Education & Education Reform

Women and girls have made substantial progress in educational attainment. Today in the US women receive more than half of all college degrees – and have almost achieved parity with men in advanced degrees in law, medicine and other disciplines. But several gaps persist, and more importantly, disparities remain among diverse women according to race, income, immigrant status and other socio-economic factors. Improving access to quality education for all students including adolescent girls and mothers needs to become a national and global priority. Explore the resources listed below, including Related Categories links, or use the Keyword Search for more information.

Celebration and Struggle: Pregnant and Parenting Teens Honor Title IX Anniversary and Demand Equal Treatment

Teaser:

This week, the ACLU of New Mexico, Young Women United and the Southwest Women’s Law Center brought together Brianna and nearly 50 other young parents and parents-to-be from all over the state at the New Mexico State Capitol. There, they stood up to demand respect, recognition and elimination of educational barriers for pregnant and parenting teens.

Editorial:

From the ACLU Blog of Rights:

40 years ago, Title IX was enacted to ensure that young women and girls would be given equal access to education. Pregnant and parenting teens, however, are a group who are often denied the benefits of Title IX. Only 38 percent of teen mothers nationwide who give birth under the age of 18 earn a high school diploma by age 22. In a state like New Mexico, which has the second highest teen birth rate in the nation, this leaves thousands of young mothers with higher rates of unemployment, lower earning potential and decreased access to health care every year.

But what’s preventing teen parents from graduating?

Pregnant and parenting teens face many barriers to completing their education, including lack of childcare, financial challenges, school attendance policies that penalize teens struggling to take care of their own and their children’s health, and inflexible academic policies that prohibit them from making up missed classwork.

[...]

Source:

ACLU Blog of Rights

URL:

http://www.aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/celebration-and-struggle-pregnant-and-parenting-teens-honor-title-ix-anniversary

Date:

January 30, 2012

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CIRP Freshman Survey Media Coverage

Teaser:

The articles have started to come in on the CIRP Freshman Survey results, and as usual everyone takes a slightly different look. Here are a few of the stories.

Source:

HERI Blog

URL:

http://heri.ucla.edu/blog/?p=1344

Date:

January 26, 2012

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Gender equity: Doing the math

Teaser:

Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers, the coauthors of "The Truth About Girls and Boys: Challenging Toxic Stereotypes About Our Children," argue that as boys and girls become more equal in math skills, everyone benefits.

Editorial:

From the Los Angeles Times:

Do boys lose out when girls start to do better in math? Do girls' successes lead to a "boy crisis"? An important new study says the answer is a definitive no. When girls do better in society, both sexes benefit. Gender equity is good for everybody.

And boys and girls are becoming more equal, globally, in math performance. The study by Jonathan M. Kane and Janet E. Mertz of the University of Wisconsin analyzed scores from more than half a million fourth- and eighth-graders from 86 countries. It found essentially no gender differences between girls and boys in math performance.

The students came from Western and Asian democracies and developing countries, as well as Muslim countries notable for their sex-segregated classes. But the really surprising finding was that the more equal the societies were around gender, the better everybody did in math. As the researchers conclude, "gender equity and other sociocultural factors … are the primary determinants of mathematics performance at all levels for both boys and girls."

[....]

Source:

Los Angeles Times

URL:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rivers-gender-equity-20120124,0,26553.story?track=rss

Date:

January 24, 2012

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Acosta/Carpenter Women in Intercollegiate Sport A Longitudinal, National Study Thirty-Five Year Update: 1977-2012

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 11:35am

In 2012, forty years after the enactment of Title IX, there are an average of 8.73 womenʼs teams per school and a total of about 200,000 female intercollegiate athletes: the highest in history.

In 1970, prior to the 1972 enactment of Title IX, there were only 2.5 womenʼs teams per school and only about 16,000 total female intercollegiate athletes. In 1977/1978, the academic year preceding the mandatory compliance date for Title
IX, the number of varsity sports for women had grown to 5.61 per school.

A decade later, in 1988, the number had grown to 7.71 and at the turn of the century, the growth continued to 8.14.
Today, in 2012, the average number of womenʼs teams per school sets an all time record of 8.73 giving weight to the adage: “If you build it, they will come.”

URL:

http://acostacarpenter.org/AcostaCarpenter2012.pdf

Member Organization:

Project on Women and Social Change

Female Participation in College Sports Reaches All-Time High

Teaser:

Forty years after the passage of federal legislation used to prevent gender discrimination in college sports, female participation opportunities have reached a record high.

Editorial:

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Nearly 200,000 female athletes will suit up this year on 9,274 NCAA teams. That's an average of 8.7 women's teams per college—the highest number ever, according to a report to be released on Monday.

Although some sports have seen a decline in participation—including ones with high numbers of minority athletes—the overall numbers have grown markedly during the past two years. That is remarkable, considering the budget constraints many institutions have faced, say the report's authors, R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter, professors emerita of Brooklyn College. They've been studying women's sports since the enactment of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

"This gives credence to the good will and understanding that if athletics belongs on campus, it belongs there because it has some connection to the educational mission—and if so, those opportunities should be open to both men and women," Ms. Carpenter said in an interview.

[...]

Source:

Chronicle of Higher Education

URL:

http://chronicle.com/article/Female-Participation-in/130431/

Date:

January 23, 2012

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Teen's Girl Scout Cookie Boycott Sparks Debate

Teaser:

A 7-year-old transgender child's inclusion in the organization prompted the girl's call for a boycott.

