Owning His Gay Identity -- at 15 Years Old (Washington Post, July 14, 2008)
School's out, and Saro Harvey and his best friend, Samantha Sachs, are hanging out in his Arlington County bedroom. She is slouched across his bed, and he is poised on a chair, posture-perfect, wearing dark, skinny jeans and a ruffled shirt meant for a girl. A rust-orange purse he sometimes carries hangs behind the door.

Keep Boys And Girls Together In The Classroom To Optimize Learning, Research Suggests (Science Daily, May 14, 2008)
Boys and girls may learn differently, but American parents should think twice before moving their children to sex-segregated schools. A new Tel Aviv University study has found that girls improve boys’ grades markedly at school.

African American Males in Education: Endangered or Ignored? (Teachers College Record, April 28, 2008)
An introduction to the special issue African American males in education - PK-12 and Higher Education: An Examination of Critical Stages within the Educational Pipeline for African American Males.

Affirmative Action Foes Push Ballot Initiatives (Washington Post, March 26, 2008)
Foes of affirmative action, which is meant to address current and historical inequities, delivered 128,744 signatures to Colorado authorities earlier this month. Similar organizations in Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska are circulating petitions as civil rights groups and educators are mobilizing to defeat the measures.

When Girls Will Be Boys (New York Times, March 16, 2008)
Rey’s story, though, had some unusual dimensions. The elite college he began attending last year in New York City, with its academically competitive, fresh-faced students, happened to be a women’s school, Barnard. That’s because when Rey first entered the freshman class, he was a woman.

Public Speaking for Girls (Washington Post, March 6, 2008)
School Girls Unite, which promotes educational opportunities for girls around the world, is hosting a public-speaking workshop for middle school and high school female students, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business in College Park.

Teaching Boys and Girls Separately (The New York Times Magazine, March 2, 2008)
On an unseasonably cold day last November in Foley, Ala., Colby Royster and Michael Peterson, two students in William Bender’s fourth-grade public-school class, informed me that the class corn snake could eat a rat faster than the class boa constrictor. Bender teaches 26 fourth graders, all boys. Down the hall and around the corner, Michelle Gay teaches 26 fourth-grade girls. The boys like being on their own, they say, because girls don’t appreciate their jokes and think boys are too messy, and are also scared of snakes.

AP Trends: Tests Soar, Scores Slip (Education Week, February 19, 2008)
While more American public school students are taking Advanced Placement tests, the proportion of tests receiving what is deemed a passing score has dipped, and the mean score is down for the fourth year in a row, an Education Week analysis of newly released data from the College Board shows.

Girls Will Be Girls (The New York Times Magazine, February 10, 2008)
Hillary Clinton isn’t the only woman struggling to find an ideal mix of feminism and femininity, one that allows a woman to behave both like and unlike a man without being penalized either way. Mothers of daughters, even if they don’t support the former first lady, feel, if not her pain, at least her conflict. You need only look at the staggering success, in a publishing industry gone soft, of two advice manuals for young women, “The Daring Book for Girls” and “The Girls’ Book: How to Be the Best at Everything.”

Catching Up to the Boys, in the Good and the Bad (Washington Post, February 10, 2008)
She lost count of the vodka shots. It was New Year's Eve 2005, and for this high school freshman, it was time to party. She figured she'd be able to sleep it off -- she'd done it before. But by the time she got home the next day, her head was still pounding, her mouth was dry, and she couldn't focus. This time, the symptoms were obvious even to her parents.

Minority Students Become the Majority  (Washington Post, January 22, 2008)
Maryland may be majority white, but its public schools no longer are. White residents account for 58.3 percent of the state's population, according to 2006 U.S. Census Bureau data. But they make up only 47 percent of the student body this school year. The new majority belongs to blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities.

State rejects all-boys charter school proposal (Delaware Online, December 19, 2007)
The plug has been pulled, at least for the time being, on a proposed single-sex charter school in Wilmington. In a letter to Prestige Academy charter school founders and the Red Clay Consolidated School District, state Secretary of Education Valerie Woodruff said it is the Department of Education's position that Delaware charter school law does not permit same-sex schools.

