Results can only be disaggregated when there are 5 or more responses in a given group in order to protect participant privacy and encourage participants to respond honestly.
When particular groups do not have enough responses to disaggregate, we combine those responses into a “Small Groups” category (see the red arrow on the graph below). For example, if a Class had four African American students, three Latinx students, and three Middle Eastern students, responses from these three groups would be combined into the single Small Groups bar with 10 responses. This protects participants’ privacy while still making sure all groups are represented in the report to the extent possible.
Note that, in some cases, data also are “blurred” or “perturbed” to prevent unintended disclosure.
