Coding Race: A QuantCrit Review of Published Higher Education Studies

• In Event: Assessment, Research, and Equitable Practice

Abstract

We investigate how researchers have operationalized racial categories in regression analyses and how their reference category selection practices may reinforce whiteness, further marginalizing the outcomes among minoritized students. In this study, we reviewed 97 articles in a leading higher education and student affairs journal. We found that many of the articles we reviewed did not state the race referent group or chose whites as the referent group without a clear rationale. However, we observed more recent articles did address their rationale for the selection or used effect coding to avoid choosing a certain racial group as a reference. We offer implications for more equitable ways of selecting and communicating a reference group for race in quantitative studies.

Authors

• Hyun Kyoung Ro, University of North Texas
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth J Ramon, University of North Texas
  Non-Presenting Author

• LaToya Haynes, University of North Texas
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelsey Kunkle, University of North Texas
  Non-Presenting Author