant position; acquisition or modifications of equipment or devices; appropriate adjustments or modifications of examinations, training materials, or policies; the provision of qualified readers or interpreters; and other similar accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
(3) To determine the appropriate reasonable accommodation it may be necessary for the contractor to initiate an informal, interactive process with the qualified individual with a disability in need of the accommodation. This process should identify the precise limitations resulting from the disability and potential reasonable accommodations that could overcome those limitations. (Appendix A of this part provides guidance on a contractor’s duty to provide reasonable accommodation.)
(4) Individuals who meet the definition of “disability” solely under the “regarded as” prong of the definition of “disability” as defined in paragraph (w)(1) of this section are not entitled to receive reasonable accommodation.
- An employer’s duty to provide a reasonable accommodation with respect to applicants with disabilities is not limited to those who ultimately demonstrate that they are qualified to perform the job in issue.
- Applicants with disabilities must be provided a reasonable accommodation with respect to the application process if they are qualified with respect to that process (e.g., if they present themselves at the correct location and time to fill out an application).
- Before providing a reasonable accommodation, the employer is strongly encouraged to verify with the individual with a disability that the accommodation will effectively meet the individual’s needs.
Disability Equality Index = Produced by the American Association of People with Disabilities and the U.S. Business and Leadership Network, uses survey data on organizational culture, employment practices and support services to rank companies with respect to their treatment of disabled employees.
Disability Studies = A field of study that examines the experience of disability from a spectrum of “truths”. People living with disability and their experiences are integral to what we learn and understand. Disability Studies scholars are lawyers, philosophers, social workers, medical professionals, public health officials, educators, artists, anthropologists, architects, and more. Scholars are encouraged to think inclusively and creatively. The deconstruction of assumed knowledge, stigma, and bias are integral to the field with a focus on unraveling the boundaries between “normal” and “abnormal” and what these terms actually mean. Disability is understood to be conditional to environmental and social factors as well as physical, cognitive, and mental factors (. The term “disability” has not remained stable throughout history and will likely continue to change. This is an important facet of disability. (Adams, Reiss, and Serlin; 2015; Center for Disability Studies; University of Texas)
Disadvantage =
- Transportation access disadvantage identifies communities and places that spend more, and take longer, to get where they need to go. (4)
- Health disadvantage identifies communities based on variables associated with adverse health outcomes, disability, as well as environmental exposures. (3)
- Environmental disadvantage identifies communities with disproportionately high levels of certain air pollutants and high potential presence of lead-based paint in housing units. (6)
- Economic disadvantage identifies areas and populations with high poverty, low wealth, lack of local jobs, low homeownership, low educational attainment, and high inequality. (7)
- Resilience disadvantage identifies communities vulnerable to hazards caused by climate change. (1)
- Equity disadvantage identifies communities with a with a high percentile of persons (age 5+) who speak English “less than well.” (1)
Data Sources for above references:
- U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey (ACS) 5 Year Estimates 2015-2019. 2019.
- Center for Disease Control. Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2021 Oct 20].
- EPA Smart Locations- Smart Location Mapping | US EPA
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EJSCREEN: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2021 May 5].
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency. National Risk Index [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2022 Jan 6].
- HUD Exchange 3.0 Location Affordability Index – HUD Exchange
- FEMA Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (GINI Index) – FEMA.gov/RAPT
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) = See also M/WBE. A term used to refer to certified women and minority owned businesses. MBE stands for Minority Business Enterprise, and WBE stands for Women Business Enterprise.
Disadvantaged communities = A census tract is identified as “disadvantaged” if it lies above the threshold for one or more environmental or climate indicators (such as climate change, clean transit, or health burdens) and if the census tract is above the thresholds for the socioeconomic indicators (such as if the tract is at or above the 65th percentile for low income or if 80 percent or more of individuals age 15 or older in the tract are not enrolled in higher education). For more information, explore the interactive map or methodology. Other terms used to describe communities with similar characteristics include environmental justice communities, overburdened communities, equity priority communities, and communities of concern (Ezike, Tatian, and Velasco 2020). (“Explore the Map—Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool,” Council on Environmental Quality, accessed July 25, 2022. “Methodology,” Council on Environmental Quality. Marisa Sotolongo, “Justice40 and Community Definition: How Much of the U.S. Population Is Living in a ‘Disadvantaged Community’?,” Initiative for Energy Justice, accessed July 25, 2022, “What are Overburdened Communities (OBC)?,” New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, accessed July 25, 2022, “Equity Priority Communities,” Metropolitan Transportation Commission, accessed July 25, 2022)
Discriminate against = The Supreme Court has explained that this refers to “differences in treatment that injure” employees. (Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644, 681)
Disparity = A significant difference between two measured things, in regard to some characteristic. Disparity is, legally, the trigger for requiring the inquiry into all aspects of validity of a decision or circumstance. The intended and unintended consequences of the decision process should be examined, and the evidence supporting or disconfirming each of those intended or unintended consequences.
Disparity study = “A disparity study is an in-depth analysis of what types of businesses an entity spends money with to determine if any groups are underrepresented.” (Washington State Government; Tools for Equity in Public Spending; January 2022)
Displacement = The possibility that some benefits for one group due to the initiative occur to the detriment of another group.
Disproportionality = The overrepresentation or underrepresentation of a racial or ethnic group compared with its percentage in the total population.
Dissimilarity Index = A measure of residential segregation. It’s the percentage of a group that would have to move for that group to be evenly distributed across a metropolitan area. For example, African-Americans in New York City have a Dissimilarity Index of 81, meaning that 81% of New York’s Black population would have to move in order to achieve an equal integration rate. Metro/Micro level statistic that builds up from tract” level (“neighborhood level”) data. It is used to summarize segregation or integration of two groups (e.g. Black, White). The Index can have a value from zero (0) to one (1), with zero representing complete integration and one representing complete segregation. It can be loosely interpreted as the percentage of one group that would need to move in order for each census tract to match the demographic composition of the entire geographic area.
Diverse applicant pool = There are a number of ways to approach the issue of obtaining a diverse applicant pool for an organization. One approach depends on a “big tent” theory– that the employment in a national organization should reflect the country– “should look like America.” One would need to know the current employee composition of the organization, disaggregated in a number of ways, including protected classes, job classification, and major divisions of the organization, perhaps geographically.
Another way is to try to redress historical wrongs and employ members of traditionally underrepresented and discriminated against groups. This depends on protected classes under federal law. One should look at previous discrimination complaints and lawsuits against the organization, including settlement agreements and affirmative action plans. What do these require? Are those requirements being fulfilled? What do the organization’s regulators require? Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs? Dodd-Frank? SEC? EEOC? What has been the feedback, input, and criticism from the organization’s client base? Customers? Stakeholder groups? National advocacy and special interest organizations?
More specific systems involve looking at potential applicant pool analysis, compared to the qualifications of the job being worked on. For example, if you’re hiring PhDs in physics, the composition of the potential applicant pool is far different from hiring entry level data entry staff. An even more restricted approach is to look at the applicant pool and ask if adequate and targeted outreach and recruitment were done. A similarly restrictive approach is to just ask if the basic EEO procedures were in place– availability of reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities, nondiscrimination statements, etc.
One can take a top down approach, and ask, does this slate of candidates reflect the needs and action items in the organization’s diversity plan? Does the slate of candidates make real the diversity-oriented words of the organization on its website?
One can also compare a number of slates of candidates and see where commonalities and problems are. For example, one division might mysteriously almost always have slates of candidates with no minorities and no women and no people with disabilities on them. Another division has diverse and well-represented slates. Why is that? Some differences will be random, others are caused by discrimination, others by lack of effort in outreach and recruitment.
Diverse candidate = A job applicant who meets legal or organizationally decided upon criteria as a member of a protected class or demographic class of people targeted for recruitment or which has been identified as underrepresented.
Diversity Action Plans = Food and Drug Administration term. Diversity Action Plans support certain clinical studies. They are intended to increase clinical study enrollment of participants of historically underrepresented populations to help improve the data the agency receives about the patients who may potentially use the medical product. Diversity Action Plans must specify the sponsor’s rationale and goals for clinical study enrollment (separated by the age, group, sex, and racial and ethnic demographic characteristics of clinically relevant study populations) and describe how the sponsor intends to meet those goals. The guidance also encourages sponsors to consider additional factors relating to the representativeness and enrollment of the clinical trial population that extend beyond age, sex, ethnicity, and race to enroll populations. For example, a sponsor developing a Diversity Action Plan should also consider the potential that pregnant or lactating individuals with the condition or disease may use the medical product. (Food and Drug Administration)
Diversity fatigue = “The concept of “Diversity Fatigue” first appeared in 1990, when the equality of opportunities became a significant corporate concern. Today, Diversity Fatigue is pervasive–the result of the feelings of exhaustion, disconnection, and sometimes skepticism associated with understanding and addressing numerous complex social and DEI issues. It has been heightened by the pandemic, climate change, racism, political and power and wealth disparities. From George Floyd’s murder and the protests following to environmental disasters and Covid’s toll, recent events have taken an emotional toll. So much information is negative or overwhelming that many of us are avoiding the news entirely as a means of self-preservation.
In organizations that do a lot of diversity talk but do not walk the walk, people become disconnected with discussions that seem hollow. Deep sighs of exhaustion can be heard from DEI practitioners who feel the fight for equality is losing steam. While some organizations are taking strong stances with loud voices to promote social justice and inclusion, many have gone quiet and accepted a stance of performative activism. Some practitioners have the privilege to take a restorative pause; others cannot take that break. This is their life.” (Inclusion Allies Coalition; 12/4/2022; e-mail)
Diversity hire = (Also called Affirmative Action hire) The perception that a person was hired because of their membership in a targeted group, rather than on merit. Part of diversity metrics is protective in that it includes making sure that hires and other employment actions are based on merit, facts, and evidence, rather than bias, prejudice, or a misplaced desire to be “helpful.”
Diversity index (Census) = This index shows the probability that two people chosen at random will be from different race and ethnic groups. The DI is bounded between 0 and 1, with a zero-value indicating that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics, while a value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different characteristics.
Diversity indices [Diversity index] = Fasenfest, Booza and Metzger have created a neighborhood integration typology that labels a neighborhood integrated whenever a minority group is at least 10% of the population. Galster, on the other hand, has incorporated the notion of stability into his definition of integration, so that neighborhood diversity is measured over a series of years. A number of other researchers have begun using the Entropy Index, a popular measure of diversity in ecology, to look at neighborhood diversity…The Entropy Index ranges from 0 to 1, where a value of 0 is homogeneous and value of 1 is completely heterogeneous. Complete heterogeneity means that all categories measured are equally represented; a neighborhood that is 20% white, 20% African-American, 20% Hispanic, 20% Asian Pacific Islander and 20% other race would have a Race Entropy Index score of 1.
“Since 2003, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has employed a race-neutral “diversity index.” Under that plan, parents may apply to have their children attend any school in the district. If a school is oversubscribed, then a “diversity index lottery” is employed to select from among applicants in such a way as to promote diversity, primarily with respect to socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Details of the assignment process have been modified from time to time. Presently, the index relies on five factors: extreme poverty (whether the student is living in public housing, is in foster care, or is from a family participating in a homeless program); socioeconomic status (whether the student participates in free/reduced price lunch, CalWORKS, and/or public housing programs); home language (whether other than English); the academic performance rank of the student’s prior school; and the student’s most recent prior standardized test score (whether below the 30th percentile). The goal of the SFUSD assignment process is to maximize within-school variation in students’ profiles across these five factors.” (Robert L. Linn and Kevin G. Welner, Editors; Race-Conscious Policies for Assigning Students to Schools: Social Science Research and the Supreme Court Cases; National Academy of Education; Committee on Social Science Research Evidence on Racial Diversity in Schools; 2007)
Another diversity index (DI) is that used by the U.S. Census Bureau. This index shows the probability that two people chosen at random will be from different race and ethnic groups. The DI is bounded between 0 and 1, with a zero-value indicating that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics, while a value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different characteristics. The DI for data from the 2010 Census shows how the index can vary based on the distribution of the population by race and ethnicity. In 2010, there was a 54.9% chance that two people chosen at random from the U.S. population would be from different race or ethnicity groups. In 2010, the DI varied greatly by state. Among all states, the DI ranged from a low of 10.8% in Maine to a high of 75.1% in Hawaii.
Diversity management (DM) = “A management idea which is underpinned by a belief that managing difference in the workplace can contribute to organizational performance. It can be defined simply as a management philosophy of recognizing and valuing heterogeneity in organizations with a view to improve organizational performance.” (Wright et al. 1995; Gilbert, Stead, and Ivancevich 1999; Orlando et al. 2004). (Ruth Bridgstock, Fiona Lettice, Mustafa F. Özbilgin & Ahu Tatli (2010) Diversity management for innovation in social enterprises in the UK, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 22:6, 557574, DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2010.488404)
Diversity training = “The notion of diversity training encompasses a wide category of interventions that are “designed to attack bias” among managers and workers. More generally, diversity trainings take place both in and outside of the workplace, using “a distinct set of instructional programs aimed at facilitating positive intergroup interactions, reducing prejudice and discrimination, and enhancing the skills, knowledge, and motivation of participants to interact with diverse others”. Under this definition, previous reviews describing the positive effects of diversity training have included a startlingly wide range of interventions…Several kinds of theories have inspired diversity training curricula. Some curricula rely on contact theory, and they bring diverse trainers or diverse members of an organization into communication with others in the organization. Other approaches rely on theories of cognitive and value-based consistency to motivate personal change by offering presumably well-intentioned trainees personalized information about their bias; still others rely on behavioral insights about the efficacy of providing concrete strategies by which trainees can debias their decisions and behaviors.” (Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Roni Porat, Chelsey S. Clark, and Donald P. Green; Prejudice Reduction: Progress and Challenges; Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2021. 72:533–60;
Econometric Decomposition Analysis = Ronald Oaxaca (1973) and Alan Blinder (1973) introduced a statistical tool that enables social scientists to identify the ability of a particular observable characteristic to explain the difference in the outcomes of two groups (e.g., the black-white wage gap). The tool, known as a decomposition, provides an estimate of the contribution of discrimination to the difference in the outcomes of the two groups. Prior to Oaxaca and Blinder’s innovation, researchers were only able to identify collective contribution of all observable differences in the characteristics of two groups. The decomposition has become a required tool in many social science disciplines. It is used to explain pay differences between men and women, public and private sector workers, union and nonunion workers. Most recently, the decomposition has been applied to explaining pay differences between older and younger workers, people with disabilities and those without disabilities, and the pay disadvantage that gays, lesbians, and bisexuals experience…Oaxaca (1973) combines log-earnings function estimates for blacks and whites and standardizes the error term to construct the following expression: where the Dt denotes the total log earnings differential. On the right-hand side, the first term is the explained gap (the portion explained by differences in measured characteristics). The second term is the residual gap (the portion attributed to differences in rates of compensation to the characteristics). The remaining two terms are generally ignored, as the decomposition is usually done at the means; otherwise, the sum of the last three terms is considered the residual gap. The residual gap is interpreted as the contribution of discrimination and characteristics that have been excluded from the model. These characteristics both predict wages and are correlated with race.
Interpreting the residual gap as discrimination requires that the model contain all of the factors that predict wages. Otherwise, discrimination’s estimated contribution is biased.” (Adams, Scott, and David Neumark. 2006. Age Discrimination in U.S. Labor Markets: A Review of the Evidence. In Handbook on the Economics of Discrimination, ed. William M. Rodgers III, 187–214. Northampton, MA: Edgar Elgar)
EEO-1 = Beginning in 1966 all employers with 100 or more employees (lower thresholds apply to federal contractors) have been required by law to file the Employer Information Report EEO-1 with the EEOC. In FY 2014 approximately 70,000 employers filed an EEO-1. These forms show the composition of an employer’s workforces by sex and by race/ethnicity. More information about the EEO-1 survey and the associated reports can be found at www.eeoc.gov. Employment totals and subgroup aggregates were generated from four types of reports: single establishment report (Type 1 Report), headquarters report (Type 3 Report), multiple establishment report with at least 50 workers (Type 4 report), and multiple establishment report with fewer than 50 workers (Type 8 Report).
