The Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA) recently awarded University of Kentucky Family Sciences doctoral student Albert Ksinan with a Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) Emerging Scholars Grant to analyze data from the United States Department of Education (ED).

Ksinan, from Ostravice, Czech Republic, and a member of UK's Graduate Student Congress, will use the CRDC datasets to conduct an extensive study under the guidance of Alexander T. Vazsonyi, John I. and Patricia J. Buster Endowed Professor of Family Sciences in the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and professor of psychology. The study will assess racial disparities among American high schools with a particular emphasis on potential similarities or differences in rural versus non-rural school settings.

"I am very happy to be given the wonderful opportunity to work with the national data set on all American schools," Ksinan said. "However, our work is just beginning. At the end of it, we hope to shed some light on prevailing racial disparities in school discipline measures and to see which districts are affected the most."

The grant was made possible with support from The Atlantic Philanthropies.

"Based mostly on his own initiative, this is a tremendous opportunity for Albert in terms of the research process and experience to work with this national data set," said Vazsonyi. "I am also humbled that he received such an important international recognition, though he is very deserving of it. Albert will undoubtedly benefit greatly from both the experience and the exposure moving forward at the University of Kentucky and beyond."

The U.S. Dept. of Education directs the CRDC to collect data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools. The agency collects a variety of information including student enrollment and educational programs, disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, limited English proficiency and disability. The CRDC is a longstanding and important aspect of the department's Office for Civil Rights' overall strategy for administering and enforcing civil rights statues for which it's responsible.

Founded in 1984, the SRA is widely considered the premier research organization focused on theoretical, empirical and policy research issues of adolescence. Through its biennial meetings and publications, SRA promotes the distribution of research on adolescents and serves as a network and forum for its members.