Ed Board faces decision (Clarionledger.com, October 28, 2007)
The board will establish new, more rigorous testing standards in grades three through eight in language arts and mathematics, as well as in English II and Algebra I. These new standards will measure student academic success and will establish a higher bar for measuring school performance on state and national standards.

IDRA CN 23 - The Watch on Racism Cannot Stop (IDRA (audio), October 26, 2007)
Conversations about diversity in schools and in society typically put people in categories based on race, gender, and so on. As a result, the duality that minority girls and minority women live in often is overlooked. Dr. Shirley Nash Weber, former chair of the Department of Africana Studies and Professor of Africana Studies at San Diego State University, presented a keynote this summer on the challenge African American women in particular face in balancing gender and equity. The keynote was presented during the annual conference of the Association for Gender Equity Leadership in Education (AGELE), which was co-sponsored by the IDRA South Central Collaborative for Equity.

Boys get lesson in leadership (Philadelphia Inquirer, October 25, 2007)
History teacher Thomas Chamberlain wasn't teaching his usual class yesterday, but he had plenty to share with a group of male students. He gave life lessons on manhood in an unusual in-school program held by the Burlington Township School District that organizers hope will help teenage boys make better decisions.

An all-boys school with an unusual Latin focus (Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 2007)
At a brand-new boys school in the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia, students are saying things they've never said before. Words such as agricola (farmer), femina (woman), patria (fatherland), puella (girl), terra (earth) and silva (woods). The boys, all African-American, repeat Latin words and phrases after their teacher. Boys' Latin is the city's first public charter school to have a single-sex student body, a fact that drew stern opposition from a coalition of education and women's-rights organizations during the charter-approval process last school year. (Three other noncharter public schools also have single-sex enrollments.)

From bullying springs more hate, violence (Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 2007)
In an effort to combat bullying, State Sen. Connie Williams (D., Montgomery) has proposed that Pennsylvania school districts must adopt anti-bullying policies. "Student bullying is much more than name-calling or shoving on the playground," she said. "It is the underlying cause of school violence, truancy, and even teen suicide. To begin to lower the statistics on these types of events, we need to address the underlying cause."

Come Back, Mr. Chips: Stereotyping, low pay, lack of role models. Why the number of men teaching in schools is at a 40-year low. (MSNBC, September 30, 2007)
According to the National Education Association, the number of male schoolteachers is hovering at a 40-year low. Only one quarter of our 3 million teachers are men. In elementary schools, the problem is more acute—just 9 percent are men, down from 18 percent in 1981. "If kids do not see males in the classroom, they begin to believe teaching is only for females," says Reg Weaver, president of the NEA. Unless more men become teachers, says Weaver, the shortage will continue to be a self-perpetuating problem.

US students score sweeping gains on tests (The Christian Science Monitor, September 26, 2007)
American students – black, white, Hispanic, rich, poor, male, and female – are improving in math and reading, especially those at the elementary level, where most of education reform has focused. Those are the modest but positive results from the most influential test in US education, the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Club expands formula getting girls in science (Boston.com News, September 23, 2007)
A long-running program that has boosted the academic confidence of young girls and women in Cambridge for 13 years has expanded to Boston and Lawrence this fall. The Science Club for Girls, cofounded by mathematician Beth O'Sullivan, has been part of the after-school scene at five Cambridge elementary schools since the 1990s.

A woman's place ... is in the lab (Delaware Online, September 15, 2007)
Talley Middle School eighth-graders Naimisha Movva and Belcabeth Martinez say they aspire to be structural engineers or doctors. A few months ago, they wouldn't have said that. Before they entered the YWCA's TechGYRLS program, they didn't realize all the science and technology careers they could pursue.