Effectiveness = The extent to which a project’s objectives were achieved, or are expected to be achieved, taking into account their relative importance. It is used as an aggregate measure of (or judgment about) the merit or worth of an activity, i.e., the extent to which a project has attained, or is expected to attain, its major relevant objectives efficiently in a sustainable way and with a positive impact.
Effect size = The size of the difference in results between the two sample sets. It indicates practical significance. If there is a small effect size, you’ll need a very large sample size to determine whether that difference is significant or just due to chance. However, if you observe a very large effect on your numbers, you’ll be able to validate it with a smaller sample size to a higher degree of confidence.
Efficacy = A positive answer to the question, “Does it work?” often gives rise to the following question: Is there any better way to obtain the same results? Efficacy is concerned with the evaluation of alternative paths or methods in terms of cost and money, time, personnel, and public convenience. In a sense, it represents the ratio between effort and performance, output divided by input.
Efficiency = A measure of how well economic resources/inputs (funds, expertise, time, etc.) are converted to results or outputs. It is concerned with producing the greatest total social value (as determined subjectively by individuals and as measured by economists either in markets or by using non-market methods) for the least possible social cost. It is achieved when all resources are in their most productive use (production efficiency), no mutually beneficial trades of goods and services are possible (exchange efficiency), and net value is maximized. No reallocation of resources or consumption can result in an increase in total value net of cost. (NOAA)
Employment equity analysis compares representation and distribution of employees in a workplace with the availability of workers in relevant labor markets to investigate underrepresentation. Internal availability data may show whether qualified and interested members of underrepresented groups are present in the organization but have not been promoted. External availability data may disclose the presence of qualified persons in labor markets from which the employer might reasonably draw in hiring. In a human rights context, availability analysis demonstrates whether the organization could have made staffing decisions that would produce a more representative workforce, but did not. Data deficiencies often pose constraints in using statistical evidence. Relevant organizational data may not be available. Lack of adequate data need identification, acquisition, and analysis may be a root cause of lack of diversity. Such lacks are fixable.
Entertainment = “[A] category of interventions that seek to leverage the power of narrative or artistic transportation to overcome natural human tendencies to counterargue messages or resist persuasion attempts.Narrative transportation refers to a psychological phenomenon whereby individuals are carried away by a story, causing them to let down their tendency to question, critique, or counterargue.” (Paluck, op cit)
Equal Employment Opportunity = A term often used by the federal government to refer to employment practices that ensure fairness and nondiscrimination in all aspects of employment, with an emphasis on legal and compliance requirements. A major principle behind EEO is fairness in access to opportunities.
Equal opportunity = The level playing field. Where all personnel activities are conducted so as to assure equal access in all phases of the employment process. Employment decisions are based solely on the individual merit and fitness of applicants and employees related to specific jobs, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, or marital status.
Equity = A fundamental consideration in public life. Equity means that access to all aspects of a community (including employment, health, housing, safety, open space, transport and economic development) is fair to all residents regardless of socioeconomic status, race, cultural background, national origin, gender, age or disability. Equity in health implies that ideally everyone should have a fair opportunity to attain their full potential and, more pragmatically, that no one should be disadvantaged from achieving this potential. Equity is concerned with creating opportunities and bringing disparities down to the lowest levels possible. Equity is about inclusion, trying to make sure that we have an economy that can benefit everyone who is willing to work and participate in it.” (Manuel Pastor) Equity includes
• Freedom from discrimination, bias or favoritism
• Focusing on the most disadvantaged –poorest, excluded, discriminated
• Interrupting the inter-generational cycles of deprivation.
Equity includes interventions addressing the causes of inequity and aimed at improving the well-being of all, focusing especially on accelerating the rate of progress in improving the well-being of the worst-off.
Equity is distinguished from equality. The aim of equity-focused policies is not to eliminate all differences so that everyone has the same level of income, health, and education. Rather, the goal is to eliminate the unfair and avoidable circumstances that deprive people of their rights. Inequities generally arise when certain population groups are unfairly deprived of basic resources that are available to other groups. “A disparity is ‘unfair’ or ‘unjust’ when its cause is due to the social context, rather than to biological factors. While the concept of equity is universal, the causes and consequences of inequity vary across cultures, countries, and communities. Inequity is rooted in a complex range of political, social, and economic factors that include but are by no means limited to: gender discrimination; ethnic, linguistic, minority, and religious discrimination; discrimination due to disability status; structural poverty; natural or man-made disasters; geographic isolation; cultural and social norms; and weak governance.” (How to design and manage equity-focused evaluations; UNICEF)
Equity audit = Also known as a representivity audit) has a deep history in civil rights enforcement in the U.S. and other nations (for example, Scotland, Great Britain, and Australia) in a variety of arenas including, but not limited to, education. For example, corporations and governmental entities may commonly conduct (or are subject to) employment equity audits, health equity audits, pay equity audits, gender equity audits, and technology equity audits, among others. An equity audit is used to identify the differential needs of targeted population groups usually in local areas and to set priorities. It would be conducted during the needs assessment and planning stages. See also “Cultural audit.”
Equity Lens = An equity lens refers to a metaphorical pair of glasses that ensures people ask who will benefit? It is applied throughout the planning and development cycle to ensure that a proposal is developed, implemented and evaluated, taking proper account of equity, avoiding making things worse for vulnerable and marginalized communities, and making things better where possible.
The purpose of an equity lens is to be deliberately inclusive as an organization makes decisions. It introduces a set of questions into the decisionmaking process that helps analysts and decision makers focus on equity. It is explicit in drawing attention to the inclusion of marginalized people.
Questions typically asked in an Equity Lens include the following:
- What decision is being made?
- What is the history behind the matter to be decided on?
- What are the existing disparities among demographic subgroups?
- What is the history of investment and resource allocation?
- What beliefs, values and assumptions guide how the topic is being considered?
- What assumptions have my organization made about the needs, wants, and desires of vulnerable and marginalized people in our service area? Have we thought about this?
- Has implicit bias been avoided?
- How are we collecting data on race, ethnicity, native language, and other diversity categories?
- Does the equity lens cause us to add groups we have not previously considered?
- Who is at the table?
- Who or what informs their thinking on the issue?
- Who is most affected by these decisions, and should be at the table?
- What is their thinking about the issues under discussion?
- How can they be included?
- How is the decision being made?
- What participatory structures can be added to hear from more voices and to equalize participation?
Equity weighting = As aspect of cost-benefit analysis that incorporates weights into existing cost-benefit analyses so the review process acknowledges that costs and benefits affect some demographic groups more adversely than others because of systemic disadvantages and privileges. Weighting is most commonly used to account for a policy’s effect on income inequality but can be controversial when applied to racial or ethnic groups because it would mean explicitly valuing one group more than another in the cost-benefit analysis. The concept includes conducting distributional cost-benefit analysis, which measures a policy change’s impact on the benefits and costs of different groups in addition to calculating total net benefits. Distributional cost-benefit analysis aimed at racial equity would require additional statistical modeling and assumptions about the impact of proposed regulations on different racial and ethnic groups to determine whether one demographic group was disproportionately harmed by the policy change. Understanding how a policy affects different groups can help policymakers assess the trade-offs or complementarities between increasing net benefits and advancing racial equity.
ESG = Environmental, social, and governance criteria. A set of standards for an organization’s actions used by socially conscious investors to screen potential investments. “Environmental criteria consider how a company safeguards the environment, including corporate policies addressing climate change, for example. Social criteria examine how it manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities where it operates. Governance deals with a company’s leadership, executive pay, audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights.”(Investopedia Team; What is Environmental, Social, and Governance Investing? Investopedia; September 27, 2022)
Ethnic fractionalization index = Corresponds to the probability that two randomly drawn individuals are not from the same ethnic group. Its theoretical maximum is reached (at the value of 1) when each person belongs to a different group.
European Civic Citizenship and Inclusion Index = Produced by the British Council, considers anti-discrimination, family reunion and naturalization policies.
Evaluation = The process of determining the value or amount of success in the achievement of predetermined objectives. This includes at least the following steps:
formulation of the objectives;
identification of the proper criteria to be used in measuring success;
determination and explanation of the degree of success; and
recommendations for future program activities.
Evaluation is the systematic and objective assessment of an on-going or completed project, program, or policy, including its design, implementation, and results. The aim is to determine the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability.
An organization should
gauge whether initiatives are on track to meet their stated goals;
identify necessary adjustments to strategy; and
ultimately assess return on investment.
Identify what works and what doesn’t in complex initiative design;
improve its ability to develop and manage program initiatives; and
make the organization more effective.
“Explicit racial attitudes are those of which people are aware and that they consciously, deliberately maintain. This form of bias is consistent with the notion that prejudice represents negative attitudes held toward a group of people or those presumed to be in that group. Explicit racial bias might take the form of racial slurs or holding negative attitudes toward racial minorities. In much of the US, publicly espousing explicit racial prejudice is contrary to social norms; nevertheless, people still do harbor such attitudes and, in some cases, openly express them.” (Cunningham GB, Wigfall LT (2020) Race, explicit racial attitudes, implicit racial attitudes, and COVID-19 cases and deaths: An analysis of counties in the United States. PLoS ONE 15(11): e0242044)
Extended and imagined contact = [I]ntervention approaches derived from the original contact hypothesis, intended for contexts in which face-to-face contact between members of different groups is deemed difficult or impossible (e.g., in active conflict zones). For these contexts, scholars hypothesized that similar positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes could be achieved by indirect methods of contact, such as second-hand or imagined contact. The theory of second-hand, or extended, contact (Wright et al. 1997) is akin to theories of source credibility (Hocevar et al. 2017), insofar as it posits that learning about an ingroup member’s friendship with an outgroup member will reduce prejudice toward that outgroup. Over the past decade, the majority of studies testing the extended contact hypothesis used fictional friends or characters in books or movies that belong to the same ingroup as the audience member to test whether the fictional character’s contact with an outgroup member would reduce prejudice.” (Paluck, op cit)
Externalities = Actions by one or more persons, firms, or households that affect third parties and for which the third parties don’t pay (in the case where the effect is a benefit) or are not reimbursed (in the case where the effect is a cost). “An externality occurs when one party’s actions impose uncompensated benefits or costs on another party. Environmental problems are a classic case of externality. For example, the smoke from a factory may adversely affect the health of local residents while soiling the property in nearby neighborhoods. If bargaining was costless and all property rights were well defined, people would eliminate externalities through bargaining without the need for government regulation. From this perspective, externalities arise from high transaction costs and/or poorly defined property rights that prevent people from reaching efficient outcomes through market transactions.” (Final Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) for the NO2 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS); EPA; Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards;Health and Environmental Impact Division; Air Benefit‐Cost Group; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; January 2010)
Face-to-face = Allport (1954, p. 281) first proposed that contact between members of groups may reduce prejudice given “equal status contact between majority and minority groups in the pursuit of common goals. The effect is predicted to be enhanced if this contact is sanctioned by institutional supports (i.e., by law, custom, or local atmosphere), and provided it is of a sort that leads to the perception of common interests and common humanity between members of the two groups.” See also “Contact Theory”
Fairness = Fairness is a multifaceted, context-dependent social construct that defies simple definition. It can be looked at through the lens of distributive justice. We often are seeking social welfare maximization. Predictions and fairness constraints are seen as shaping societal welfare and distribution and revealing individuals’ implied welfare weights in society–weights that may then be interpreted through a fairness lens. The social welfare formulation of the fairness problem brings to the fore concerns of distributive justice that have always had a central albeit more implicit role in standard algorithmic fairness approaches. Amartya Sen noted that since nearly all theories of fairness are founded on an equality of some sort, the heart of the issue rests on clarifying the “equality of what?” problem. Questions include equality of outcomes, equality of treatment, equal mistreatment rates, or only avoiding some intolerable level of discrimination. We can compare different metrics, including probability distributions, error likelihoods, and classification rates. Each method of assuring different types of fairness has a cost, including in predictive accuracy and utility. Fairness should increase social welfare, extending to the welfare of individuals. The social planner’s problem is to maximize consumer welfare given technology and resource constraints. There can be tensions between shared societal norms and ideals and a decision-maker’s private goals and interests. The organization’s goals may also not be compatible with either social norms or individual or group welfare. An organization typically wants to minimize risk. Different individuals and demographic groups may create different risks to an organization. What is the “safe” decision? How to avoid harming the organization? Discrimination is a cost, but so also is an organization’s dealing with complaints of discrimination.
Fair Treatment = The conduct of a program, policy, practice, or activity by a Federal agency in a manner that ensures that no group of individuals (including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups) experience a disproportionate burden of adverse human health or environmental effects resulting from such program, policy, practice, or activity, as determined through consultation with, and with the meaningful participation of, individuals from the communities affected by a program, policy, practice, or activity of a Federal agency. (2023; U.S. Senate; Environmental Justice bill)
FARMS = Students who receive Free and Reduced-price Meals (FARMs)
FIRE Scale = For determining racial resentment and white’s underlying racial attitudes toward non-whites. FIRE is an acronym for fear, acknowledgment of institutional racism, and racial empathy. The four major questions include the following:
I am fearful of people of other races.
White people in the US have certain advantages because of the color of their skin.
Racial problems in the US are rare, isolated situations.
I am angry that racism exists.
(DeSante, C., & Smith, C. (2020). Fear, Institutionalized Racism, and Empathy: The Underlying Dimensions of Whites’ Racial Attitudes. PS: Political Science & Politics, 53(4), 639-645. doi:10.1017/S1049096520000414)
Four-fifths Rule = A rule of thumb to help determine if employment procedures result in discrimination. “The four-fifths rule is merely a rule of thumb. As noted in the Guidelines [Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, EEOC, 1979; https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/questions-and-answers-clarify-and-provide-common-interpretation-uniform-guidelines] themselves, the four-fifths rule may be inappropriate under certain circumstances. For example, smaller differences in selection rates may indicate adverse impact where a procedure is used to make a large number of selections, or where an employer’s actions have discouraged individuals from applying disproportionately on grounds of a Title VII-protected characteristic. The four-fifths rule is a “practical and easy-to-administer” test that may be used to draw an initial inference that the selection rates for two groups may be substantially different, and to prompt employers to acquire additional information about the procedure in question.
Courts have agreed that use of the four-fifths rule is not always appropriate, especially where it is not a reasonable substitute for a test of statistical significance. As a result, the EEOC might not consider compliance with the rule sufficient to show that a particular selection procedure is lawful under Title VII when the procedure is challenged in a charge of discrimination…See 29 C.F.R. § 1607.4(D); see also Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, 43 Fed. Reg. 38,290, 38,291 (Aug. 25, 1978) (referring to the four-fifths rule as a “rule of thumb”); id. at 38,291 (explaining why the four-fifths rule was adopted as a “rule of thumb”); Questions and Answers, supra note 13, at Q&A 20 (answering the question of why the four-fifths rule is called a “rule of thumb”)… See, e.g., Isabel v. City of Memphis, 404 F.3d 404, 412 (6th Cir. 2005) (rejecting the argument that “a test’s compliance with the four fifths rule definitively establishes the absence of adverse impact.”); Jones v. City of Boston, 752 F.3d 38, 46–54 (1st Cir. 2014) (rejecting the use of the four-fifths rule to evaluate a test with a large sample size); Howe v. City of Akron, 801 F.3d 718, 743 (6th Cir. 2015) (“[The Sixth Circuit] ha[s] used the four-fifths rule as the starting point to determine whether plaintiffs alleging disparate impact have met their prima facie burden, although we have used other statistical tests as well.”); Questions and Answers, supra note 13, at Q&A 20, 22.” (EEOC, 5/2023)
“[A] rule of thumb under which they will generally consider a selection rate for any race, sex, or ethnic group which is less than four-fifths (4/5ths) or eighty percent (80%) of the selection rate for the group with the highest selection rate as a substantially different rate of selection. See Section 4D. This “4/5ths” or “80%” rule of thumb is not intended as a legal definition, but is a practical means of keeping the attention of the enforcement agencies on serious discrepancies in rates of hiring, promotion and other selection decisions.
