A Study of Compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 in Selected Iowa Public School Districts

Abstract

The problem. The regulations for implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 became effective in July, 1975. Three years have elapsed since the regulations went into effect and no one had identified the degree of its implementation in Iowa schools. The purposes of this study were: (1) to assess the extent of compliance with the administrative requirements of Title IX in Iowa public schools, K-12; (2) to assess the extent of compliance with the program requirements of Title IX in Iowa public schools, K-12; and (3) to determine if a relationship existed between compliance with the administrative requirements and compliance with the program requirements of Title IX. Procedure. A questionnaire was developed to survey local Title IX coordinators about compliance with Title IX. A total of sixty questionnaires were mailed. Fifty, or 83.33 percent, returned questionnaires which provided the data for this study. Respondents represented approximately ten percent of all Iowa public school districts. The questionnaire data were analyzed using a SPSS computer program which yielded percentages, frequency distributions, cross tabulations with Chi-Square, Kruskall-Wallis H tests, and Mann-Whitney U tests. Responses were categorized by size of school district and by position and sex of Title IX coordinator. The conventional alpha levels of .05 and .01 were established to determine significance. Findings. The study found the following: (1) Most Iowa public school districts had appointed a Title IX coordinator, issued a board policy, disseminated information relative to Title IX to their clients, and conducted a self-evaluation. (2) Local Title IX coordinators were mainly male administrators. Most of them were appointed after the required date, 54 percent were comfortable and 46 percent were uncomfortable or neutral with their assignments, and although they indicated that it was important to be active coordinators, they had not been very active. (3) Large school districts differed from small and middle size districts in that they found fewer violations in employment through their self-evaluations, hired more women administrators, spent a smaller percentage of their athletic budgets on girls athletics, and their ratio of women administrators to men administrators in the district was lower. (4 ) Title IX corrdinators who were central office administrators tended to disseminate more information about Title IX than coordinators in other positions. (5) Women Title IX coordinators were found to be more comfortable with their assignments and were more active in implementing their responsibilities than were their male counterparts. (6) Most Iowa public school districts were in compliance with the program requirements of Title IX. (7) The results obtained made it impossible to test the relationship between compliance with the administrative requirements of Title IX and compliance with its program mandates. Conclusions. As a result of the self-report data collected, the major conclusion of the study was the following: The majority of Iowa public school districts are in compliance with the majority of the administrative and program requirements of Title IX. A secondary conclusion reached was that the role of local Title IX coordinator is not very well-defined in public school districts. Recommendations. (A) Research: As a result of the findings and major conclusion, the following recommendations were made for further research: (1) Studies of Title IX compliance in Iowa that concentrate on one aspect of Title IX requirements in order to assess quality of compliance. (2) Studies in process regulations that test the assumption that a built-in process for change will lead to more effective compliance with the overall intent of the regulation or law. (B) Implementation: As a result of the findings and secondary conclusion, the following recommendations were made for further implementation of Title IX. (1) Better defined role for the local Title IX coordinator. (2) On-going in-service on Title IX for local coordinators, certified and non-certified staff, students, parents and community residents. (3) Outside monitoring of Local Educational Agencies by the Iowa Department of Public Instruction and citizens' groups to assess the quality of local school district compliance with Title IX.