Stereotypes turn girls off to math, science (MSNBC, August 27, 2007)
The days of sexist science teachers and Barbies chirping that "math class is tough!" are over, according to pop culture, but a government program aimed at bringing more women and girls into science, technology, engineering and math fields suggests otherwise. The article lists five myths about girls and science that still endure, according to the National Science Foundation's Research on Gender in Science and Engineering program.

Planned school targets low-income girls (Delaware Online, August 16, 2007)
Four years after the successful launch in Wilmington of a private school to help disadvantaged boys reach their academic potential, a group from Ursuline Academy is trying to launch a similar program for middle-school girls. Members of a steering committee formed at the mostly girls Catholic school said they are driven by social conscience because girls often have fewer opportunities to better themselves through education.

D.C. schools to hold hearings on sex-ed (Washington Times, August 10, 2007)
D.C. schools officials are expected to hold public hearings on proposed guidelines for sex-education classes that call for teaching students about homosexuality.

New Study: Making Black Girls "Ladylike" Discourages Achievement? (Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, August 7, 2007)
A new study shows that teachers tend to view the behavior of black girls as not "ladylike" and therefore focus disciplinary action on encouraging behaviors like passivity, deference, and bodily control at the expense of curiosity, outspokenness, and assertiveness.

Pupils eager to excel at single-sex charter (Philadelphia Inquirer, August 6, 2007)
In the fall, the U.S. Department of Education approved changes to federal Title IX regulations to give school districts greater flexibility to offer single-sex schooling, including publicly funded charter schools. Boys' Latin is a first on many fronts: It's the first single-sex charter approved in Pennsylvania. It's the first publicly funded school in Philadelphia that requires students to take Latin. And it's the first charter in the region modeled after the rigorous Boston Latin School.

Learning the ropes early (Baltimore Sun, July 18, 2007)
Woodlawn High School was almost empty on a recent day, except for a group of boys in Room 228. The boys are part of Youth REACH (Resilience, Effort, Awareness, Creativity, Honesty). The summer program, designed to prepare incoming freshmen for their four years at Woodlawn High, is another in a series of efforts by the student organization 100 Strong Male Role Models to give youngsters at the Baltimore County school the tools to succeed.

For girls, a scientific opportunity (Baltimore Sun, July 13, 2007)
Three female scientists at the center, Katie Stoffer, Lauren Bartelme and Mary Anter, designed the program "SciGirls." "For me, it's an issue of motivation and interest. I wanted to show them what opportunities there are in science," said Bartelme, who manages a space program at the center and has a degree in physics. "These camps are probably one of the best ways to get girls interested in science," said Christianne Corbett, a research associate at the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation. "Research shows as women do hands-on activities, it peaks their interest," she said.

Fixing D.C. Schools: Mentors Help Boys Become Men (Washington Post, June 21, 2007)
"Go-to-High-School, Go-to-College," is a program sponsored by Pi Upsilon Lambda, the Prince George's County chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. The program provides no-cost academic support to county high school students as part of the fraternity's effort to boost the number of youths from Prince George's who graduate from high school and go to college.

Black Boys’ Educational Plight Spurs Single-Gender Schools (Education Week (subscription only), June 18, 2007)
In the face of mounting evidence that schools are losing alarming numbers of young black men, a small band of educators gathered here recently to bolster one response to the crisis: creating public schools designed to serve African-American males.

When it comes to your sons, schools miss the mark (Baltimore Sun, June 14, 2007)
The difference continues to shrink between how well Baltimore County's minority and white students are performing on state tests, mirroring a statewide five-year trend that shows a narrowing of the so-called achievement gap, according to an analysis of the recently released results of this spring's Maryland School Assessments.

Rethinking How Title IX Is Applied (audio) (NPR.com, May 2, 2007)
As more young women go to college, funding for some men's sports will be reduced to comply with Title IX. That's the federal law requiring schools to offer athletic programs in proportion to gender population. Should the law be tweaked to address inconsistencies?

