November 5, 2019
Civil Rights: Understanding Parity
Submitted by Jennifer R Wilson
Parity. That’s a funny spoof video, right? No, wait, that’s a parody. Parity may not be a familiar term, but it’s an important one to be familiar with to ensure civil rights compliance. Parity is a relevant measure of how well Extension is meeting the federally mandated requirement of serving all Kansans without discrimination.
Programs are considered to be in parity when the percentage of each racial/gender/ethnic category in our client contacts (program participants) is within 80 percent of the percent of that category in the potential clientele group (local population). For example: if the potential audience for an Extension program is 80% white and 20% Native American, and the actual face to face contacts for that program are 90% white and 10% Native American, then the program is not in parity with respect to Native Americans.
In order to determine if our programs are in parity, we must first know who the potential clientele are. This information can come from several sources. The US Census is a good starting place, but we may also need to look at more specific community data sets such as the Census of Agriculture.
As we know our potential clientele, we should also know our actual contacts. Over the past few months many have questioned the need to report quarterly client contacts. Reporting is a key element of civil rights compliance. Reporting client contacts not only helps us to quantify the reach of our Extension programs, but reporting the demographics of those we serve helps us to know if we are achieving parity.
When we have not achieved parity in program participants we must demonstrate (and document) “all reasonable efforts” we have implemented to attempt to achieve parity. (See last week’s Tuesday Letter article about “all reasonable efforts.”)
Expect to hear more about parity and learn how to calculate parity for local programs during this winter’s civil rights trainings.