For example, if the hiring rate for whites other than Hispanics is 60%, for American Indians 45%, for Hispanics 48%, and for Blacks 51%, and each of these groups constitutes more than 2% of the labor force in the relevant labor area (see Question 16), a comparison should be made of the selection rate for each group with that of the highest group (whites). These comparisons show the following impact ratios: American Indians 45/60 or 75%; Hispanics 48/60 or 80%; and Blacks 51/60 or 85%. Applying the 4/ 5ths or 80% rule of thumb, on the basis of the above information alone, adverse impact is indicated for American Indians but not for Hispanics or Blacks.” (EEOC)
Gatekeeper = Any individual or organization which possesses power in a given institutional context or situation, where power includes the control over valued outcomes and resources. “Gatekeepers can exert power across a range of everyday behaviors. For example, they can define boundaries, decide who does or does not get tenure, decide who should be hired, decide who gets recognition and praise, and direct the flow of and use of resources.” (Committee on Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEM Organizations, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. “Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations: Beyond Broadening Participation.” Edited by Gilda A. Barabino, Susan T. Fiske, Layne A. Scherer, and Emily A. Vargas. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press) Examples include tenure committees, the College Board, and the American Bar Association.
Gender Empowerment Index (UN) = Includes factors like participation in high-paying positions with economic power and female share of income.
Gender Equality Index (European Union) = Accounts for income, health, and violence against women.
Gender Inequality Index = Produced by the United Nations. It incorporates measures of women’s reproductive health, government representation (via parliamentary seats), educational attainment and labor market participation.
Gini Index = Measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of goods and services in a country. Household GINI can also be measured. The index is calculated from the Lorenz curve, in which cumulative family income is plotted against the number of families arranged from the poorest to the richest. The index is the ratio of (a) the area between a country’s Lorenz curve and the 45 degree helping line to (b) the entire triangular area under the 45 degree line. The more nearly equal a country’s income distribution, the closer its Lorenz curve to the 45 degree line and the lower its Gini index, e.g., a Scandinavian country with an index of 25. The more unequal a country’s income distribution, the farther its Lorenz curve from the 45 degree line and the higher its Gini index, e.g., a Sub-Saharan country with an index of 50. If income were distributed with perfect equality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the 45 degree line and the index would be zero; if income were distributed with perfect inequality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the horizontal axis and the right vertical axis and the index would be 100. US Census Bureau. Income. Table S4. Gini ratios by state: 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999. And later.
Global Inclusiveness Index = From the Hass Institute, UC Berkeley, focuses on the occurrence of group-specific violence (e.g. ethnic, race, religion, sexual orientation), political representation of marginalized groups, income inequality, and anti-discrimination laws.
Granularity = Similar to disaggregation (See). How detailed should your date be? if it’s too granular, you can end up with unnecessary data, making it complicated to decipher and sort. But with too little granularity, you may lack sufficient detail to discover important details and trends.
“Group Fairness: We’re All Equal vs. What You See Is What You Get
There are two opposing worldviews on group fairness: we’re all equal (WAE) and what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) The WAE worldview holds that all groups have similar abilities with respect to the task (even if we cannot observe this properly), whereas the WYSIWYG worldview holds that the observations reflect ability with respect to the task. For example in college admissions, using SAT score as a feature for predicting success in college, the WYSIWYG worldview says that the score correlates well with future success and that there is a way to use the score to correctly compare the abilities of applicants. In contrast, the WAE worldview says that the SAT score may contain structural biases so its distribution being different across groups should not be mistaken for a difference in distribution in ability.” (Guidance on choosing metrics and mitigation; AI Fairness 360-Resources; IBM; no date; accessed 9/25/2023)
Group rights = “While rights are more commonly talked about in regards to individuals, group rights are possessed by collections of individuals. While the coherence of the idea is debated, those who defend the existence of group rights take one of the paradigmatic examples to be cultural rights. Cultures plausibly possess a right to self-preservation or to a certain degree of self-governance. Importantly, in order for these to be examples of group rights and not merely rights that individual members of a culture possess, it must be the case that the cultural rights in question are not possessed by any individual member of the group, but rather the group as a whole.” (Group Rights; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; P. Jones; 2008)
Modified Herfindahl index (HI) = Measures the concentration (with 1 = completely concentrated) and the diversity (1 – HI-concentration) of work in an organization. It combines two important dimensions of diversity: the “richness,” which refers to the number of defined categories within an organization, and the “evenness,” which shows how equally populated such categories are. It can range from 0 to 1, moving from a highly diverse (1) to completely homogeneous worker (0) within a firm. It is computed as 1 minus the sum of squared shares of the possible categories.
High-quality assessments = Diagnostic, formative, interim, or summative assessments that are valid and reliable for the purposes for which they are used and that provide relevant and timely information.
Hispanic or Latino = The category “Hispanic or Latino” includes all individuals who identify with one or more nationalities or ethnic groups originating in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South American, and other Spanish cultures. Examples of these groups include, but are not limited to, Mexican or Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, Dominican, and Colombian. The category also includes groups such as Guatemalan, Honduran, Spaniard, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Venezuelan, etc.
Historically underserved = See also traditionally discriminated against, vulnerable and marginalized. A term in use, for example, by the U.S. Department of Education, with the policy goal of ensuring that schools serving large proportions of historically underserved groups of students—including students from low-income families, students of color, English learners, students with disabilities, migratory students, and students experiencing homelessness receive an equitable share of State and local funds.
Homophily = The tendency to connect to similar other people. Its affects the visibility of people of color in degree rankings and people recommender systems.. Consequently, it can reinforce societal issues such as the glass ceiling effect and the invisibility syndrome. (Franklin, A. J. & Boyd-Franklin, N. Invisibility syndrome: a clinical model of the effects of racism on African–American males. Am. J. Orthopsych. 70, 33–41 (2000))
Horizontal issues = European term. “Apart from working on specific grounds of discrimination, Various issues related to the achievement of equality in Europe and the fight against discrimination. This includes developing a reflection on intersectionality and multiple discrimination, addressing hate speech and engaging with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.” (Equinet)
Holistic review= “Mission-aligned admissions or selection processes that take into consideration applicants’ experiences, attributes, and academic metrics as well as the value they would contribute to learning, practice, and teaching.” (American Association of Medical Colleges)
Identity analysis = An analytical framework that views history through the lens of race in the American experience. (Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Decolonization Narrative Is Dangerous and False, Atlantic (Oct. 27, 2023)
Identity safety cues = Aspects of the environment or social setting that communicate one is valued and the threat of discrimination is limited. Knowledge of cues is often limited by unidimensional identity characteristics (i.e., targeting gender or race, not both). Four cue categories induce identity safety: minority representation, diversity philosophies and programming, environmental features, and identity-safe information. (Kruk, M., & Matsick, J. L. (2021). A taxonomy of identity safety cues based on gender and race: From a promising past to an intersectional and translational future. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 7(4), 487–510. “Organizations signal inclusiveness in many ways: advertising minority representation, posting diversity philosophies, and displaying art and achievements of diverse groups. Crucially, however, these signals backfire when actual living and working environments fall short of those inclusive mantras or advertised levels of diversity.” (Loyola Maryland Connections to Slavery)
Impact assessment = The process of identifying the future consequences of a current or proposed action. The “impact” is the difference between what would happen with the action and what would happen without it. (International Association for Impact Assessment)
Impact = Charity Navigator defines impact as the positive effect that a program of a nonprofit has on targeted people’s lives. it is change in mission-driven outcomes net of what would have happened in the absence of the program (the “counterfactual”), relative to the cost to achieve that change. It then compares the estimated impact of the nonprofit’s program to a benchmark to determine if it is cost-effective – in other words, the benefits produced by the nonprofit’s program outweighs its costs. A cost-effective program is making good use of resources to improve the lives of the people it serves.
More generally, impact is defined as the totality of positive and negative, primary and secondary effects produced by an intervention, directly or indirectly, intended or unintended. Negative impacts are often referred to as externalities. To assess impact it is useful to have or know a longitudinal approach and data available to support longer term analysis. The further one moves from the time of the intervention, the more difficult it is to determine whether changes that have taken place are the result of the intervention or of some other factor, such as other interventions, or socioeconomic or political forces. To help to deal with this issue, ‘informal’ control groups of the affected population who have not received assistance can be interviewed. Evaluation of impact needs to cover cross-cutting themes such as support to livelihoods, human rights, and gender equality. It is well suited to evaluation of these themes because they often involve longer-term and wider socioeconomic processes. A key element in the assessment of impact is explaining why events happened – that is, what were the processes involved that led to particular results? Quality-of-life indicators before and after intervention can be examined. Community involvement is important in the achievement of impact.
“Direct impacts are defined here as those directly arising from the project’s results as defined in the project purpose. Indirect impacts are attributable to the project only via a series of intermediary steps with interplay of other factors. Direct impacts are often easier to foresee (and take into account in design). However, the distinction between direct and indirect impacts does not always match the distinction between foreseen and unforeseen impacts.” (European Commission, EuropeAid Co-operation Office; Result Oriented Monitoring Handbook; July 2009)
Impact assessment = “The fundamental tenet of impact assessment is the need to compare the observed situation with the intervention to what would have been had there been no intervention at all, i.e., the counterfactual. The difference in resulting outcomes between these two states constitutes the impact of the intervention. While the counterfactual cannot be observed or known with complete certainty, the concept of comparing observed outcomes to this hypothetical state underlies all valid approaches to assessing impacts. Valid comparisons imply that the net effect of interventions is isolated from all other extraneous or confounding factors that influence defined outcomes…the major challenge in impact assessments is to estimate the effect of programs after netting out extraneous factors that affect outcomes. These factors may include specific events or long-term trends in industries, regions or countries.” (Nexus Associates, Inc; Assessing the Poverty Impact of Small Enterprise Initiatives; Prepared for: Working Group for Impact Measurement and Performance Committee of Donor Agencies for Small Enterprise Development; 8 September 2003)
In the UK, impact assessment was originally introduced in statutory public sector duties, impact assessments refer to the process by which every policy, procedure, practice, plan and strategy of an organization (including higher education institutions) is systematically reviewed and evaluated to ensure that they are not discriminatory and that they are making a positive contribution to equality. This is done by assessing how the impact they have differs (if at all) for different equality target groups. This normally requires the collection of statistical data for the area under review, and its analysis according to equality variables. It may also be necessary to consult and involve different groups of staff and service users to obtain qualitative data.
The assessment process normally has two stages:
- initial screening for equality impact, possibly followed by
- more in-depth full equality impact assessment, where there is a significant or important potential effect on equality that must be examined.
Impact evaluations = “Impact evaluations measure program effectiveness typically by comparing outcomes of those (individuals, communities, schools, etc) who received the program against those who did not. There are many methods of doing this. But randomized evaluations are generally considered the most rigorous and, all else equal, produce the most accurate (i.e. unbiased) results.” (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, MIT) “impact evaluation is intended to determine more broadly whether the program had the desired effects on individuals, households, and institutions and whether those effects are attributable to the program intervention. Impact evaluations can also explore unintended consequences, whether positive or negative, on beneficiaries.” (World Bank; Evaluating the Impact of Development Projects on Poverty: A Handbook for Practitioners; Judy L. Baker; 2000)
“Impact ratio” means either (1) the selection rate for a category divided by the selection rate of the most selected category or (2) the scoring rate for a category divided by the scoring rate for the highest scoring category.
_________selection rate for a category________ Impact Ratio = selection rate of the most selected category
Or
Scoring rate for a category/scoring rate of the high scoring category.”
“Scoring Rate” means the rate at which individuals in a category receive a score above the sample’s median score, where the score has been calculated by an AEDT.
(New York City regulations, 20-870, Subchapter 25)
Implicit Association Test (IAT) = An assessment or survey tool created at Harvard University that measures the relative strength of racial associations between pairs of concepts by asking individuals to sort them. This matching exercise relies on the concept that when two concepts are highly associated, the sorting task will be easier and therefore require less time than when the two concepts are not as highly associated. The IAT has been rigorously tested for reliability, validity, and predictive validity and has been determined to be a methodologically sound instrument for measuring unconscious associations. An online test developed at Harvard that allegedly measures implicit or unconscious bias though measuring how long it takes for a person to respond to racially charged imaged on the screen. The consensus among behavioral psychologists, including IAT creator, Anthony Greenwald, is that discretionary neurological functions that allow for subjectivity increase biased decision-making. The IAT test is a peer-reviewed diagnostic test administered through Harvard University. The test measures the test-taker’s implicit racial and gender biases, among other biases.
Implicit bias = Bias that exists in our minds, without necessarily being apparent to our conscious selves. Bias was the product of normal developmental processes. Research into the process of socialization and development of social norms led to an understanding that the development of stereotypes—and consequent biases and prejudices—is not a function of an aberrational mind, but instead an outcome of “normal cognitive processes associated with simplifying and storing information of overwhelming quantity and complexity that people encounter daily.” Indeed, some amount of stereotyping— categorizing things and people according to generalizations— is necessary to survival. Moreover, much stereotyping is the product not of explicit, consciously held attitudes, but of implicit beliefs that are “automatically activated by the mere presence (actual or symbolic) of the attitude object,” and that “commonly function in an unconscious and unintentional fashion.” These unconscious attitudes affect our interactions, assumptions, and expectations throughout the life of a relationship. “Discrimination is not necessarily something that occurs ‘at the moment of decision.’ discrimination “can intrude much earlier, as cognitive process-based errors in perception and judgment subtly distort the ostensibly objective data set upon which a decision is ultimately based.” The research on development of stereotypes demonstrates that even before having any interaction with a particular individual, background assumptions will influence how a decisionmaker perceives a job candidate. Compounding the effects of these unconscious cognitive processes is what researchers in the past decade have come to recognize as a pervasive “conflict between the denial of personal prejudice and the underlying unconscious negative feelings and beliefs.” (Melissa Hart; Subjective Decisionmaking And Unconscious Discrimination; Alabama Law Review; Vol. 56:3:741; 2005) A self-test for people is available online from Harvard University. Many studies have been done which confirm that unconscious bias exists, including within racial and ethnic groups.
“Implicit racial attitudes take a different form than do explicit attitudes. They reflect automatic responses that manifest when an external stimulus corresponds with an individual’s association set that link the stimulus and particular characteristics. Though implicit attitudes represent automatic associations, people are aware of their own implicit biases and are able to predict their occurrence with some accuracy. Several scholars have argued that implicit racial attitudes are more prevalent in society than are explicit attitudes and might be a better predictor of less controllable behaviors, especially among those who are not motivated to avoid bias.” (Cunningham GB, Wigfall LT (2020) Race, explicit racial attitudes, implicit racial attitudes, and COVID-19 cases and deaths: An analysis of counties in the United States. PLoS ONE 15(11): e0242044)
Inclusion = A process and a goal of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all people in an organization through increasing participation in infrastructure, cultures and communities, and reducing exclusion within and from services. It involves changes and modifications in content, approaches, structures and strategies, with a common vision which covers all people. Inclusion describes the way an organization configures opportunity, interaction, communication, information and decision-making to utilize the potential of diversity. Achieving inclusion means creating the structures, policies and practices in organizational life that recognize more than one view and signal the importance of learning from differences. Inclusion refers to the systemic nature of an organization. Inclusion is not necessarily limited to the way an organization deals with employees; it may refer to interactions with customers and clients, partners, vendors, suppliers, and subcontractors as well.
Organizations can be diverse without being inclusive. Negative attitudes towards differences and the resulting discrimination and prejudice in society manifests themselves as serious barriers to inclusion. Physical barriers such as inaccessible structures and freeways between neighborhoods can lead to lack of inclusion. Other obstacles to inclusion include lack of a common language and translation/interpretation services. Contrast to “social exclusion.” To be inclusive, a community takes active measures to reduce inequality and to bring opportunity to underserved populations. An inclusive community works together to break down barriers separating different population groups, commits to fairness in housing, jobs and public safety, and demonstrates an appreciation for community diversity through employment and contracting practices. Inclusion is the act of recognizing, embracing and maximizing diversity to unleash innovation and creativity. Diversity of representation and a culture of inclusion must be intertwined and inextricably linked: diverse representation without a culture of inclusion spells disaster while an inclusive culture without diverse representation lacks credibility. (Gilbert Casellas, Responsibility & Competitive Advantage: Dell Inc.’s Global Outlook, Diversity & Inclusion: Lessons from the Field, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and Council on Foundations, December 2008)
Inclusion rider = A stipulation that actors can ask or demand to have inserted into their contracts, which require a certain level of racial/ethnic diversity among a film’s cast and crew. For instance, an A-list actor negotiating to join a film could use the inclusion rider to insist that “tertiary speaking characters should match the gender distribution of the setting for the film, as long as it’s sensible for the plot,” Stacy L. Smith explained in a 2014 column that introduced the idea in The Hollywood Reporter. “An addendum to an actor or content creator’s contract that sets forth a hiring process for roles on camera and behind the camera to move toward a Hollywood where stories and storytellers reflect the diversity of the world we live in. It does this while providing for flexibility and protecting creative sovereignty.