Maryland's history, through her eyes (Baltimore Sun, March 20, 2007)
A number of other prominent women have been drawn together in a unique project: establishing the nation's first heritage center and museum devoted to the social, economic and cultural contributions of women from a single state. They have formed a nonprofit organization, begun a fundraising campaign and are scouting building sites. As the planners see it, the Maryland Women's Heritage Center will present sung and unsung heroines, from pioneering environmental author Rachel Carson and civil rights leader Lillie M. Carroll Jackson to Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah, the Jewish Zionist women's service organization. It will also reflect traditional realms of women's work, including routine chores such as washing the marble steps of their Baltimore rowhouses.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips: Male teachers scarce (The Oregonian, February 4, 2007)
The National Education Association recently declared the percentage of male teachers to be at a 40-year low. Experts say the decline of men in the classroom has consequences not only on how students behave in school, but also on how much they learn. Despite that, many districts do not specifically recruit men, although they do push for racial diversity.

Taking Middle Schoolers Out of the Middle (The New York Times, January 20, 2007)
Schools debate whether to extend the nurturing cocoon of elementary school or to rush students into high school.

The Preteen: Betwixt and Bedeviled (The New York Times, January 7, 2007)
Educators created junior high schools, believing preteens needed to be treated like adults. But those students weren’t ready to be treated as high school students, either. So reformers created the concept of middle schools, which were supposed to be a warm bath to ease the transition. Now, an increasing number of schools across the country, including in Baltimore and Philadelphia, are shifting the middle grades back to elementary school.

Ideas to aid black youths (Baltimore Sun, December 14, 2006)
To push more black male students toward success, Maryland should turn to academic solutions such as single-sex classrooms and street-level fixes such as pairing ex-convicts with young men in the neighborhood, a panel of education experts told the state school board yesterday.

Prince William Board Open To Single-Sex Education (Washington Post, October 29, 2006)
Single-sex classes. Some Prince William County School Board members expressed eagerness to explore the issue and see whether the public is game. Others on the School Board said they were a little more hesitant and wanted to examine more research.

Rules Eased on 1-Sex Schools (Philadelphia Inquirer, October 25, 2006)
A long-expected change in federal regulations giving school districts greater flexibility to offer single-sex schooling is causing a stir. The U.S. Department of Education said it was modifying portions of Title IX to make it easier for publicly funded schools to provide single-sex schooling to parents and students who want it.

Study: Expectations Matter When it Comes to Math (CNN.com, October 20, 2006)
Telling women they can't do well in math may turn out be a self-fulfilling statement. In tests in Canada, women who were told that men and women do math equally well did much better than those who were told there is a genetic difference in math ability.

Despite furor, schools back gay history month (Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 2006)
For the first time, the Philadelphia School District included Gay and Lesbian History Month on it's calendar. Officials said it was an effort to be more inclusive and follow a long-standing district policy requiring equity for all races and minority groups.

Women Aren't Good in Math . . . or Are They? (The Washington Post, August 31, 2006)
Dozens of experiments have confirmed that subtly cuing women or minorities to think subconsciously about their sex or race causes them do poorly in areas where the stereotype suggests they are weak.views on new campaign ads. University of Texas psychologist Matthew S. McGlone wondered if there wasn't another side of the story. What if you prompted people to think about their strengths rather than their stereotypical weaknesses -- would that be enough to improve performance in areas where they weren't supposed to do well? In a novel set of experiments, McGlone, working with Joshua Aronson of New York University, found that the answer is yes. "The idea that something is immutable due to some biological factor can be trumped," McGlone said.

SAT Records Biggest Score Dip in 31 Years (The Washington Post, August 30, 2006)
The first national results from the revamped SAT show the biggest annual drop in reading scores in 31 years and a significant edge for female students over males on the new writing section of the test, the College Board reported yesterday.

Study: Teacher's Gender Affects Student's Academic Performance (CNN.com, August 27, 2006)
For all the differences between the sexes, here's one that might stir up debate in the teacher's lounge: Boys learn more from men and girls learn more from women. That's the upshot of a provocative study by Thomas Dee, an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College and visiting scholar at Stanford University. His study was to appear Monday in Education Next, a quarterly journal published by the Hoover Institution.

