>Subject: Re: Diversity in the Classroom for 4th graders
>
>Dear Christine:
>You might be interested in a study of the status of Title IX in the
>K-12 Michigan schools. It addresses the need to incorporate
>curriculum changes into the classroom in a co-educational setting.
>You can find the report at the follwing site, but with out the graphs:
>http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/6628/titleix.htm
>A summary is below the quote.
>It seems to me such a study would be an excellent project for such a
>class. I wonder if any other states have conducted an assessment of
>Title IX in their state through Women's Studies or otherwise?
>
>
>Christine wrote:
>> Hi I am a graduate student taking a course called Diversity in the
>Classroom. I am doing a group project where we want to incorporate
>more curriculum regardig women into the classroom, particularly 4th
>grade. The idea is to give the girls more self esteem and confidence
>to pursue any goal she may have.
>> Christine_Mele@student.uml.edu
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>March 15, 1998
>
> Michigan NOW Assesses Title IX's 25 Years of Progress
>for Women and Girls
>
> March is Women's History month and there is no question that Title IX
>of the
>Education Amendment of 1972 changed the course of history for women by
>bringing
>expanded opportunities and better education to America's women and
>girls. But a new
>report by the Michigan National Organization for Women on Michigan's
>efforts to comply
>with Title IX asks if this is the progress you would expect after
>twenty-five years.
> Michigan NOW's Education Task Force report on the progress made under
>Title
>IX uses K-12 education data available through the Michigan Department
>of Education and
>the Michigan High School Athletic Association and compares it to an
>earlier Michigan
>NOW report in order to assess the efforts of Michigan School Districts
>to eliminate sex
>discrimination, sex bias and sex-role stereotyping and to point to the
>work that must be
>done in the coming years.
> Here are some of the findings from the report:
> The science gender gap has closed in the lower grades but remains in
>the eleventh
>grade, according to the Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP)
>test. In the
>eleventh grade, only 37.7 percent of the boys and 26.7 percent of the
>girls were classified
>as proficient in science. National trends show more girls than boys
>taking biology and
>chemistry and more boys than girls taking physics.
> More girls than boys tend to do well on the MEAP test in reading and
>writing and
>more boys than girls do well in math. Nationally, girls are less
>likely than boys to take
>remedial mathematics, more likely to take algebra II, and just as
>likely to take
>trigonometry and calculus.
> There is no systematic approach in Michigan schools to include the
>teaching of
>women's history. Women's history is not part of the new Social
>Studies Standards for
>Core Curriculum. A Michigan Department of Education Office for Sex
>Equity in
>Education study found that 81 percent of autobiographies and
>biographies in schools
>were about men and 70 percent of sports books were about men.
> Approaches to increasing enrollments of girls in Trade and Industry
>vocational
>education have been unsuccessful and wasted thousands of dollars. The
>percentage of
>vocational education programs that are male sex segregated has risen
>from 41 percent in
>1978-70 to 64 percent in 1995-96, denying girls opportunities to train
>for
>vocational-technical occupations that provide the most economic
>benefit. Occupational
>opportunities for both girls and boys in the other programs in
>vocational education have
>increased with the systemic redesign of the programs.
> The Michigan Department of Education does not monitor enrollments in
>charter
>schools and new vocational-technical education programs such as
>Tech-Prep and
>Apprenticeship Programs to ensure they are complying with Title IX.
> Since 1994, the Michigan Department of Education has dismantled the
>Office for
>Sex Equity in Education, chief source of Title IX technical
>assistance.
> Michigan girls are 46 percent of the participants in athletics
>compared to 7 percent
>prior to Title IX's passage. Nationally, girls are 39 percent of the
>participants, although
>most schools do not count competitive cheerleading as a sport, as
>Michigan does.
>Inequities still exist in treatment, seasonal scheduling practices,
>facilities, coaching and
>representation of women in MHSAA decision-making.
> A successful law suit in 1991 against all-male academies in Michigan
>by NOW
>Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Michigan American Civil
>Liberties Union
>strengthened the legal position that "separate is not equal" under
>Title IX and other Civil
>Rights laws.
> When the issue of sexual harassment in the schools emerged during the
>1980s and
>90s, new legislation was passed by the Michigan legislature in 1993 to
>require all schools
>to develop a sexual harassment policy.
> There are now 44 women school superintendents in Michigan, an
>increase from
>one percent to 9 percent since 1979-80. Fifty-one percent of the
>elementary principals are
>women and 18 percent of the secondary principals, an increase from 21
>percent and three
>percent respectively.
> Women have progressed from 22 percent of the science teachers to 39
>percent and
>from 35 percent of the math teachers to 49 percent. Women are now 39
>percent of the
>social studies teachers, up from 23 percent. But Industrial Arts (99
>percent male teachers)
>and Home Economics (99 percent female teachers) staffing patterns have
>not changed.
>The percentage of male elementary teachers has decreased from 15.7
>percent to 13
>percent.
> Michigan NOW's goal is to build a society of partnership for women
>and men, at
>home, at school, and at work. The report cautions against using
>gender gap data to invent
>new sex-role stereotypes. In that context, the report suggests
>approaches to utilize
>systemic change and co-educational approaches to sex equity in
>education.
> The Michigan NOW report calls on School Boards, educators and parents
>to use
>the provisions mandated in the School Reform legislation, PA 335, to
>ensure that
>remaining inequities based on gender are eliminated through the
>process of
>self-examination and improvement planning that is required for school
>reform and
>accreditation.
> Copies of the report, "Title IX in Michigan, 1972-1997," by Elizabeth
>A. Homer,
>chair of the Michigan NOW Education Task Force, may be obtained by
>sending $5.00 to
>the Michigan NOW, P.O. 18063, Lansing, MI 48901 . Checks payable to
>the Michigan
>NOW.
> The full text of the report may be found on the internet at:
>http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/6628/titleix.htm The web cite
>report does not
>contain the graphs used to illustrate the data in the report, however.
> Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 states, "No person in
>the United
>States, shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in,
>be denied the benefits
>of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or
>activity receiving
>Federal financial assistance."
>
>####
>
>Contact: Jo Jacobs, former Title IX coordinator for the State of
>Michigan 616/345-5853
> Elizabeth Homer, author of the report and Chair of the Michigan
>NOW
> Education Task Force 517/483-4220
>Related web sites:
>"Title IX in Michigan, 1972-1995"
>http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/6628/titleix.htm
>AAUW's just released report, "Separated by sex: A Critical Look at
>Single-Sex
>Education for Girls," http://www.aauw.org
>U.S. Department of Education Title IX 25th Anniversary Report at
>http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Title IX/title.html
>The National Coalition for Women and Girls' "Report Card on Gender
>Equity" at
>http://www.aauw.org/1000/summary.html
>
>