The Rider is a template and living document. It is a flexible and adaptable framework that actors/content creators should consider together with counsel. It stipulates a process for consideration of a deep and diverse pool of candidates, thoughtfully including those from historically underrepresented groups, encourages setting benchmarks or targets for hiring and casting of qualified individuals from under-represented backgrounds, provides for collecting and reporting data regarding representation to encourage progress in deepening representation over time, and provides a provision for accountability to encourage reflection and facilitate progress…the newly reimagined Inclusion Rider and accompanying company policy guidelines, address four key principles needed for companies to successfully adopt the Inclusion Rider include:
- A commitment to deepening and diversifying hiring pools.
- Establishing benchmarks/targets for hiring and striving for progress toward achieving them.
- Collecting, measuring, and analyzing application and hiring data.
- Implementing accountability measures to continue to support progress even where a company falls short of its goals.” (Cohen Milstein Law Firm)
Inclusiveness Index = “[A] holistic gauge of the degree of inclusivity experienced by marginalized groups across the globe and within the United States. Our index ranks states and nation-states in absolute and relative terms using a variety of indicators…focusing primarily on the degree of institutional inclusion and protections extended to vulnerable groups across salient social cleavages, such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and (dis)ability. Our index focuses on social groups rather than individuals, emphasizing the kind of marginality that results from social identities and group membership.” Criteria include exposure to out-group violence; political representation; income inequality; anti-discrimination laws; rates of incarceration; and immigration/asylum policies, measured across a matrix of race, gender, LGGBT status, religion, disability, and general population. “Out-group violence is a direct indicator of group marginalization and oppression. Disproportionate violence suffered by discrete social groups reflects prejudice toward those groups as well as group vulnerability… Political representation and the extent to which citizens are able to participate in governance is another strong indicator of group-based marginality or relative inclusion. In democratic societies, ethnic, racial, or religious majorities are capable of outvoting minority groups in electoral politics.” (Stephen Menendian, Elsadig Elsheikh, and Samir Gambhir, 2021 Inclusiveness Index (Berkeley, CA: Othering & Belonging Institute, 2022)
Index = A single descriptive metric or figure that reflects the values of the components that constitute it.
Index of Dissimilarity = A measure of racial and ethnic segregation which shows how evenly two groups are spread across neighborhoods. The lowest possible value is zero, which indicates that the percentage of each group in every neighborhood is the same as their overall percentage in the metropolitan areas. The highest value of 100 indicates that the two groups live in completely different neighborhoods.
Indigeniety = “Another concept related to, yet distinct from, race is indigeneity, which emphasizes a connection to geographic location over time. There were tens of thousands of people indigenous to northern North America before European colonization. Many nations and their descendants are found in what is now known as the United States. This unique history is unlike that of any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. Only the Indigenous people of northern North America have lineages of families who lived for millennia on these specific lands, shaping cultural, medicinal, physical, spiritual, governmental, and societal structures. Only these Indigenous people have a history of sovereignty before contact with Europeans and, due to that sovereignty, had treaties drawn between sovereigns in Europe and including the U.S. Congress until 1871. And only Indigenous nations have retained that inherent sovereignty. Inherent sovereignty is the most basic principle of federal Indian law. It means that “the powers lawfully vested in an Indian Tribe are those powers that predate New World discovery and have never been extinguished” (Green and Work, 1976, p. 311).” (National Academy of Sciences; Rethinking Race and Ethnicity in Biomedical Research (2024))
This concept is critical because “it confirms the extra-constitutional status of [I]ndigenous nations as the original sovereigns of the Americas and does not treat [T]ribal nations as merely one of several ethnic groups” (Wilkins, 2006, p. 908). These 574 Nations3 have a federal government-to-government relationship stem- ming from Chief Justice Marshall’s Indian Law Trilogy of the early 1800s (Fletcher, 2024). This so-called federal trust responsibility (Department of the Interior, 2014) is a well-established legal obligation.
Inequality = In terms of human interactions, inequality refers to the dispersion or distribution of importance among individuals.
Inequity = Refers to group fairness.
“Inference is defined as the difference between what is measured (observable quantity) and what is desired (unobserved quantity)…[Types of inference]
Predictive: The process of inferring the future from the past; a forecast.
• Statistical: The process of inferring the whole population from a representative sample.
• Validation: The process of inferring that the model/code matches the data. This is also known as fidelity-to-data or goodness-of-fit.
• Analogical (similarity): The process of inferring degree of similarity between applications or quantities (e.g. variables). System behavior is often inferred from small scale or sub-system tests.
• Proxy (unobservable): The process of inferring an unobservable quantity from an observable one.” (Scientia Iranica; Volume 18, Issue 3, June 2011, Pages 669-676; An evolution of uncertainty assessment and quantification; J.M.Booker, aT.J.Ross)
Institutional racism = Underlying systems and policies that keep people of color and white (or Anglo) unequal. There are areas of local policy where racism becomes prominent and visible, including policing, zoning, housing, and transportation. Governmental policies and programs can either promote equality, tolerance, and justice or (consciously or not) promote division and inequality and engender the belief that specific racial and ethnic groups are second-class citizens. Usually thought of as race hatred but is more usefully thought of as an ideology that protects a system of white privilege. “Institutional racism is typically initiated by persons of relative power and authority who see themselves as ‘just doing their job’ in accordance with supposedly fair and universal criteria.” (Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreement (no date), Indigenous Issues Unit, Department of Justice, Melbourne) “Institutional racism is the process by which people from ethnic minorities are systematically discriminated against by a range of public and private bodies. If the result or outcome of established laws, customs or practices is racially discriminatory, then institutional racism can be said to have occurred. Although racism is rooted in widely shared attitudes, values and beliefs, discrimination can occur irrespective of the intent of the individuals who carry out the activities of the institution. Thus policing can be discriminatory without this being acknowledged or recognised, and in the face of official policies geared to removal of discrimination. However, some discrimination practices are the product of uncritical rather than unconscious racism. That is, practices with a racist outcome are not engaged in without the actor’s knowledge; rather, the actor has failed to consider the consequences of his or her actions for people from ethnic minorities. Institutional racism affects the routine ways in which ethnic minorities are treated in their capacity as employees, witnesses, victims, suspects and members of the general public. (Dr Ben Bowling, Violent Racism: Victimisation, Policing and Social Context, July 1998. (Paras 21-22, pp 3-4))
Intersectionality = The dynamic interaction of multiple forms of identity, and the interaction of multiple identities and experiences of exclusion and subordination. The idea seeks to capture both the structural and dynamic consequences of the interaction between two or more forms of discrimination or systems of subordination. It specifically addresses the manner in which racism, patriarchy, economic disadvantages and other discriminatory systems contribute to create layers of inequality that structures the relative positions of women and men, races and other groups. Moreover, it addresses the way that specific acts and policies create burdens that flow along these intersecting axes contributing actively to create a dynamic of disempowerment” (Special Rapporteur on violence against women, on her contribution in 2001 to the General Assembly debate on race, gender and violence A/CONF.189/PC.3/5, 27th July 2001, p. 8, para. 23)
Invisibility syndrome = When people of color encounter repeated racial slights, it can create “psychological invisibility.” The “subjective sense of psychological invisibility takes the form of a struggle with inner feelings and beliefs that personal talents, abilities, and character are not acknowledged or valued by others, nor by the larger society, because of racial prejudice…The persistently marginal social status of African-American men in society is a major concern to the black community. It is a matter of widespread belief that racism is a primary contributor to this predicament and to the marginality of the AfricanAmerican community in general.” (Anderson J. Franklin, Ph.D., and Nancy Boyd-Franklin, Ph.D; Invisibility Syndrome: A Clinical Model of the Effects of Racism on African-American Males; American journal of Orllwpsychiatry, 70(1), January 2000)
Invitation to Self-Identify = “An invitation by the contractor, extended to employees and applicants for employment, to voluntarily identify their race, sex, ethnicity, disability, and/or protected veteran status. All information obtained in response to invitations to self-identify as an individual with a disability or protected veteran must be kept in a confidential data analysis file under 41 CFR 60-300.42 and 60-741.42.” (OFCCP)
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) = Individual criterion for success in an organization; the contribution of an individual or division, chosen from areas they can influence. Used for performance monitoring. Monitoring indicators are used to detect violations that require immediate corrective action. KPIs can assist organizations in identifying root causes of problems that can be prioritized and corrected. KPIs are usually direct measurements. A KPI can trigger necessary action. They are usually focused on efficiency and optimization, and are derived from strategy and mission.
Labor pool or market = A defined geographic area or source containing a workforce from which area employers draw. The US federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, 29 U.S.C. § 2801, et seq., defines a “labor market area” as “an economically integrated geographic area within which individuals can reside and find employment within a reasonable distance or can readily change employment without changing their place of residence.”” (Community Benefits Law Center)
Lag metric = A metric that provides information about activities that occurred in the past.
Lead metric = A metric that has the ability to inform future activities.
Light touch interventions = Minor efforts to reduce prejudice that use mentalizing as a salve. These are notably ineffective. They are easy to implement, brief, and cheap, and include things like watching a three minute film. Light touch prejudice reduction interventions sometimes resemble the “nudge” interventions from the behavioral science literature, in that they are minimal interventions that suggest what individuals might choose to attain as a positive outcome while preserving individuals’ autonomy to behave as they please (Thaler & Sunstein 2009). Like nudges, these light touch interventions typically focus on individual thought and choice, but unlike nudges, they rarely tweak structural features of the environment like institutional rules or reminders.
Logic model = Also called “log frame.” A logic model provides programs with a graphic representation of the linkages between program activities and the change those activities will produce. It clearly specifies the program’s process—the resources, activities and amount of those activities—that are expected to lead to outcomes which, in turn, should contribute to the overall goals. Key components of the logic model include:
Resources:
• the essential program ingredients that support the implementation of the project. This includes staff, materials, partners, and participants. Also called Input/Means.
Activities:
• the specific processes or events that staff or partners undertake for the project, such as community events, training sessions/classes, stakeholder meetings, passing out flyers, etc.
Outputs:
• outputs describe how much you do of the activities and who is reached. This helps define the scope and scale of the activities.
Outcomes:
• the short-term changes in community conditions that stakeholders believe will occur as a result of the initiative. These should be realistic, achievable and directly related to the program processes.
Goals:
• The ultimate impacts your program expects to make. Also called Purpose.
Overall Objective.
Questions to ask include:
- Do we have the right resources and enough resources to complete the activities?
- Are the outcomes reasonable based on the types of activities we’re doing?
- Are we doing enough of the activities for enough people to reasonably achieve our outcomes?
- Will these activities and short-term outcomes likely address the underlying conditions we’ve identified?
Longevity = How long do the results of the intervention last?
Longitudinal = Data collection efforts that capture trends over time. This is important because of demographic changes, especially those that are dynamic, growing, and rapidly evolving. As opposed to point-in-time, which capture data at a single moment.
Longitudinal analysis = In a longitudinal study, researchers repeatedly examine the same individuals to detect any changes that might occur over a period of time…In a retrospective study, you collect data on events that have already happened. In a prospective study, you choose a group of subjects and follow them over time, collecting data in real time. Retrospective studies are generally less expensive and take less time than prospective studies, but are more prone to measurement error…Longitudinal studies are time-consuming and often more expensive than other types of studies, so they require significant commitment and resources to be effective. Since longitudinal studies repeatedly observe subjects over a period of time, any potential insights from the study can take a while to be discovered…Longitudinal studies [help] establish the correct sequence of events, identify changes over time, and provide insight into cause-and-effect relationships, but they also tend to be more expensive and time-consuming than other types of studies.” (Thomas, L; May 5, 2022; Longitudinal Study Definition, Approaches & Example; Scribbr. Retrieved October 17, 2022)
Marginalization = Usually refers to overt or covert acts and trends in societies whereby those perceived as lacking function or desirable traits are killed or otherwise excluded from existing systems of social and economic protection, thereby limiting their means for survival. “The act of relegating or confining a group of people to a lower social standing or outer limit or edge of society. Overall, it is a process of exclusion. Marginalization is in some ways worse than exploitation because society has decided that it cannot or will not use these people even for labor.” (Tools for Social Change: The Five Faces of Oppression; Leadership for Educational Equity)
Merit = The question of what constitutes “merit” in a job or college admissions candidate is a complex one. To identify merit solely by test scores and grades is to ignore a broad range of qualities and skills that are equally important to assessing an applicant’s quality. The ability to accomplish a task at a high level of skill or competency. Showing character. Having overcome obstacles. The quality of being particularly good or worthy, especially so as to deserve praise or reward. Worthiness or excellence. Doing a good job. Achieving honor, value, or quality that is deserving of approval or praise. Demonstrating expertise. A level of superiority that is usually high: caliber, quality, stature, value, virtue, worth. Merit in academics is often shown by mastering basic or advanced skills compared to one’s peers. Often shown through examination. Exceeding standards. Showing articulation, reasoning, logic, critical thinking. Focusing on a useful task. Not wasting time. In the military and many other fields, following legal orders. Working efficiently and effectively. In the arts, showing aesthetic judgment and accomplishment. Not engaging in destruction or harmful behavior. Being useful to society. Trying and succeeding at a useful task. Being creative in a useful way.
Metrics = A means of measuring. Metrics refer to measures of the magnitude (or another characteristic) of some type of entity. All metrics are not equal; however, some are much easier to understand and apply than others. For example, most people know how to measure length using an inch or a mile as the metric. Yet it is much more challenging to think about how to measure the effect of a partnership or education program. Logic models provide project-specific frameworks in an organized approach that can be used to develop informative metrics for evaluation…Metrics can be developed for any component of a logic model.
Nominal scales refer to categorical descriptions that connote a sense of difference. For example, a nominal scale for fruit would include apple, banana, orange, and grapefruit.
Ordinal scales describe a ranked order of values. Examples include first, second, and third; or good, better, and best.” (Draft PEPH Evaluation Metrics Manual; Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH); National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; National Institutes of Health)
Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) population = Many in the MENA community in the U.S. do not share the same lived experience as White people with European ancestry, do not identify as White, and are not perceived as White by others.
Migrant Integration Policy Index = Measures access to institutions like education, health, and the labor market, along with family reunion policies, and pathways to nationality and permanent residence.
Ministerial exception = “Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, a judicially crafted concept known as the “ministerial exception” emerged among federal appellate courts: Religious institutions may discriminate in their treatment of certain employees, notwithstanding Title VII, provided that the employee plays a vital ministerial employment role or is involved in ecclesiastical matters… ministerial exception is a misnomer because the exception is not limited to those employees holding titles of independent religious significance (e.g., priest, pastor, rabbi, imam), but also applies to employees holding important positions within churches and other religious institutions. The Supreme Court recognized the ministerial exception in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & Sch. v. EEOC, 565 U.S. 171 (2012).” (Squire Patton Boggs; Fourth Circuit Holds Firm Against Expansion of Religion-Based Defenses to Discrimination (US); Lexology; May 13, 2024)
Minority = A term that is less used today to refer to people of color. It was once popular because it referred to placed where people of color were in the numerical minority of the local population. The term is contested today. “The majority-minority approach is ambiguous, and it is further complicated by complex demographic and social realities.” (Measuring Racial and Ethnic Diversity for the 2020 Census; U.S. Census Bureau; no date; accessed 1/10/2022)
Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) = The following are considered MSIs, as defined by the Higher Education Act (20 U.S.C. § 1061(2)):
- HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities);
- Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs);
- Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs);
- Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions; (AANAPISIs); and
- Predominately Black Institutions (PBIs).
Mismatch theory = Richard Sander, an economist and law professor at UCLA Law, has had difficulty getting data for his own research on affirmative action at law schools. Sander’s paper on mismatch theory, published in 2004 in the Stanford Law Review, raised questions about whether affirmative action hurt some Black law school students more than it helped. He has tried to get more recent data and data from more law schools to test his theory: that weaker students admitted to elite law schools through affirmative action often struggle and would have more academic and career success by attending less competitive schools. His paper has drawn a great deal of criticism, some from prominent scholars, that the evidence he used was circumstantial. In 2008, he sued the State Bar of California to obtain individual students’ law school grade-point averages, bar exam scores, race and other data. The lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful. In 2018, he sued the University of California system seeking a wide variety of student data.