Prince George's to Comply Fully With Title IX (The Washington Post, August 25, 2006)
The Prince George's County school board last night voted to approve an agreement with the National Women's Law Center to place all the county's middle and high school athletic programs in full compliance with Title IX, the federal law mandating gender equity at federally funded institutions. The agreement will require the county to improve fields and locker rooms, allocate equal funding for boys and girls commensurate to those participating, and provide the same quality of uniforms, publicity, training, medical services and transportation for all participants.

U.S. Civil Rights Office to Look for UC Sports Inequity (The Charleston Gazette, August 16, 2006)
The federal Office of Civil Rights will investigate a complaint by a former University of Charleston softball player, who alleged the school does not treat male and female athletes equally. On May 19, Stephanie Kuhn took the issue to the OCR, which regulates Title IX compliance. The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program that receives federal financial aid.

Bill Expanding Gay Rights in Public School Curriculum Watered Down  (San Francisco Chronicle, August 8, 2006)
In a bid for a gubernatorial signature, legislation that would have required public school instructional materials to include the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people was scaled back Monday to simply prohibit teaching or textbooks that negatively portray persons based on their sexual orientation.

Teens Who Watched Wrestling More Violent (The Washington Post, August 7, 2006)
Teenagers who watched pro wrestling on TV were more likely to behave violently than other kids, researchers reported Monday, and girls seemed to be more influenced than boys. Those findings were part of a study suggesting that teenagers who watched wrestling shows like "RAW" and "SmackDown" had a tendency toward violence, including carrying weapons and fighting on dates.

Program Opens Doors for Girls: DSU Classes Offer Opportunities in Math, Sciences (Delaware State News, July 31, 2006)
Dr. Mazen Shahin, a professor in the university's math and applied mathematics department and director of the Girls Explorations in Mathematics and Science (GEMS) program, initiated it in 2001 to increase the ranks of girls in the fields of biology, math and information technology.

More Disabled Kids Live With Single Women (The New York Times, July 14, 2006)
Children with disabilities are more likely to live with a single woman—whether she is a mother, grandmother or a female foster parent—than are other children, according to a new study.

Being a Black Man (The Washington Post, July 13, 2006)
A special series of articles on the lives of black men in the United States.

Gender Gap on Campus Widens (The Baltimore Sun, July 12, 2006)
Women are increasingly outnumbering men at America's colleges, a gap that is widest - and most troublesome - among low-income and minority students, researchers said in a report released yesterday. The share of males age 24 and younger dropped to 45 percent in 2003-2004, from 48 percent in 1995-1996. The gap is even wider for students older than 25, and among African-Americans and Latinos, particularly those from low-income families.

Study Casts Doubt On the 'Boy Crisis' (The Washington Post, June 26, 2006)
A study by Education Sector to be released today looking at long-term trends in test scores and academic success argues that widespread reports of U.S. boys being in crisis are greatly overstated and that young males in school are in many ways doing better than ever.

Girls Rejoice in Girlhood at Annual Conference (The Washington Post, June 25, 2006)
Girl Power! is a 32-week after-school program designed exclusively for girls ages 9 through 15 in Fairfax County. The program focuses largely on preventing drug and alcohol use, but it also allows the girls to talk about sexual abuse, eating disorders, relationships and other topics they may shy away from in a coed setting, said Clara Marshall, coordinator of the county's Girl Power! program and a substance abuse counselor.

Opinion: Title IX Changes Could Stifle Dreams (USA Today, June 22, 2006)
"The NCAA is celebrating its 25th year of women's sports, and its women's basketball tournament exists and is a success thanks in part to Title IX. We have the WNBA, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary, and more women compete in Olympic sports. But this march forward has reached a potential roadblock. About 15 months ago, the Department of Education quietly issued a new Title IX policy that lowers the bar for what schools must do to provide equal sports opportunities for women. Schools now can show compliance with the law simply by sending all female students an e-mail survey gauging their athletic interests. Schools can claim that any failure to respond indicates a lack of interest in additional opportunities." Boys and men have never had, nor should they be asked, to prove their interest in sports. Women shouldn't be held to this unreasonable standard either.