Editorial:

From NBC Southern California:

A Ventura County girl scout sparked a heated discussion nationwide after posting a video to Youtube advocating for the boycott of Girl Scouts of the USA’s annual cookie sale.

The unidentified 14-year-old asked people to boycott the cookies, which have become a staple in the homes of many Americans, after a transgender child was allowed to join a troop in Colorado.

[...]

Source:

NBC Southern California

URL:

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Teens--Boycott-Girl-Scout-Cookies-Transgender-Boy-Bobby-Montoya-137325068.html

Date:

January 17, 2012

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Science grant to help women

Teaser:

A National Science Foundation grant recently awarded to Gonzaga University is aimed at bringing more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers, often called the STEM fields.

Editorial:

From the Spokesman-Review:

The nearly $600,000 grant also seeks to help advance women who are teaching in colleges and universities.

While representation in science and technology fields has improved during the past half-century, “women remain vastly underrepresented among working engineers and in many STEM fields,” said Joanne Smieja, a GU chemistry and biochemistry professor, who is leading the effort.

A 2010 study by the American Association of University Women concluded that there are three reasons for the inequality between men and women in the sciences: “Social and environmental factors shaping girls’ achievements and interest in math and science; the college environment; and continuing importance of bias, often at an unconscious level, blocking women from STEM.”

The five-year project is in its first year.

The grant money will help Smieja lead a nationwide network of 70 female faculty members from 12 undergraduate institutions in an effort to change the “current culture in STEM fields.” The project will use mentoring to encourage female faculty to advance in their careers.

...

Source:

The (Spokane) Spokesman-Review

URL:

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jan/17/science-grant-to-help-women/

Date:

January 17, 2012

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Out-of-School Time Drawing Girls Into STEM

Teaser:

It’s another engineering “design challenge” at Techbridge, an after-school program for girls that encourages interest in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—subjects. Close to 30 girls are here this day at Arroyo High School, one of 21 Techbridge sites in California’s Bay Area that serve more than 600 elementary and secondary girls in total, close to 90 percent of whom are minority students.

Editorial:

From Education Week:

While Techbridge still operates a number of after-school programs like Arroyo’s, its other related STEM initiatives, scaled by large national funders like the National Science Foundation, Google, and the Noyce Foundation have enabled the organization to reach in excess of 10,000 girls in the out-of-school-time space to date.

Those efforts coincide with the national momentum to teach STEM curricula outside traditional school walls, targeting minority, underprivileged, and female students not well represented in the STEM professions. Such environments could be a catalyst, some believe, that shifts students’ attitudes about STEM through innovative teaching methods not bound by the same protocol of the school day.

According to Techbridge Executive Director Linda Kekelis, the statistics on who pursues STEM careers has more to do with conditioning than predisposition. With the right curriculum and right environment, she said, it’s possible to change a student’s mind.

...

Source:

Education Week

URL:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/01/05/15stem.h31.html?tkn=VLVFEyO%2BZeON%2FWfhSgIFyl7SfOc8jdNuvRgn&cmp=clp-edweek

Date:

January 6, 2012

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Instead of Work, Younger Women Head to School

Teaser:

Workers are dropping out of the labor force in droves, and they are mostly women. In fact, many are young women. But they are not dropping out forever; instead, these young women seem to be postponing their working lives to get more education. There are now — for the first time in three decades — more young women in school than in the work force.

Editorial:

From the New York Times:

Many economists initially thought that the shrinking labor force — which drove downNovember’s unemployment rate — was caused primarily by discouraged older workers giving up on the job market. Instead, many of the workers on the sidelines are young people upgrading their skills, which could portend something like the postwar economic boom, when millions of World War II veterans went to college through the G.I. Bill instead of immediately entering, and overwhelming, the job market.

Now, as was the case then, one sex is the primary beneficiary. Though young women in their late teens and early 20’s view today’s economic lull as an opportunity to upgrade their skills, their male counterparts are more likely to take whatever job they can find. The longer-term consequences, economists say, are that the next generation of women may have a significant advantage over their male counterparts, whose career options are already becoming constrained.

...

Source:

New York Times

URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/business/young-women-go-back-to-school-instead-of-work.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=women&st=cse

Date:

January 4, 2012

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New Hampshire Ends Affirmative-Action Preferences at Colleges

Teaser:

Public colleges in New Hampshire are precluded from using affirmative-action preferences in hiring or admissions decisions under a new law that took effect on January 1 after being passed by the state's legislature last year with relatively little public opposition.

Editorial:

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

The measure prohibits New Hampshire's university system, community-college system, postsecondary education commission, and other state agencies from giving preferences in recruiting, hiring, promotion, or admission "based on race, sex, national origin, religion, or sexual orientation."

Both chambers of the state's legislature, which came to be dominated by conservative Republicans as a result of the 2010 elections, overwhelmingly passed the measure last spring. The measure went into law after Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, took no action on it.

In sharp contrast to other states that have experienced highly publicized battles over similar bills or ballot initiatives, New Hampshire passed its measure with little input from national advocacy groups on either side of the affirmative-action debate.

...

Source:

Chronicle of Higher Education

URL:

http://chronicle.com/article/New-Hampshire-Ends/130196/

Date:

January 4, 2012

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