Mission-Critical Functions = Those functions within an organization that are considered critical and essential to its operations, success, and continued existence. These typically include supplies, production, marketing, distribution, facilities, logistics, finance, legal, and health and safety. DEIA is usually not considered mission-critical, but should be.
Monitoring = A continuous function that uses the systematic collection of data on specified indicators to provide management and the main stakeholders of an ongoing intervention with indications of the extent of progress and achievement of objectives and progress in the use of allocated funds, time, energy, and other resources. A process that involves collecting, storing, analyzing and evaluating information, to measure performance, progress or change. Monitoring helps to assess whether a program is being implemented as planned. A program monitoring system enables continuous feedback on the status of program implementation, identifying specific problems as they arise. (World Bank; Evaluating the Impact of Development Projects on Poverty: A Handbook for Practitioners; Judy L. Baker; 2000) Monitoring race equality involves collecting, storing, analyzing and evaluating information about the racial groups to which people say they belong. Monitoring is also applied to collecting and analyzing information about people’s gender, disability status, sexual orientation, religion or belief, or age to see whether all groups are fairly represented.
“The term ‘internal monitoring’ is often used to refer to monitoring that is undertaken by those responsible for project implementation. There is little to no organizational distance between the person in charge of data collection and analysis and the user of the monitoring results. Done with varying degrees of methodological elaboration, it gives the manager quick feedback necessary for day-to-day operations. Internal monitoring and reporting often overlap.
Multiracial = Identifying with more than one race.
Multi-select questions = This allows respondents to list their whole identity without making them feel like they are being pigeon-holed with only a single answer permitted. “This is especially important for people who have intersecting identities. Adding “select all that apply” to a question’s instructions can be a quick step to capture the respondent’s identity in a more inclusive way while providing quantitative data.” (Tracking Diversity: The Green 2.0 Guide to Best Practices in Demographic Data Collection; Green 2.0; no date; accessed 3/17/2023)
Mythology of racial progress = It is a common belief among whites in the US that there has been much progress in race relations, especially in terms of a reduction in discrimination. Sometimes this leads to the concept of a “post-racial society.” However, the reality is much more mixed. Many disparities continue to exist, as well as much bias, prejudice, racism, and discrimination. There is often an underestimation of the importance of the impact of slavery on present-day conditions. (Richeson, “Americans Are Determined to Believe in Black Progress”)
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander = The category “Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander” includes all individuals who identify with one or more nationalities or ethnic groups originating in Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. Examples of these groups include, but are not limited to, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Chamorro, Tongan, Fijian, and Marshallese. The category also includes groups such as Palauan, Tahitian, Chuukese, Pohnpeian, Saipanese, Yapese, etc.
Neurodiversity = A fraught and controversial term, often seen by disability advocates as a subset of disability. It can include autism spectrum condition (ASC), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, and hyperlexia. If not an actual diagnosed disability, the category may not have legal status in the U.S.
NNAT3 = Naglieri Nonverbal Abilities Test. The NNAT3 is a measure of a student’s cognitive ability. A student need not read, write, or speak English in order to take part in the test. The NNAT3 is not a measure of classroom performance and is not correlated to the standards and content of focus in a student’s current grade level. A group-administered aptitude test commonly given as an entrance exam into school’s gifted programs. To determine a child’s aptitude, the NNAT3 exam assesses how your child does on things that are new to them. The NNAT allows for a culturally neutral evaluation of students’ nonverbal reasoning skills. As the NNAT is a nonverbal test, it is ideal to administer to children who are just learning English, or children who have limited academic skills. The test consists entirely of problems involving shapes, figures, and patterns, and does not require reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, or knowledge of words. Children from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, or children whose first language is not English, are therefore not at a disadvantage when taking the NNAT. As a result, the NNAT is deemed a fair and dependable test for measuring giftedness. The NNAT does not favor children who display stronger nonverbal skills. Rather, the NNAT is used to measure general ability, using a nonverbal test format. Children with strong verbal abilities often do score highly on nonverbal tests, and can still succeed on the NNAT. Nonverbal tests are advantageous as they do not prevent children with weaker verbal skills from succeeding. The NNAT3 contains 48 questions and takes 30 minutes to administer. The test has only four question types: Pattern Completion, Reasoning by Analogy, Serial Reasoning, and Spatial Visualization.
Pattern completion questions are essentially visual fill in the blank questions. Your child will be shown an image or pattern that has a square missing, and will have to choose the answer choice that correctly completes the picture. These questions are found on all levels of the test.
Non-sampling error = Situations where the experimental and/or measurement protocols didn’t occur according to plan, such as people lying on a survey, data getting lost, or mistakes being made in the analysis.
Null hypothesis = “The most common null hypothesis is that the parameter in question is equal to zero (typically indicating that a variable has zero effect on the outcome of interest). If you can reject the null hypothesis with a confidence of 95% or better, researchers can invoke statistical significance. Null hypotheses can also be tested for the equality (rather than equal to zero) of effect for two or more alternative treatments. Rejection of the null hypothesis, even if a very high degree of statistical significance can never prove something, can only add support to an existing hypothesis. On the other hand, failure to reject a null hypothesis is often grounds for dismissal of a hypothesis.” (Investopedia Team; Statistical Significance; Investopedia; October 6, 2021)
Occupational segregation = Taking the number of workers needed (either positive values if the group is underrepresented or negative values if the group is overrepresented) in the occupation for the group to be proportionately represented, and multiplying it by the average annual income of the occupation. This can be interpreted as missing income in cases where the demographic group is underrepresented. One can aggregate across all high-wage occupations to give a total.
OMB Standards = Racial/Ethnic identification standards set out by the U.S. Government’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 1997. These standards guide how the federal government collects and presents data on these topics.
For race, the OMB standards identify five minimum categories:
- White
- Black or African American
- American Indian or Alaska Native
- Asian
- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
The Census uses a sixth category, Some Other Race, for people who do not identify with any of the OMB race categories. The 2020 Census collected data on Hispanic origin and race in two separate questions. The OMB standards emphasize that people of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
Open-ended Questions = Including open-ended questions in employee surveys is an effective way of capturing the nuances of a person’s identity. They are text boxes where respondents can answer demographic or other types of questions the way they want without being forced into a predetermined response category. (Tracking Diversity: The Green 2.0 Guide to Best Practices in Demographic Data Collection; Green 2.0; no date; accessed 3/17/2023)
Orphaned data = Data in an organization that isn’t hidden, but is not readily usable. “In most instances, data is orphaned when it’s not fully compatible with an existing system or not easily converted into a usable format. For example, a customer record that exists in one database but not in another could be classified as an orphan. Data quality management software should be able to identify orphaned data. Thus identified, the cause of the inconsistency can be determined and, in many instances, rectified for full utilization of the orphaned data.” (Giana Reno; 10 Common Data Quality Issues (And How to Solve Them); FirstEigen; no date; accessed 3/22/2023)
Other = Including an option outside of predetermined response categories allows participants to self-identify more broadly. An alternative is to offer a “Prefer to self-describe” option instead of the classic “other.” This language shift can have a large impact on respondents, especially those who do not see themselves fitting into the predetermined categories.
Outcome metrics = “Body count,” for example how many women, people of color, and members of other underrepresented groups are employed and in what positions. Tracking demographics.
Outcomes = Outcome or impact evaluations ask whether the program activities are bringing about the desired effects. Outcomes and impacts should not be confused with outputs. Outputs are the direct products of an activity, such as training sessions, brochures, websites, or videos. Outcomes and impacts are the benefits or changes resulting from the activities and outputs, such as reduced exposure to environmental contamination, changes in behavior or policy, or, ultimately, improvement in public health. As a general rule, logic models lay out short term outcomes that result within 1–3 years, long-term outcomes within 4–6 years, and impacts within 7–10 years. The timing varies by project. What is most important here is that the ultimate goal for partnerships is to produce outcomes and impacts that lead to improvements in health through a reduction in environmental health hazards.
Outcome statement = “The intended result of a decision (or activity).” (Transportation for Communities)
Outputs = The products, capital goods and services that result from an intervention. The term “output” means an activity, effort, and/or associated work product related to a organizational goal and objective, that will be produced or provided over a period of time or by a specified date. Outputs may be quantitative or qualitative but must be measurable during the period covered by the effort. Often referred to as “measuring widgets” a opposed to some useful result.
Pay Equity Audit = “As part of their affirmative action obligations, supply and service contractors are required to perform an in-depth analysis of their total employment practices to determine whether and where impediments to equal employment opportunity exist.2 This includes conducting an in-depth analysis of their compensation systems to determine whether there are gender-, race-, or ethnicity-based disparities, as provided in 41 CFR 60-2.17(b)(3).3 This analysis, hereafter referred to as a “pay equity audit,” is an important component of the contractor’s affirmative action program. By proactively conducting this pay equity audit, contractors can determine whether impediments to pay equity exist and develop action-oriented programs to address these problems, as provided in 41 CFR 60-2.17(c).” (Office Federal Contract Compliance Programs, U.S. Department of Labor; Directive 2022-01, March 15, 2022)
Pay parity (Pay equity) = Ensuring that employees in the same job and location are paid fairly relative to one another, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, or disability. Under some laws, such as that in the UK, as set out in the Equality Act 2010, men and women in the same employment performing equal work must receive equal pay, unless any difference in pay can be justified. This data should be readily obtainable within the organization. Equal pay applies to all contractual terms, not just pay. This includes:
- basic pay
- non-discretionary bonuses
- overtime rates and allowances
- performance-related benefits
- severance and redundancy pay
- access to pension schemes
- benefits under pension schemes
- hours of work
- company cars
- sick pay
- fringe benefits such as travel allowances
- benefits in kind
The right to equal pay applies to many different work arrangements, including:
- employees with a verbal or written contract of employment
- workers who agree to do work personally
- apprentices
- personal and public office-holders
It does not matter how long they have been employed or whether they have a full time, part time, fixed term, zero hours or casual contract.
There are three kinds of equal work:
- like work is the same or broadly similar. It involves similar tasks which require similar knowledge and skills, and any differences in the work are not of practical importance.
- work rated as equivalent has been rated under a valid job evaluation scheme as being of equal value in terms of how demanding it is.
- work of equal value is not similar and has not been rated as equivalent, but is of equal value in terms of demands such as effort, skill and decision-making.
If a woman proves that she is doing equal work to a man, there is a legal presumption that any difference in their pay is because of their sex, unless the employer can show that a ‘material factor’ explains the difference.
A material factor must:
- be a genuine reason for the difference in pay
- cause the difference in pay
- be significant and relevant
- explain the pay difference with ‘particularity’ – this means the employer must be able to show how each factor was assessed and how it applied in the woman’s specific case
- not be tainted by direct or indirect sex discrimination
(What is Equal Pay? Equality and Human Rights Commission; United Kingdom; July 1, 2021)
Peer influence, discussion, and dialogue = “[The idea that people who share important identities, peers, or ingroup members have a powerful influence over one another’s impression of the attitudes and behaviors that are typical, desirable, and correct…Others, sometimes labeled social pressure or social consensus interventions, leverage summaries of peer norms in which individuals are told about the more tolerant beliefs of their peers and are motivated to move their own attitudes toward the peer group…A tradition of bringing together individuals in dialogue leverages both peer influence and other psychological processes such as group intervention.” (Paluck, op cit)
Performance Accountability = The mechanisms by which individuals or organizations are held accountable for meeting specified performance-related expectations. These are often categorized as quantity, quality, timeliness, cost, and customer service. They are also often divided by outputs and outcomes. Outputs are units of delivery, such as visits or widgets produced. Outcomes are what has really happened or changed for the better due to the efforts of the organization. These efforts have to be distinguished from demographic or random changes, or changes due to the work of other organizations. Part of accountability is that someone or some team bears the burden for lack of performance.
Performance-based regulation = “This more flexible form of regulation imposes outcome objectives on the targets of regulation rather than dictating exactly what to do. In other words, instead of telling businesses and other regulated entities exactly what actions they must take or technologies they must adopt, performance-based regulation imposes binding performance or outcome targets and leaves it entirely to regulated firms to determine how to achieve those targets.” (Cary Coglianese, Jennifer Nash & Todd Olmstead, Performance-Based Regulation: Prospects and Limitations in Health, Safety, and Environmental Protection, 55 ADMIN. L. REV. 705, 707 (2003))
Performance metrics = Metrics that are representative of an organization’s actions, abilities, and overall quality. A measure of how well services are delivered by an agency or program. Performance measures address issues such as the degree to which services are timely, cost-effective, or comply with standards. Unlike a benchmark, which measures progress toward a broad result, a performance measure gauges how well a program is run. Examples include: percent of child abuse investigations completed within 24 hours of a report, or the amount of child support collected for each dollar spent on child support enforcement.
Pipeline problem = While there is controversy over whether the problem is a significant impediment to D&I efforts or simply a convenient excuse, the premise is that diversity at the highest levels of organizations is lacking because there isn’t enough diversity at the lower and mid-levels of organizations. The reason there isn’t sufficient diversity in organizations sometimes is because there isn’t enough diversity in a needed field in higher education. In education generally, the higher the level of education, the fewer non-Asian people of color who are present. The pipeline is “leaky.” It is worth figuring out how to plug those holes.
Point-in-time = Collecting and capturing data at a single moment, as opposed to longitudinal data.
Prejudice = Animus, or negative bias, toward some social groups and their putative members.
Prejudice confrontation intervention = A type of intervention “in which individuals are given feedback about their level of prejudice. This intervention presumes that most people are motivated to not be prejudiced; upon receiving feedback that they have high levels of unconscious prejudice, they are motivated to bring their cognition and behavior in line with their aspirational self-image.” (Paluck)
Prevalence = Another technique used by the U.S. Census to measure diversity is prevalence rankings, which show the most common racial/ethnic group in an area. For example, for 2010, the Census found:
- The White alone, non-Hispanic population was the largest racial or ethnic group in the United States at 63.7%.
- The Hispanic population was the second-largest at 16.3%.
- The Black or African American alone, non-Hispanic population was third-largest at 12.2%. (https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/measuring-racial-ethnic-diversity-2020-census.html)
Prioritizing = As a general tenet those groups that face the greatest inequities and experience the least inclusion should be prioritized.
Process metrics = How the system works, how well, to what degree. The nuts and bolts underlying systems, especially in employment. Different parts of the process require different fixes.
Prohibited Basis or Prohibited Factor = A basis or factor prohibited by law from being used in making employment decisions. Under Executive Order 11246, as amended, the prohibited bases or factors:
- Race,
- Color,
- Religion,
- Sex,
- Sexual orientation,
- Gender identity, and
- National origin.
Under Section 503, the prohibited basis or factor is a disability. Under VEVRAA, the prohibited basis or factor is status as a protected veteran.” (OFCCP)
Program evaluation is an assessment, through objective measurement and systematic analysis, of the manner and extent to which programs achieve intended outcomes. Evaluations are of the following types:
Impact Evaluations use empirical data to compare measurable program outcomes with what would have happened in the absence of the program. These represent the highest standard of program evaluations and are often the most difficult and expensive to construct and interpret.
- Outcome Evaluations assess the extent to which programs achieve their outcome-oriented objectives. Outcome evaluations will use quantitative methods to assess program effectiveness, but fall short of the rigorous causal analysis of impact evaluations.
- Process Evaluations assess the extent to which a program is operating as intended. While a true process evaluation will use objective measurement and analysis, it falls short of assessing the causal links between intervention and outcome.
- Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses compare a program’s outputs or outcomes with the costs to produce them. This type of analysis conforms with program evaluation when applied systematically to existing programs and when measurable outputs and outcomes are monetized.
Project Implicit = A test produced at Harvard University with multiple variants, which assesses attitudes and implicit and unconscious racial bias.
