Potential Federal/NGO Initiative to Maximize Potential of Title IX
Coordinators
Various colleagues have been urging the sharing of this idea for ED and
others
to support Title IX Coordinators. This could be a useful suggestion for
action
for the President's Interagency Council for Women and their Sept. 28, 1996
National Teleconference to Follow-up on Commitments from the Beijing World
Conference on Women. Now is also a good time because of all the positive
publicity associated with Title IX and our female winners at the Olympics.
Please let us know what you think of these initial ideas. If you think they
have potential, how you would improve them?
What do you know about current Title IX coordinators?
DRAFT Aug. 6, 1996---------
MAXIMIZING THE POTENTIAL OF TITLE IX COORDINATORS TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUITY IN
EDUCATION
Background:
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is an important federal civil
rights law which has been credited with contributing to the success of girls
and
women in and through education. It has received recent praise for helping
U.S.
women win at the Olympics and for increasing the numbers of female
postsecondary
education graduates. To attain even greater progress toward gender equity,
renewed attention to Title IX' s past and potential impact is crucial since
sex
stereotypes and discriminatory barriers still limit the success of many males
and females and since some of the federal programs which supported Title IX
are
in jeopardy.
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all education
programs
or activities which receive federal financial assistance. To help this
happen,
Title IX contains a provision that all educational institutions receiving
this
financial assistance should designate an employee to coordinate efforts to
carry
out the provisions of Title IX. (For definitions and details see the Rules
and
Regulations, Federal Register/ Vol. 45, No. 92, May 9, 1980.)
The federal government working with organizations devoted to promoting equity
could do much to help these Title IX Coordinators do their job. However,
without a renewed effort, many federal programs which have assisted Title IX
Coordinators and others are likely to be diminished with recent changes such
as
the loss of FY 1996 funding for the Civil Rights Act Title IV State Equity
Staff and the Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) program and the potential
loss of the state vocational education Sex Equity Coordinators when the
Perkins
vocational education legislation is replaced. The need for a knowledgeable
gender equity expert in each public or private agency, institution, or
organization which operates an educational program receiving federal funds is
also essential with the current emphasis on comprehensive educational reform
efforts since, like females in general, gender equity concerns are often
neglected.
The Strategy:
The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) concerned with promoting gender
equity in and through education could work with the Department of Education
(ED)
and other governmental agencies to help Title IX Coordinators increase their
abilities to "monitor" and implement gender equity in their own domains.
Federal and state governments may do this by developing national and state
networks of Title IX coordinators and their NGO partners. Such networks
would
tap into national resources such as those of the Women's Educational Equity
Act
Resource Center and the National Women's History Project and national
organizations such as the American Association of University Women, the
National
Coalition for Sex Equity in Education, Girl Scouts, Girls Incorporated,
National
Council for Negro Women, and the Association for Women in Science (add a
feminist men's organization to list). These networks would also work
closely
with other organizations and networks concerned with related educational
equity
mandates such as increasing equity for groups which often face discrimination
and stereotyping based on race, ethnicity, poverty, disability, sexual
orientation, or limited English proficiency. By networking with each other
and
other equity experts, the Title IX Coordinators could share strategies to
gain
support for their work and to identify and increase their effectiveness in
assuring equity on the basis of sex in their educational institutions. The
Department of Education, working with NGO's could facilitate this work by:
- developing and sharing lists of Title IX Coordinators
- helping the Title IX Coordinators receive assistance from ED supported
activities such as the "edequity" listserv and publications of the WEEA
Equity
Resource Center, the Regional Civil Rights Act Title IV Equity Assistance
Centers, the Comprehensive Technical Assistance Centers and the National
Education Dissemination System.
- supporting national and regional conferences, and
- using the Title IX coordinators as advisors for -- and users of -- the work
of
the Gender Equity Expert Panel which is to designate promising and exemplary
products, programs, practices and policies to help consumers such as the
Title
IX coordinators, their educator colleagues/clients and their NGO partners
select
what will be best for them.
- suggesting that Title IX Coordinators be called "Title IX Gender Equity
Coordinators"