January 14, 2015
*Dear Dry,*
*Feminist Majority Foundation Resources to Help you
Advance Title IX in 2015!***
*Two ways you can advance gender equality in education:*
* Help us update our lists of public K-12 coed schools with sex-segregated academic classes and all-girl and all-boy public schools in your area.
* Learn if schools in your area have appointed and trained their required Title IX coordinators to prevent and stop sex discrimination.
*1. Help us update our lists of public K-12 schools with deliberate sex segregation.*
The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) just completed its second national study “ [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/IdentifyingSexSegregation12-12-14.pdf ]
*Identifying US K-12 Public Schools with Deliberate Sex Segregation* [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/IdentifyingSexSegregation12-12-14.pdf ].” We found that the number of US public K-12 coed schools with single-sex academic classes and all-girls and all-boys schools have continued to increase since the 2006 G.W. Bush-era Title IX regulation that made it easier to establish single-sex education in public schools.
Our new FMF study lists 699 public K-12 coed schools with single-sex academic classes, which exist in almost every state. Additionally, there are 106 all-girls or all-boys public schools. Our lists identify these schools by name with location and state. * [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/List1.pdf ]List 1 contains 699 coed schools with single-sex academic classes [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/List1.pdf ]. [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/List3.pdf ]List 3 contains 67 all-girl public schools [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/List3.pdf ]**. * [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/List4.pdf ] [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/List4.pdf ]*List 4 contains 39 all-boy public schools [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/List4.pdf ].*
We* *found that most of these schools are serving middle and high school students, vulnerable populations of African-American and Latino/a students. More of the single-sex classes in coed schools are for boys than girls, but of the 106 single-sex public schools, more were for girls than boys. We included the girls public schools for pregnant and parenting girls. However, we excluded schools for youth in juvenile reform institutions which are mostly for boys.
Since our main source of information for these lists was from the 2011-12 Civil Rights Data Collection from the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, *we need your help in learning if these schools are continuing their deliberate sex segregation during this 2014-2015 school year and if **there are additional schools currently using sex segregation that should be added to these lists.*
In addition to containing information on this and our previous “State of Public School Sex Segregation in the US (2007-2010)” study, our [ http://feminist.org/education/SexSegregation.asp ]*sex segregation web page [ http://feminist.org/education/SexSegregation.asp ]* [ http://feminist.org/education/SexSegregation.asp ] has a convenient handout on “ [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/ProblemswithSexSegregated2.pdf ]*Problems with Sex-Segregated Public Education* [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/ProblemswithSexSegregated2.pdf ] [ http://feminist.org/education/pdfs/ProblemswithSexSegregated2.pdf ]” that you may want to share with others. It also has links to the December 1, 2014 Department of Education single-sex guidance and the * [ http://www.feminist.org/education/pdfs/SuggestedEvaluationGuidanceSingleSexEd.pdf ]**FMF evaluation suggestions [ http://www.feminist.org/education/pdfs/SuggestedEvaluationGuidanceSingleSexEd.pdf ]* [ http://www.feminist.org/education/pdfs/SuggestedEvaluationGuidanceSingleSexEd.pdf ] for Phase II work on learning if the identified schools are complying with safeguards against sex discrimination.
*2. Make sure your local schools have appointed and trained their required Title IX coordinators*
These Title IX coordinators, required since the 1975 Title IX Regulation, are employees responsible for the full implementation of Title IX in their schools.
Title IX coordinators have responsibilities in all areas such as academic opportunities, sex segregation, athletics, sexual harassment and assault, avoiding discrimination related to pregnancy and parenthood, career and technical education, science, technology, mathematics and educator employment. Title IX coordinators are important and deserve community recognition and support for their work.
FMF encourages equity advocates to identify, work with, and support their local Title IX coordinators to ensure that there is continual attention to ending all types of illegal sex discrimination in their schools.