Protected characteristic = “[A]lso referred to as a protected class—is a personal trait that cannot be used as a reason to discriminate against someone. As stated on the EOCC’s website, these are eight protected characteristics in the United States in the context of employment discrimination: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, and genetic information. For the statutes that created these protections, see Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Pregnancy is also protected under the ambit of sex (see the Pregnancy Discrimination Act). Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited as sex discrimination following the 2020 Supreme Court case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. Such protections are also extended in the context of education and in access to public amenities, such as shops, restaurants, and hotels.” (Laura Murphy, The Rationale for and Key Elements of a Business Civil Rights Audit; Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; no date; accessed 4/118/2022)
Protected Class = A group of people who are protected from employment, services, or other discrimination discrimination by law. In the US, these groups include men and women on the basis of sex; any group that shares a common race, religion, color, or national origin; people over 40; and people with physical or mental disabilities. Every resident of the U.S. is a member of some protected class and is entitled to the benefits of EEO law. However, the EEO laws were passed to correct a history of unfavorable treatment of women and minority group members, people with disabilities, religious group members, people over age 40, etc.
Protected Group or Category = “The bases on which applicants and employees are protected from discrimination in employment under the laws enforced by OFCCP (also referred to as “prohibited factors” or “prohibited bases”): race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability and status as a protected veteran.” (OFCCP)
Proxy Measures = An indicator or measure which is not exactly the one one would like to measure, but for which measurable change is clearly and reliably correlated with an indicator of a change that the program aims to achieve (but is generally more practical to measure).
Psycho-Social Costs of Racism to Whites (PCRW) scale = The items that compose the three subscales of the PCRW indicate how whites feel about this alleged reality. The first subscale measures whites’ “empathetic reactions toward racism”; the second captures the extent to which respondents feel “white guilt”; and the third measures fear toward members of other racial groups. These questions address the growing scholarship regarding the increasing racial consciousness that whites are experiencing as US demographics shift. (Jardina, Ashley. 2019. White Identity Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press)
Publication bias = The tendency for authors of studies to make findings consistent with what they wanted to find. In the diversity field, this often means that studies of diversity training find that it is effective, without good evidence to back up the findings.
Public goods = “Public goods are those goods which are enjoyed not just by one consumer (individual or household) who has sole access to them, but which benefit a whole community of different consumers (8). According to a strictly economic definition, a public good is a good or service that does not lend itself to market allocation because it costs nothing for an additional individual to enjoy its benefits, and it is generally difficult or impossible to exclude individuals from consuming it.” (Carande-Kulis VG, Getzen TE, Thacker SB. Public goods and externalities: a research agenda for public health economics. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2007;13(2):227–232)
PWD = People With Disabilities
PWOD = People Without Disabilities
Quantification = “Quantification is the act of giving a numerical value to a measurement of something…Quantification produces a standardized form of measurement that allows statistical procedures and mathematical calculations… In the social sciences these methods attempt to collect and analyze numerical data on social phenomena, seeking to understand the links between a relatively small number of attributes across a wide variety of cases…it increases precision and generalizability, while minimizing prejudice, favoritism, and nepotism in decision-making…assist in achieving objectivity, stability, and fair judgment…” (Quantification (Social Science); What-When-How; no date; accessed 11/27/2021; http://what-when-how.com/social-sciences/quantification-social-science/) “[Q]uantification is intended to illuminate a phenomenon by identifying key patterns that might otherwise go undetected.” (The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy. Klaus Bruhn Jensen and Robert T. Craig (Editors-in-Chief), Jefferson D. Pooley and Eric W. Rothenbuhler (Associate Editors). © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016)
Quotas = Fixed hiring and promotion rates based on race, sex, or other protected class standards which must be met. In some cases, the courts have assigned quotas to employers who have practiced illegal discrimination. An agency or any other employer cannot use quotas to meet their affirmative action goals unless a court or administrative agency orders it or if it has agreed to a settlement or corrective action plan voluntarily. Quotas are often considered discriminatory against males and nonminorities.
A practice that “insulates each category of applicants with certain desired qualifications from competition with all other applicants.” (Grutter Supreme Court decision) A program in which a certain fixed number or proportion of opportunities are reserved exclusively for certain minority groups…Quotas impose “a fixed number or percentage which must be attained, or which cannot be exceeded.” (Grutter; U.S. Supreme Court decision)
Race-based traumatic stress (RBTS) = “RBTS is the psychological and emotional response to racism/racial discrimination. RBTS is quite complex and linked to both poor mental and physical health outcomes. Importantly, every discriminatory event might not trigger a traumatic response; however, exposure to racial discrimination particularly cumulatively increases one’s risk. Additionally, factors such as racial identity and worldview could moderate the perception of racial discrimination, which could also influence response.” (Brown, K.L., Bettencourt, A.F., Hines, A.L. et al. Association Between Maladaptive Eating Behaviors Among Black Women and Vicarious Racial Discrimination Following a High-Profile Event. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2024)
Race-shifters = People whom anthropologist Circe Sturm calls ‘race-shifters’: white people who claim indigenous ancestry with little or no basis for doing so. As Professor Kim TallBear made clear in a presentation at the University of Vermont in 2023, race-shifters allegedly carry out a final and genocidal act of colonization by erasing and replacing actual Native People with the voices and the bodies of European-American settlers. Sometimes people make the claim in order to obtain benefits reserved to Native Americans, such as affirmative action. This can include “individuals who have changed their racial self-identification on the U.S. census from non-Indian to Indian.” Phillip Deloria (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), a scholar of Native American and environmental history, has noted that white settlers “playing Indian” is as old asthe colonies and the United States: from the Boston Tea party to the Boy Scouts.
Racial resentment = An indirect measure of anti-Black prejudice that blends racial animus with traditional moral values associated with social conservatism and Republican Party membership identification. Explicit prejudice may better explain which whites discriminate; it may have greater behavioral implications. Explicit prejudice is widespread among white Americans and significantly less partisan than resentment. The racial resentment scale includes agreement or disagreement with items like “Over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they deserve.” “Resentment powerfully predicts a host of attitudes about public policy, including race-based policies like affirmative action, as well as evaluations of political candidates.” (Pasek, Josh, Alexander Tahk, Yphtach Lelkes, Jon A. Krosnick, B. Keith Payne, Omair Akhtar, and Trevor Tompson. 2009. “Determinants of Turnout and Candidate Choice in the 2008 US Presidential Election.” Public Opinion Quarterly 73 (5): 943–94)
Random/randomness = Randomness is a property of nature. Presentation of events such that each has an equal probability of appearing in place and time. The events are not predetermined. This means that there is no fact of the matter in existence at an earlier time that determines its occurrence. Randomness arises from the absence of rules, and occurs without the causality of preconceived notions. There is some dispute whether absolute randomness actually exists, since events in the past determine the present and the future. Achieving or producing randomness on purpose is difficult. How does one eliminate all causes, explicit and implicit?
How does one eliminate unknown or third causes? This can be a form of willful ignorance. Ignorance, or not knowing, can be used positively for social progress. For example, employers can eliminate knowledge of applicants’ race, ethnicity, gender, disability, etc., so that these elements do no influence choice and hiring. This is input randomness. This approach is found for example in “blind” auditions for musicians in an orchestra, which the applicant sits behind a curtain and the auditors cannot see her. This technique has resulted in very substantially increased presense of female classical orchestra members. A self-initiated example is the fact that some African-American job applicants have erased any hint of Blackness from their resumes, in order to try to obtain a fairer (more random) selection and hiring result.
One may aim to come as close to randomness as possible. One may construe randomness simply as a limit on our knowledge. See also “chaos.” It is often defined in terms of probability. Random effects are not orderly. In terms of the philosophy of science, randomness focuses on the inability of an agent to determine, on the basis of her knowledge, the future occurrences in a sequence of events. Human intervention is a disturbance of random order. Discrimination is such a disturbance. In a random sample, every element in a population has an equal chance of being selected for the sample. In terms of tests for randomness, in computer science, the basic idea is that a sequence is random if the computer programs needed to generate the sequence are as long as the sequence itself.
“In statistics, the selection of a random sample is important to ensure that a study is conducted without bias…Randomness as a quality of a series of events is believed to be the result of numerous minor causes producing small effects as an outcome that results in no systematic predictability for a given event in the series. The result of the many small causes, some canceling each other, is the independence of each event from the others. It is notable that the operation of causation is not denied in the universe of events and experiences. Rather, the causal background to a series of random events is interpreted as a multiplicity of small influences, some almost infinitesimal in impact, with some causes canceling or partially canceling the influence of other causes. The outcome is a series of events with independent occurrence in relation to each other. The word chance is used in popular speech to refer to this condition wherein events are generated independently of each other.” (Randomness; Encyclopedia.com; May 18, 2018)
See also “Random error.”
See also “Entropy,” which “is used in several different ways…but it always refers to some notion of randomness, disorder, or uncertainty. For example, in physics the term is a measure of a system’s thermal energy, which is related to the level of random motion of molecules and hence is a measure of disorder…[In] information theory…entropy has a very precise mathematical definition measuring randomness and uncertainty.” (Stephen R. Tate; Entropy; Principles of Computer Security; University of North Carolina at Greensboro; 2020)
See also “Chaos.” “Chaos is somewhere between random and predictable. A hallmark of chaotic systems is predictability in the short term that breaks down quickly over time…” (Michael Newberry; Chaos is Not Randomness: A Complex Systems Scientist Explains; HowStuffWorks; October 8, 2021; https://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/physics-terms/chaos-random-news.htm)
“Others there are who believe that chance is a cause but that it is inscrutable to human intelligence as being a divine thing and full of mystery.” ~ Aristotle, Physics, Book II, 4
Randomization = “Random and Haphazard, though sometimes used interchangeably. In literal terms, haphazard is a process occurring without any apparent order or pattern, whereas statistical definition of random is assignment resulting from a chance process in which the probability of any given assignment is known. It forms the basis for the derivation of statistical tests. Very importantly, randomization avoids selection bias that could occur if either the physician or the patient chooses the treatment. Randomization also removes most confounding by all known and unknown factors, because it prevents an association between the treatment and any other known or unknown factor. In other words, it minimizes the possibility that the observed association between the exposure and the outcome is really caused by a third factor.” (Misra S. Randomized double blind placebo control studies, the “Gold Standard” in intervention based studies. Indian J Sex Transm Dis AIDS. 2012 Jul;33(2):131-134. doi: 10.4103/0253-7184.102130. PMID: 23188942; PMCID: PMC3505292)
Ranking and Rating = “Rating scales are one of the most widely used research methods in the social sciences, because they provide a quick means of obtaining mountains of numerical data that can then be interpreted through statistical analysis…For rating scales to be valid, we must assume that, in making a mark on a scale, our respondents are immediately, unitarily, and accurately accessing their mental states and that these states are inherently quantifiable…” (Quantification; The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy. Klaus Bruhn Jensen and Robert T. Craig (Editors-in-Chief), Jefferson D. Pooley and Eric W. Rothenbuhler (Associate Editors). © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016)
Ratio Measures = One thing compared to another, often in the form X over Y, such as miles per gallon.
RDBPC = “Studies follow a hierarchy in terms of the quality of evidence that they can provide. Randomized double blind placebo control (RDBPC) studies are considered the “gold standard” of epidemiologic studies… RDBPC studies remain the most convincing research design in which randomly assigning the intervention can eliminate the influence of unknown or immeasurable confounding variables that may otherwise lead to biased and incorrect estimate of treatment effect. Also, randomization eliminates confounding by baseline variables and blinding eliminates confounding by co-interventions, thus eliminating the possibility that the observed effects of intervention are due to differential use of other treatments. The best comparison is placebo control that allows participants, investigators and study staff to be blinded. The advantage of trial over an observational study is the ability to demonstrate causality.” (Misra S. Randomized double blind placebo control studies, the “Gold Standard” in intervention based studies. Indian J Sex Transm Dis AIDS. 2012 Jul;33(2):131-134. doi: 10.4103/0253-7184.102130. PMID: 23188942; PMCID: PMC3505292)
Regression analysis = Quantitative analysis relevant to underrepresentation can be done through regression analysis in pay equity contexts and in employment discrimination. Multiple regression analysis of data on hiring and promotion can help determine whether underrepresentation occurs for reasons that are not explained when the effects of seniority, qualifications and other legitimate factors are taken into account. Multiple regression can also reveal whether salary differences between groups can be accounted for by characteristics such as education or seniority, or whether a salary gap remains that is not explained. The gap may be attributed to discrimination, provided that the job-related factors expected to determine salary have been included in the analysis. This kind of analysis uses the organization’s own compensation data without the need for external comparative data. (Carol Agocs; Surfacing Racism In The Workplace: Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence of Systemic Discrimination; December 2004; Ontario Human Rights Commission)
Religious Exemption = “This notion, which is different than the First Amendment-inspired ministerial exception and derives from the plain text of Title VII, exempts certain religious organizations from Title VII’s non-discrimination strictures “with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-1(a). For instance, a Baptist church may favor hiring a Baptist minister or liturgical worship leader over a Methodist or Lutheran candidate, regardless of their respective qualifications. But the religious exemption has only ever been applied as a defense to claims of religious discrimination.” (Squire Patton Boggs; Fourth Circuit Holds Firm Against Expansion of Religion-Based Defenses to Discrimination (US); Lexology; May 13, 2024)
Return on Investment = “ROI is used in financial analysis and provides the investor with an indication of the efficiency of an investment by comparing profits related to capital invested. It therefore allows a comparison of alternative investment options based on efficiency. ROI can be estimated using a ratio between the net present value of benefits and the net present value of costs. The net present value is usually discounted for value generated over time (5). ROI only accounts for pecuniary value – which is derived from market prices – and it has limitations in accounting for externalities1 and for investments advancing the public good (7). 2 In fact, in the real world no business activity is limited to its purely microeconomic aspects, as there are consequences which also affect broader social, economic and environmental dimensions (externalities).” (Hamelmann C, Turatto F, Then V, Dyakova M. Social return on investment: accounting for value in the context of implementing Health 2020 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2017 (Investment for Health and Development Discussion Paper)
Reverse discrimination = A controversial term used to describe attitudes, behaviors, and policies which are allegedly racially discriminatory in a way contrary (reverse) to a historical pattern of racial discrimination. Usually a historically sociopolitically nondominant race is perceived to benefit at the expense of a historically sociopolitically dominant race. Alleged reverse discrimination is used as an attack on affirmative action.
Risk = The probability of failure times the consequences. Adverse uncertainty or the chance of loss. The uncertainty of event occurrence is subjective and indicates the existence of “whether or not,” “when,” “circumstance,” and “severity.” Risk raise the probability of an adverse event occurring. Risk can be balanced against probable benefits resulting from the action.
Risk assessment = A systematic approach to quantify the burden of harms/disease/injury resulting from risk factors, to identify those components most vulnerable to disruption or destruction, and to assess the likely impact that they would have on the organization. There are six assumptions implicit in standard risk-assessment models:
(1) risk independence,
(2) risk averaging,
(3) risk uniformity,
(4) risk non-transferability,
(5) risk synchrony, and
(6) risk accumulation and chaining.
Risk assessment practice attempts to answer the following questions:
- What can go wrong?
- How likely is it?
- What are the consequences?
Risk tolerance = How much risk is an organization willing to tolerate? What is the internal acceptance? These are thresholds, and organizations differ in culture. Legal counsel are often very concerned with legal or litigation risk or hazards.
Rooney Rule = A National Football League policy requiring teams to interview at least one diverse candidate for any head coaching or front office vacancy. See “NFL Expands Rooney Rule Requirements to Strengthen Diversity,” NFL Communications, 2018)
Root cause analysis = A process for finding the true causes of events, then identifying and implementing containment, corrective, and (preferably) preventive actions. It is a systematic analysis of an issue to identify the root causes rather than the symptoms. Managers will want to use this type of analysis to uncover the underlying causes of problems. If you really want to get to the bottom of a problem, then you need to take the time to identify the root cause, otherwise you will just be addressing the symptoms. Before beginning this type of analysis, the responsible entity needs to understand the difference between cause and effect. Addressing the effect is like addressing a symptom…the real problem has not been identified and therefore may not go away.
Sample size = How large the sample from your data is. The larger your sample size, the more confident you can be in the result of your conclusions. You’ll run into sampling errors if your sample size is too low.
Sampling = Not collecting or capturing all of a type of data, often because the overall database is too large. There are many types of sampling, including random, cluster sampling, and screening. Sampling can miss rare populations, and must be statistically significant.
Screen = “To make a determination about whether a candidate for employment or
employee being considered for promotion should be selected or advanced in the hiring or promotion process.”
