Data About LGBT Students Could Help Address Harassment and Bullying

​Collecting data about school discipline encounters involving LGBT students could help policymakers and educators create a safe learning environment for LGBT teens, suggests a new research brief co-authored by Stephen Russell, Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at UT Austin, in collaboration with the Equity Project at Indiana University. 

​The paper discusses the necessity of data about issues on campus like disciplinary measures against and bullying of LGBT students and how important it is for data collection to be thoughtful and anonymous. It lays out the criterion which the data must meet in order to be useful to policymakers and educators, as well as safe for students. Further, it tackles the problems with data collection and the privacy of the student by comparing the proposed data collection to existing programs for data collection about civil rights. 

Read on for more about the brief and recommendations from Dr. Russell and the Equity Project:

• Data Lacking About How LGBT Students Are Treated at School, Researchers Say​ Education Week
• Why Schools Need To Learn More About Their Students' Sexual Identities: Researchers say that more data is needed about LGBT students Huffington Post