MITRE’s data-driven responses to a White House inquiry on how Federal agencies can better support collaboration with other levels of government, civil society, and the research community around the production and use of equitable data.
MITRE’s Response to the OSTP RFI on Equitable Data Engagement and Accountability
What’s the issue?
As part of the President’s Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government (E.O. 13985), the Administration convened a Federal Equitable Data Working Group to study existing Federal data collection policies, programs, and infrastructure to identify inadequacies and provide recommendations that lay out a strategy for increasing data available for measuring equity and representing the diversity of the American people. OSTP issued an RFI seeking input on how to encourage diverse collaborations across levels of government, civil society, and the research community.
What did we do?
The Center for Data-Driven Policy led a cross-MITRE analysis of the questions posed in the RFI, seeking to uncover data and evidence (from our work in the public interest) that would help the Working Group answer its questions and subsequently make policy decisions that are evidence-based, actionable, and will lead to their desired outcomes.
What did we find?
MITRE provided an overarching recommendation that the Working Group’s scope of interest should expand beyond access and use to include preceding collection activities, and to investigate all three holistically. We also provided examples of ongoing data collaborations involving equitable data and lessons learned from our work supporting such activities.