School to Test Single-Gender Classes (Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 22, 2006)
This fall, Hanover County's Mechanicsville Elementary School plans to test two single-gender fourth-grade classes, one for boys and one for girls. The program is an option not mandatory -- for 25 boys and 25 girls who were identified this year by their teachers as possibly benefiting from the single-gender classes.

Male Presence in PTA is Blooming  (San Diego Union Tribune, May 22, 2006)
Today, nearly 1 million of the PTA's 6.5 million members nationwide are men. The transformation comes as the organization is also trying to reach out to minorities, immigrants and non-traditional families headed by grandparents and single parents.

Opinion: Title IX Shouldn't Be Used as an Academic Weapon (USA Today, May 18, 2006)
Title IX has removed barriers to women's participation in sports. But it has also caused great damage, in part because it has led to the adoption of a destructive quota system. Many coaches have been unable to attract equal numbers of men and women to participate. To avoid government censure, funding loss and lawsuits, they often eliminate men's teams. In effect, to achieve the illusion of equity, men's participation in sports is being calibrated to the level of female interest. The unhappy result is that men's wrestling, diving and gymnastic teams have been decimated, along with associated scholarship opportunities. If the Education Department and National Science Foundation were strictly to impose Title IX compliance standards on academic science, we could see men's participation in math, physics, technology and engineering capped at the level of female interest. That would wreak havoc in fields that drive the economy and where the USA already lags other countries.

Opinion: Mars and Venus in the Classroom (The Washington Post, May 18, 2006)
First the good news: One year with a male English teacher would eliminate nearly a third of the gender gap in reading performance among 13-year-olds. Now the bad: Having a male teacher improves the performance of boys while harming girls' reading skills. On the other hand, a year with a female teacher would close the gender gap in science achievement among 13-year-old girls by half and eliminate the smaller achievement gap in mathematics, says economist Thomas S. Dee of Swarthmore College, who examined data collected from more than 20,000 eighth-graders beginning in 1988.

Spellings: Encourage Girls in Science Ed (The New York Times, May 15, 2006)
Low participation in math and science activities by girls is keeping them from achieving their full potential and weakening the nation's ability to compete, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Monday.

State Senate Endorses Teaching of Gays' Historical Achievements (The Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2006)
Saying more role models could help reduce the social estrangement and high suicide rates of gay and lesbian students, the state Senate voted Thursday to require that the historical contributions of homosexuals in the United States be taught in California schools.

Science Teaching Gets Weak Diversity Grade (USA Today, May 9, 2006)
A survey of 100 top technology executives gives the nation's public schools a C-minus for efforts to encourage girls and minorities to pursue science and technology careers.

300,000 Children in U.S. Found to Have Autism (The Washington Post, May 5, 2006)
About 300,000 American children have been diagnosed as having autism, according to the first comprehensive national surveys of the developmental disorder. Boys were four times more likely than girls to have the disorder, which is characterized by verbal, social and emotional problems. White families with higher incomes were also more likely to report having children with the disorder, a fact that federal experts said probably reflected unequal access to medical services.

Male Kindergarten Teachers Too Often Viewed Suspiciously (The Miami Herald, April 17, 2006)
In an era of highly publicized sex crimes against children, male kindergarten teachers have become a target for people suspicious of men who work with young children.

Bill Requires Gays' History to be Taught (San Jose (Mercury) News, April 6, 2006)
The state Senate will consider a bill that would require California schools to teach students about the contributions gay people have made to society—an effort that supporters say is an attempt to battle discrimination and opponents say is designed to use the classroom to get children to embrace homosexuality.

