In response to President Biden’s Executive Order calling for a “whole-of-government equity agenda,” the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a report in July that provides guidance to federal agencies about what methods they can use to assess the extent to which their work advances racial equity and supports underserved communities in the U.S. The report is ground-breaking in its recognition of “administrative burden” and lack of stakeholder engagement as factors that exacerbate inequality, such as when citizens interact with government technology and eligibility processes. Yet, the OMB report falls short of explicitly recommending the use of qualitative methods (or a combination of qualitative and quantitative investigations, also known as “mixed methods”) to assess equity. This is a missed opportunity as qualitative data can reveal nuances of experiences that quantitative analysis alone cannot.
The value of qualitative data for advancing equity in policy (brookings.edu)