New York City regulations, 20-870, Subchapter 25; https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/newyorkcity/latest/NYCadmin/0-0-0-135839)
““Selection rate” means the rate at which individuals in a category are either selected to
move forward in the hiring process or assigned a classification by an AEDT. Such rate may be calculated by dividing the number of individuals in the category moving forward or assigned a classification by the total number of individuals in the category who applied for a position or were considered for promotion.”
(New York City regulations, 20-870, Subchapter 25; ““Selection rate” refers to the proportion of applicants or candidates who are hired, promoted, or otherwise selected. The selection rate for a group of applicants or candidates is calculated by dividing the number of persons hired, promoted, or otherwise selected from the group by the total number of candidates in that group. For example, suppose that 80 White individuals and 40 Black individuals take a personality test that is scored using an algorithm as part of a job application, and 48 of the White applicants and 12 of the Black applicants advance to the next round of the selection process. Based on these results, the selection rate for Whites is 48/80 (equivalent to 60%), and the selection rate for Blacks is 12/40 (equivalent to 30%).” (EEOC, 5/2023)
Self-identification = Employees and those served, such as students, are often given the opportunity to self-identify what group or groups they belong to. The organization generally should not question this self-identification. There is often a temptation by organization staff, such as human resources, to be surprised by the group, especially racial/ethnic, a person picks. This is especially true if a person who identifies as African-American looks “white.” However, racial identification is not determined by skin tone or color. There are times when staff members may purposely list themselves as members of a particular racial or ethnic group if they perceive that a benefit will be bestowed. An example if school teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District in the 1970’s, when, to avoid reassignment from one school to another to enhance racial balancing, hundreds of white teachers listed themselves as Native Americans.
Sensitive populations = The most recent EPA Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup grant guidelines for brownfields funding denote “sensitive populations,” including “minority or low income communities,” as a way to demonstrate community need on an application.
Sentiment analysis = “[A]lso referred to as opinion mining…an approach to natural language processing (NLP) that identifies the emotional tone behind a body of text…is a popular way for organizations to determine and categorize opinions about a product, service or idea…the use of data mining, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence and computational linguistics to mine text for sentiment and subjective information such as whether it is expressing positive, negative or neutral feelings. Sentiment analysis systems help organizations gather insights into real-time customer sentiment, customer experience and brand reputation. Generally, these tools use text analytics to analyze online sources such as emails, blog posts, online reviews, customer support tickets, news articles, survey responses, case studies, web chats, tweets, forums and comments. Algorithms are used to implement rule-based, automatic or hybrid methods of scoring whether the customer is expressing positive words, negative words or neutral ones. In addition to identifying sentiment, sentiment analysis can extract the polarity or the amount of positivity and negativity, subject and opinion holder within the text. This approach is used to analyze various parts of text, such as a full document or a paragraph, sentence or subsentence.” (Nick Barney; Sentiment Analysis; TechTarget; no date; accessed 3/22/2023)
Shared Equity Leadership = “The research team at USC’s Pullias Center for Higher Education…studied campuses that have made progress on eliminating equity gaps and advancing their DEI agendas…identified Shared Equity Leadership (SEL) as the approach for making true progress that creates culture change. The SEL approach deeply and successfully embeds DEI into day-to-day campus operations. In SEL, equity becomes everyone’s work and not the work of a Chief Diversity Officer or DEI office. By embedding DEI in faculty, administrative and staffs’ roles throughout the campus, the work is not made a target for cuts. Not only does this approach shield DEI from cuts but also ensures the work has the critical mass of human resource to be embedded and move forward to transform the experience of students to be more positive. This leadership model supports the organizational structure to broadly distribute work, provides the planning and accountability apparatus so that the work is sustained over time, even as it is distributed among many more people…campuses that have implemented the SEL approach become much more diverse in terms of hiring, promotion and retention of faculty and staff from diverse racial backgrounds.” (Adrianna Kezar; Higher Education DEI Efforts are in Trouble. Here’s How We Change That; Diverse Issues in Higher Education; March 14, 2023)
Shortfall = “The difference between the actual number of persons in the nonfavored group who were selected for the employment opportunity at issue (hires, promotions, etc.) and the number expected to have been selected in proportion to their representation in the pool of qualified candidates, absent discrimination. This concept does not generally apply to compensation discrimination cases, which revolve around wage-setting decisions, not decisions involving job opportunities.” (OFCCP)
Significance = An observed event is considered to be statistically significant when it is highly unlikely that the event happened by random chance. Making sure that a relationship between sets of numbers actually exists. Statistical significance helps quantify whether a result is likely due to chance or to some factor of interest. If a statistic has high significance, it’s considered more reliable.
Similarly-situated employee groupings (SSEGs)= (Office of Federal Contract Compliance, Dept of Labor term) SSEGs are groupings of employees who perform similar work, and occupy positions with similar responsibility levels and involving similar skills and qualifications. (69 FR 67253-67254)
“Skin color is often seen as synonymous with race or, at minimum, treated as the key criterion influencing categorical racial attribution. Recent research across the social and biomedical sciences complicates this view, however, conceptualizing skin color as one among many measures or dimensions that are related to perceptions of race and racism. In particular, there is a growing multidisciplinary literature on colorism that examines skin color variation to better understand both within- and between-group inequality across a range of socioeconomic and health outcomes (Branigan and Hall, 2023; Dixon and Telles, 2017; Laidley et al., 2019; Monk Jr., 2021; Stewart et al., 2020; Sweet et al., 2007). Collectively, this research indicates that skin color can be used either alongside other dimensions of race to identify more complex patterns of inequity or on its own to capture a broader range of variation in human skin color, tone, reflectance, or some combination of the three.” (National Academy of Sciences;
Social categorization interventions = Interventions or training that encourage participants to rethink group boundaries or to prioritize common identities shared with specific outgroups. “Methods of intervening on this basic phenomenon fall into two major categories: modifying intergroup boundaries and changing the perceptions of groups within the existing boundaries…Interventions aimed at changing perceptions of the category structures of the outgroup most often focus on changing negative outgroup stereotypes and perceptions of outgroup homogeneity.” (Paluck, op cit)
Social deprivation index = Several European countries have adopted social deprivation indices in measuring the impact that social determinants can have on health. Such indices provide a geographic, area-based measure of how socioeconomically deprived residents of that area are on average. An area deprivation index or ADI has also been developed. It reflects socio-economic indicators, and consistent standardized measurement of social determinants, or social risk factors. “Area Deprivation Index (ADI) as a proxy measure for socioeconomic status to capture patient-level social risk factors not currently available in clinical information systems. Geographic deprivation indices based upon census data have been developed, validated, and used in Western Europe to characterize an individual’s socioeconomic condition given their address of residence in support of ongoing public health initiatives…ADI is primarily focused on the measurement of economic characteristics of a neighborhood, though there are social components. The terms “deprivation” and “material deprivation” describe neighborhood characteristics being measured using the ADI and equate generally to socioeconomic position.” (EGEMS; 2016; 4(3): 1238. Published online 2016 Aug 11. Introduction of an Area Deprivation Index Measuring Patient Socioeconomic Status in an Integrated Health System: Implications for Population Health; Andrew J. Knighton, PhD, CPA, Lucy Savitz PhD, MBA, Tom Belnap MS, Brad Stephenson, and James VanDerslice uses 17 United States Census measures including education, employment, income and poverty, and housing—to characterize the level of deprivation by neighborhood. “Community socioeconomic measures describe important aspects of social organization, structure, stratification, or environment, such as socioeconomic deprivation, economic inequality, resource availability, and opportunity structure…These indicators, drawn from the 1990 census, included educational distribution (percentage of the population with less than 9 years and with 12 or more years of education), median family income, income disparity, occupational composition, unemployment rate, family poverty rate, percentage of the population below 150% of the poverty rate, single-parent household rate, home ownership rate, median home value, median gross rent, median monthly mortgage, and household crowding. Other indicators were percentages of households without access to a telephone, plumbing, or motor vehicles; English language proficiency; divorce rate; percentage of urban population; and percentage of immigrant population.” ( American Journal of Public Health, 2003 July; 93(7): 1137–1143.doi: Area Deprivation and Widening Inequalities in US Mortality, 1969–1998; Gopal K. Singh, PhD, MS, MSc)
Social Distancing = Social distance describes the distance between different groups of society and is opposed to locational distance. The notion includes all differences such as social class, race and ethnicity, and sexuality, and also the fact that the different groups do not mix. The term is often applied in cities, but its use is not limited to that. Social periphery is a term often used in conjunction with social distance. It refers to people distant with regard to social relations. It is often implied that it is measured from the dominant elite or dominant group.
Social equity = “The fair, just and equitable management of all institutions serving the public directly or by contract, and the fair and equitable distribution of public services, and implementation of public policy, and the commitment to promote fairness, justice, and equity in the formation of public policy.” (National Academy of Public Administration, Standing Panel on Social Equity). “Social Equity is fairness in the delivery of public services; it is egalitarianism in action-the principle that each citizen, regardless of economic resources or personal traits, deserves and has a right to be given equal treatment by the political system.” (Shafritz and Russell, 2003, p. 395) The American Planning Association defines social equity (or “community equity”) as “the expansion of opportunities for betterment that are available to those communities in most need of them, creating more choices for those who have few.” Ultimately, social equity means that access to all aspects of the community (including health, safety, open space, transportation investments, and economic development) is fair for all residents—regardless of socioeconomic status, race, class, ethnicity, gender, age, or ability.
Dimensions of social equity include the following:
A. Procedural fairness. Examination of problems or issues in procedural rights (due process), treatment in procedural sense (equal protection), and determination of eligibility within existing policies and programs.
B. Access — Distributional equity. Review of current policies and services including assessment of programs that reflect any of the distributional approaches to addressing inequality, i.e., (1) simple equality, (2) differentiated equality, (3) targeted intervention, (4) redistribution, and (5) equal results
C. Quality—Process equity. Review of the level of consistency in the quality of existing services delivered to groups and individuals. Process equity requires consistency in the nature of services delivered to groups and individuals regardless of the distributional criterion that is used. For example, is garbage pickup the same in quality, e.g., extent of spillage or missed cans, in all neighborhoods? Do children in inner city schools have teachers with the same qualifications as those in suburban schools? Does health care under Medicaid match prevailing standards of quality? Presumably, a commitment to equity entails a commitment to equal quality.
D. Outcomes. Disparities in outcomes for population groups (e.g., by race or income). The analysis includes consideration of how social conditions and individual behavior affect outcomes or limit the impact of government services, i.e., what underlying conditions contribute to differences in outcomes?
(Jim Svara. 4/13/04. Projects Two and Five: Social Equity Indicators and Methodology for Equity. Impact Assessment)
Social Equity Impact Assessment = Impact assessment is the process of identifying the future consequences of a current or proposed action…The “impact” is the difference between what would happen with the action and what would happen without it. (International Association for Impact Assessment)
Social exclusion = Denials or violations of rights tend to be based on social exclusion and discrimination. Social exclusion occurs where particular individuals or groups are excluded by (or adversely incorporated into) mainstream society from participating fully in economic, social and political life. In order to combat this, increasing attention is being paid to how to facilitate grater – and more equitable – inclusion. It is argued that greater equality in the distribution of economic resources, measured by distribution of income and access to land, is related to higher levels of human rights protections. (Governance and Social Development Resource Centre) Social exclusion is linked to aggressive behavior and decrements in intelligent thought (Baumeister, Twenge, & Nuss, 2002)
A socially disadvantaged group, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture policy guidelines, “is a group whose members have been subject to racial or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities.” They include African Americans, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Asians, Hispanics, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
Social return on investment (SROI) = “An investment approach aiming to maximize the synergies and co-benefits for health and sustainable development should: • take into account investments in all sectors; • define returns beyond individual shareholder value; • identify adequate measurements for the defined returns; • take a value-driven approach, considering the social, economic and environmental dimensions and equality; • be rights and gender based, ensuring the well-being of present and future generations. Building on the financial analysis method of return on investment (ROI), social return on investment (SROI) is a concept to account for value created, which includes not only individual shareholder profit, but also the benefits for the broader public in the social, economic and environmental spheres.” (Hamelmann C, Turatto F, Then V, Dyakova M. Social return on investment: accounting for value in the context of implementing Health 2020 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2017 (Investment for Health and Development Discussion Paper)
Social sanctioning = Some experiments have been done to discover if social sanctioning can reduce prejudiced behavior. “Social norms theory suggests that peers or elites can communicate about what kinds of behaviors are not typical or desirable, thus establishing clear normative boundaries.” For example, Twitter bots can reproach people who use the N-word. “[F]indings indicate that only sanctioning from an in-group user with a high number of followers led to an immediate average reduction in harassment, which gradually declined over the next two months (although a subset of those rebuked in this way increased their level of harassment). No effects were apparent for any other type of intervenor, including White sanctioners with few followers. The theoretical implications are that norm enforcement can be influential, but only when the messenger is a credible member of the ingroup, and even then the effect of a single enforcement gradually fades.” (Paluck, op cit)
Socio-Economic Status (SES) = A person’s circumstance or context in society, which may be expressed and/or measured using criteria such as income, educational level attained, occupation, value of dwelling place. SES is often used as a technical or social construct to measure a person’s societal circumstance. Socioeconomic status is a primary determinant of health vulnerabilities and social affiliations. It is defined by material wealth, occupation, and participation in educational and social institutions (Oakes & Rossi, 2003). SES determines the substance of material life, from the foods and arts people enjoy (e.g., Bourdieu, 1985; Snibbe & Markus, 2005), to the schools, social clubs, and activities people engage in (Domhoff, 1998), to the likelihood of health and mood related vulnerabilities (Adler et al., 1994; Link, Lennon, & Dohrenwend, 1993). Upper SES individuals, by implication, should tend to be less dependent upon others, for the simple reason that they have resources to accomplish many tasks of social adaptation (Argyle, 1994). For complementary reasons, lower SES individuals, often lacking basic resources, should tend to be more dependent upon others. Recent empirical studies suggest that it is difficult to find a facet of social behavior or life outcome that is not colored by SES.
“Socioeconomic status is often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation. It is commonly conceptualized as the social standing or class of an individual or group. When viewed through a social class lens, privilege, power, and control are emphasized. Furthermore, an examination of SES as a gradient or continuous variable reveals inequities in access to and distribution of resources. SES is relevant to all realms of behavioral and social science, including research, practice, education, and advocacy.” (American Psychological Association)
SOGI = Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity; also “SOGIE,” an acronym for sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.
Special needs populations = Populations whose members may have additional needs before, during, and after an incident or project in functional areas, including but not limited to:
- Maintaining independence
- Communication
- Transportation
- Supervision
- Medical care
- Evacuation
- Housing
Individuals in need of additional response assistance may include those who have disabilities; who live in institutionalized settings; who are elderly; who are children; who are from diverse cultures; who have limited English proficiency; or who are non-English speaking; or who are transportation disadvantaged.
In practice, the term can also include people who live in poverty, receive public assistance, or students who receive subsidized lunches; people without private transportation or who rely on public transportation; and people who rely on caregivers for assistance in daily living and would need similar assistance in an emergency and those who live independently or with the caregiver(s) in their homes, assisted living housing, nursing homes, supervised group homes, hospitals, and other health care facilities. (Nationwide Plan Review Phase 2 Report, U.S. Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the US Department of Transportation, June 16, 2006. Page 41)
The term may also include people who are culturally or geographically isolated, people with substance abuse issues, the homeless, marginally housed or shelter-dependent, children with special circumstances (unattended minors, foster care or residential living situations), and single parent households.
Stale Data = Data becomes old. Old data becomes stale data that is more likely to be inaccurate…Older data needs constant culling from the system. “It’s often easier and cheaper to delete data past a certain expiration date than to deal with the data quality issues of using that stale data.” (First Eigen, op cit)
Standards = Standards provide a ruler or benchmark against which to evaluate your work and the work of the organization. They are related to benchmarking. They should be explicit and agree to by all actionable parties. They should be more universal than culture bound, and should ideally be quantitative and objective rather than qualitative and subjective. The are often established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model, example, or point of reference. A reasonable person should be able to understand them. Organizations such as ASTM (formerly American Standards Institute) and the ISO (International Standards Organization) establish standards for various industrial processes. They protect the producer and the consumer, user, or client. The ISO has established a diversity and inclusion standard.
Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting = In May 1977, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued “Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting.” The standards were developed in response to the need to enforce civil rights laws in education. These classifications were not to be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature, or to be viewed as determinants of eligibility for participation in any Federal program. They were developed in response to needs expressed by both the Executive Branch and the Congress to provide for the collection and use of compatible, nonduplicated, exchangeable race and ethnicity data by Federal agencies. This Directive specified four categories for race:
- American Indian or Alaskan Native
- Asian or Pacific Islander
- Black
- White
And two categories for ethnicity:
- Hispanic
- Not of Hispanic origin
The OMB Directive specified two questionnaire formats for data collection: (1) a format combining race and ethnicity, and (2) a preferred format with two separate questions for race and ethnicity. Since 1977, SPD 15 has been revised one time, resulting in the 1997 Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. The goals of SPD 15 are to ensure the comparability of race and ethnicity across Federal datasets and to maximize the quality of that data by ensuring that the format, language, and procedures for collecting the data are consistent and based on rigorous evidence. To achieve these goals, SPD 15 provides a minimum set of categories that all Federal agencies must use if they intend to collect information on race and ethnicity, regardless of the collection mechanism ( e.g., Federal surveys versus program benefit applications).
The 1997 Standards (Current Standards): For data collected directly from respondents, the current standards require two separate race and ethnicity questions, with the ethnicity question collected first before the race question.
- For the question “Are you Hispanic or Latino?”, the minimum reporting categories are:
1. Hispanic or Latino: A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban [5] , South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term, “Spanish origin,” can be used in addition to “Hispanic or Latino.”
2. Not Hispanic or Latino
Note that Hispanic or Latino respondents may be of any race, and multiple responses to the ethnicity question are not permitted.
- For the question and instructions “What is your race? <`Mark’ or `Select’> one or more”, the minimum reporting categories are:
1. 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 tribal affiliation or community attachment.
2. 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.
3. Black or African American: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as “Haitian” or “Negro” can be used in addition to “Black or African American.”
4. Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
5. White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
The 1997 revision of SPD15 gave respondents the opportunity to report multiple races. The 1997 standards emphasize that self-identification using separate race and ethnicity questions is the preferred means of obtaining information about an individual’s race and ethnicity. However, 1997 standards allow using a combined race and ethnicity question format where observer identification is the only or most feasible collection mode.
The 1997 standards’ minimum categories do not identify or designate certain population groups as “minority groups.” Additionally, the standards state that these categories are not to be used for determining the eligibility of population groups for participation in any Federal programs.
Some Other Race: Under the 1997 standards, data collections by Federal agencies may not include a Some Other Race (SOR) response category unless required by statute. Since 2005, the decennial census and American Community Survey (ACS) are required by law [7] to include a SOR category, thereby adding a sixth minimum race category for these collections. The decennial census and ACS are the only information collections with a statutory requirement for the use of a SOR category.
Structured interviews = Some experts believe that it is better to use interviews of potential employees that always follow the same questions, feeling that this will help reduce or eliminate bias through subjectivity. However, the down side is not using follow up questions, to probe elements in the applicant’s responses or application materials.
Supplier Diversity = Procurement programs and initiatives designed by organizations to encourage business relationships, procurement commitments and to provide equal access and opportunity to small and minority-owned businesses. Targeted businesses typically include small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, woman-owned small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses, minority and women business enterprises, and HUB Zone Businesses (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) to participate as partners and suppliers of goods and services within a corporate supply chain.
Sustainable development = Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. To determine if something is sustainable, three elements must be considered: economics, environment, and social equity.
Targeted Universalism = Setting universal goals pursued by targeted processes to achieve those goals. Within a targeted universalism framework, universal goals are established for all groups concerned. The strategies developed to achieve those goals are targeted, based upon how different groups are situated within structures, culture, and across geographies to obtain the universal goal. Targeted universalism is goal oriented, and the processes are directed in service of the explicit, universal goal. (University of California, Berkeley. (n.d.). Targeted Universalism. Othering & Belonging Institute. There’s some question as to what this concept actually is and how to implement it.
Testing = Field trials to determine likely discrimination using paired individuals used in civil rights as well as research contexts, such as the well-known 1985 Toronto study by Frances Henry and Effie Ginzberg, to identify direct but covert race discrimination in hiring. Employment testing compares hiring outcomes for applicants of color with outcomes for dominant group applicants when two groups of testers representing each group are given matching qualifications and apply for the same job vacancies. Useful evidence may include interview records and testers’ narratives in addition to the success ratios (call-backs, hiring) for the two groups. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance have authorized use of testing to uncover discrimination.
Test Unfairness = “[U]se of selection procedures based on scores when members of one group characteristically obtain lower scores than members of another group, and the differences are not reflected in measures of job performance…Differential validity and test unfairness are conceptually distinct. Differential validity is defined as a situation in which a given instrument has significantly different validity coefficients for different race, sex or ethnic groups. Use of a test may be unfair to some groups even when differential validity is not found.
Differential prediction is a central concept for one definition of test unfairness. Differential prediction occurs when the use of the same set of scores systematically over predicts or under-predicts job performance for members of one group as compared to members of another group.” (Uniform Selection Procedures for Employee Selection; EEOC; 1979)
Theory of change (TOC) = Articulation of the underlying beliefs and assumptions that guide a service or production delivery strategy and are believed to be critical for producing change and improvement. Theories of change represent beliefs about what is needed by the target population or customer base and what strategies will enable them to meet or achieve those needs. They establish a context for considering the connection between a system’s mission, strategies and actual outcomes, while creating links between who is being served, the strategies or activities that are being implemented, and the desired outcomes. A theory of change has two broad components. The first involves conceptualizing and operationalizing the three core frames of the theory. These frames define:
- Populations: who is being served.
- Strategies: what strategies will accomplish desired outcomes.
- Outcomes: what the organization intends to accomplish.
Best practice in the development of a theory of change calls for a group process that will allow key stakeholders or partners to grapple with directions for change and come to common agreement about the impact of advocacy and policy work. Although various partners may have different individual and group agendas, the theory-of-change work will produce a clear statement about what success will look like—both in the short- and long-term.
The process of developing a theory of change offers powerful insight for all of the partners and stakeholders about the How, What and Why of the organization’s work. The strategies and outcomes clarify the How and What. The articulation of the ultimate impact describes Why the work is happening. The product of this work provides clarity for developing an evaluation design. This clarity is essential for determining responses to key evaluation design questions, such as the following: What specific strategies and outcomes should be measured? What should be the frequency and duration of evaluation data collection? What should be the level of rigor of the evaluation structure and processes? What types of quantitative or qualitative methodologies might be applied? And, what will be the format for communicating results? (Jane Reisman, Anne Gienapp and Sarah Stachowiak, A Guide To Measuring Advocacy And Policy, Organizational Research Services, Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2007)
Token/ Tokenism = An organization making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to take a particular action regarded publicly as good, especially by hiring one or a small number of people from underrepresented groups to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality and fairness in a workforce.
Tolerance = Acceptance and open-mindedness to different practices, attitudes, and cultures; does not necessarily mean agreement with the differences. Can have a bad connotation as not being sufficiency respectful or sincere. Not a popular term in the civil rights community. Tolerance in the face of injustice, as Herbert Marcuse recognized, is itself repressive. On the other hand, William Ury notes, “tolerance is not just agreeing with one another or remaining indifferent in the face of injustice, but rather showing respect for the essential humanity in every person.” (William Ury, Getting To Peace (New York: The Penguin Group, 1999), 127.)
“Tolerance does not mean acceptance or agreement. Neither does it mean passivity in the face of cruelty or intolerance. The “paradox of tolerance,” as Karl Popper observed, is that the absence of rules and constraints can put freedom and pluralism at risk. But as learning institutions and vital pillars of democratic societies, universities must allow different voices and ideas to be heard, and then subject them to the critical scrutiny of rational, evidence- based argument. Moreover, as institutions seeking to produce (in the language of the Fundamental Standard) “good citizens” (and hence good people), universities must call forth tolerance in the sense of “respect” for “the rights and dignity of others, regardless of personal characteristics,” such as race, religion, gender, nationality or sexual orientation.” (Stanford Antisemitism Study Committee Repot; 5/2024)
Total Selection Process = “[T]he combined effect of all selection procedures leading to the final employment decision such as hiring or promoting. For example, appraisal of candidates for administrative assistant positions in an organization might include initial screening based upon an application blank and interview, a written test, a medical examination, a background check, and a supervisor’s interview. These in combination are the total selection process. Additionally, where there is more than one route to the particular kind of employment decision, the total selection process encompasses the combined results of all routes. For example, an employer may select some applicants for a particular kind of job through appropriate written and performance tests. Others may be selected through an internal upward mobility program, on the basis of successful performance in a directly related trainee type of position. In such a case, the impact of the total selection process would be the combined effect of both avenues of entry.” (Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection; EEOC, 1979)
Townsend Index = “A Townsend score can be calculated using a combination of four census variables for any geographical area (provided census data is available for that area). The measure has been widely used in research for health, education and crime to establish whether relationships exist with deprivation. Deprivation indices typically include unemployment, overcrowding and car ownership. Other variables can include non-home ownership.
Transformative change = “The notion of transformative change is concerned with both processes and outcomes. As a normative concept, it goes beyond an understanding of change as something becoming different without an assessment of what this difference entails. Change that is considered transformative restructures ‘the underlying generative framework’ of social injustice, as opposed to ‘affirmative remedies … aimed at correcting inequitable outcomes of social arrangements without disturbing the underlying framework that generates them’.” (Hujo K, Braumann H, Esquivel V, van Griethuysen P, Krause D, Utting P, et al. Policy innovations for transformative change : implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development; 2016)
Transparency = The practice of “making implicit and explicit values known or potentially discoverable by providing accessible information about research methods and data.” There are two types of transparency that are important for understanding ethical data practices in citizen science.
(1) scientifically relevant transparency: “refer[s] to efforts designed to assist scientists in achieving their goals, such as promoting new scientific discoveries and maintaining the reliability of scientific research.”
(2) socially relevant transparency “focused on providing information that enables decision makers and members of the public to make effective use of scientific research” (Elliot & Resnik, “Making Open Science Work for Science and Society,” 2019).
It is important to be transparent with project participants about the following:
- What data is being collected about participants?
- What data is being collected by participants? Who will have access to the data?
- Who will use the data?
- How will they use the data?
How will it positively or negatively affect the community?
In community-based research projects, it is important to think about the answers to these questions:
- What are the most preferred forms of communication (mail, email, in person, etc.)?
- How is important information communicated (MOA/MOU, Informed Consent, Privacy Policy?
- When does it happen (during/after project planning, upon joining, throughout participation, etc.)?
- Who is responsible for ensuring it happens (appointed community member, scientist, etc.)?
Trigger = An indicating number in a database or display or dashboard that tells the reviewer when action is necessary. It usually must be significant and not minimal or random.
Unbundling = The process of breaking up larger contracts given by organizations into smaller parts to increase competition and make it easier for small and diverse companies to participate, such as DBEs.
Underrepresentation = A term used to describe a situation where a smaller number of protected class employees are represented than parity, fairness, and randomness would predict. It is having materially fewer minorities or women in a particular job group than reasonably would be expected based upon their availability. The US federal government’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) regulations define underrepresentation as “having materially fewer minorities or women in a particular job group than would reasonably be expected based upon their availability.” The OFCCP definition is important because many federal contractors are subject to its requirements. Underrepresentation is a statistical disproportion, usually calculated similarly situated people in the labor pool. That is to say, matched by education background, for example. Such statistical analysis can be conducted for job cachement areas, a recruiting pool, or the entire country. Underrepresentation can be calculated for race, ethnicity, sex, disability, age, LGBT status, income level, etc. Statistical underrepresentation may exist when the number of protected-class members employed in the job categories is fewer than the number of qualified protected-class members that would be reasonably expected to be employed by the availability in the relevant labor market areas, based upon census data and other labor force, demographic, and education information.
Undersampling = In research and data collection, not collecting enough information on certain demographic sub-groups. Not obtaining adequate sample sizes for stable estimations. The derivation of sample sizes that are useful for the analysis of subgroups will likely require oversampling. However, the oversampling of targeted groups (such as Asian-Americans with a disability) is cost-prohibitive and, if undertaken, would likely not be sustainable in the current budget climate.
Underserved communities = EO 13985 uses the term “underserved communities,” referring to “populations sharing a particular characteristic…that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life.”
Underserved student = “A student (which may include children in early learning environments, students in K– 12 programs, students in postsecondary education or career and technical education, and adult learners, as appropriate) in one or more of the following subgroups: (a) A student who is living in poverty or is served by schools with high concentrations of students living in poverty. (b) A student of color. (c) A student who is a member of a federally recognized Indian Tribe. (d) An English learner. (e) A child or student with a disability. (f) A disconnected youth. (g) A technologically unconnected youth. (h) A migrant student. (i) A student experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. (j) A lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, or intersex (LGBTQI+) student. (k) A student who is in foster care. (l) A student without documentation of immigration status. (m) A pregnant, parenting, or caregiving student. (n) A student impacted by the justice system, including a formerly incarcerated student. (o) A student who is the first in their family to attend postsecondary education. (p) A student enrolling in or seeking to enroll in postsecondary education for the first time at the age of 20 or older.” (Final Priorities and Definitions— Secretary’s Supplemental Priorities and Definitions for Discretionary Grants Programs; US Department of Education; 34 CFR Part 75; December 10, 2021)
Underutilization = Workforce participation of fewer people of color, women, or people with disabilities in a particular job group than would reasonably be expected, given their availability. The difference between availability of women and minorities with requisite skills in the reasonable recruitment area, and actual participation must be statistically significant for the disparity to indicate underutilization.
Universalism = Universal equality is a treasured political concept in France, but recent anxiety over the country’s Muslim minority has led to an emphasis on a new form of universalism, one promoting loyalty to the nation at the expense of all ethnic and religious affiliations. See also Laitie.
Unobtrusive measures = Access to internal data can sometimes show unexpected results.
Validity = “Face validity is manifested when the questions asked mimic what we are attempting to measure. When a measure covaries with similar constructs in a predictive way, tests for convergent validity have been met. Predictive validity occurs when we can predict what we aimed to explain. Discriminant validity occurs when a measure predicts what it should but also is unrelated to measures to which it is not theoretically tied.” (DeSante, C., & Smith, C. (2020). Fear, Institutionalized Racism, and Empathy: The Underlying Dimensions of Whites’ Racial Attitudes. PS: Political Science & Politics, 53(4), 639-645. doi:10.1017/S1049096520000414)
Value consistency and self-worth interventions = “Draw on what is believed to be a universal human desire to maintain a consistent and positive image of the self and of the group…These interventions include reminders of individuals’ or their group’s egalitarian preferences or history in order to inspire consistency with that history in the present moment, remind people of moral exemplars, and provoke introspection about one’s existing beliefs and prejudices.” (Paluck, op cit)
Variation = The greater the variation in the underlying data set, the larger the sampling error.
Vicarious racial discrimination = “For Black women, vicarious racial discrimination may occur when they observe racial discrimination or violence towards other members of the Black community—this includes family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and/or individuals that are not personally known to the individual. Importantly, vicarious racial discrimination is typically reported more frequently compared to personal racial discrimination—particularly among women. Over the years, police violence has been commonplace, with multiple Black individuals dying at the hands of police officers. Witnessing police violence is one way in which individuals could be exposed to racial discrimination vicariously. Neighbors and bystanders are often subjected to emotional and psychological trauma from witnessing racial discrimination via acts of police brutality. In recent years, such events have garnered significant media attention with periods of protest, riots, and civil unrest following many events. A study conducted by Hines and colleagues found a relation between proximity to civil unrest and depressive symptoms among Black individuals living in two low-income neighborhoods. Similarly, participants in another study reported greater maternal depressive symptoms following civil unrest in their community as compared to before the event [20].” (Brown, K.L., Bettencourt, A.F., Hines, A.L. et al. Association Between Maladaptive Eating Behaviors Among Black Women and Vicarious Racial Discrimination Following a High-Profile Event. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2024).
Virtue signaling = A public expression or statement, often by progressive or liberal organizations, attempt to show society and the media that an organization is a good social actor or that one is a good person, for example by expressing opinions that are approved by or will be acceptable to them, especially on social media regarding current social issues. The expression is often used by those on the right to imply that the virtue being signaled is exaggerated or insincere.
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