In Reading, Dick Lags Far Behind Jane (The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 2, 2006)
Across the country, boys lag behind girls in nearly every educational benchmark. The gap shows up in federal and state test scores and is most pronounced in reading, especially in middle and high school. There is widespread agreement that the gender gap holds true for all economic, racial and ethnic groups. And while the root of the problem is unclear, it is certain that, as the marketplace becomes increasingly global and competitive, the stakes for boys are high.

Bills Nationwide Address Gays in Schools  (San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 2006)
Lawmakers in state capitols across the country are drafting legislation targeting gay and lesbian youth in public schools. Gay rights leaders say the legislation results from the fact that young people are expressing their sexual orientation at younger and younger ages. But gay rights opponents say some schools and lawmakers have gone too far and actually are encouraging homosexuality among young people. Two bitterly opposed bills working through California's Legislature are among the most far-reaching gay rights laws ever considered covering American youth. A Republican bill seeks to pull the debate in the other direction by curtailing discussions of homosexuality. In at least 18 other states, including Nebraska, Iowa, Kentucky and Wyoming, a host of bills have been proposed to expand or limit the rights of gay and lesbian students.

Girls Learn That They Can Be Engineers, Too (San Francisco Chronicle, February 24, 2006)
A national coalition of engineering groups has proclaimed an annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.

For Fraught Preteen Years, A Class on Being a Friend (The Washington Post, February 10, 2006)
Research has found that girls as young as 4 give each other the silent treatment. "When you are 5, you say, 'I don't want to be your friend anymore,' and you poke someone," said Rosalind Wiseman, author of the best-selling "Queen Bees and Wannabes," a parents' guide to understanding their daughters' friendships and social hierarchies.

Teen Girls Using Pills, Smoking More Than Boys (The Washington Post, February 9, 2006)
Teenage girls, having caught up to their male counterparts in illegal drug use and alcohol consumption, now have the dubious distinction of surpassing boys in smoking and prescription drug abuse. In the past two years, in fact, more young women than men started using marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes, according to government findings being released today.

Backers to Plead Again for All-Boys Charter School (Philadelphia Daily News, February 7, 2006)
The School Reform Commission's unanimous vote last month against a proposal to open the Southwest Philadelphia Academy for Boys did not deter the plan's supporters. At tomorrow's commission meeting, advocates hoping to change the officials' minds will speak up for the single-sex school, said David Hardy, who heads the group behind the proposal.

School Programs Gang Up on Bullying (The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1, 2006)
Penn Central Middle, in Bucks County's Pennridge School District, is one of many schools in the region and nation that have started anti-bullying programs to address the differences in the way boys and girls bully. Schools started taking bullying much more seriously after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. The more bullying was discussed and researched, the more obvious it became to school officials that girls and boys have different favorite methods.

Tolerance Reaching Gay Teens?; As Debate Swirls, Schools Avoid Specifics If Possible (Delaware State News, January 28, 2006)
In addressing issues surrounding sexual orientation, school personnel walk a fine tightrope. On one hand, some say they should do more to reach out to sexual minority students, while others say the topic has no place in schools.

Male Student Sees Gender Bias in School (The Washington Times, January 27, 2006)
Female high school students are treated more leniently and are less likely to be punished than their male peers, a 17-year-old Massachusetts senior says in a federal complaint about gender bias at his school. "Boys are suffering," says Harvard Medical School psychologist and author William Pollack. "They are sitting in classrooms where they can't perform at the same level as girls and so cannot compete with girls," he said. "The bottom line is that they are suffering both academically and emotionally." Studies show that boys receive most of the "D" and "F" grades, create 80 percent of classroom discipline problems, account for 80 percent of high school dropouts and make up less than 44 percent of the college population. Suggested solutions include making classrooms smaller and more action-oriented, and teaching boys and girls separately.

Youths Support Abstinence as Sex Education (The Washington Times, January 22, 2006)
According to a new Harris Poll, 56 percent of people ages 18 to 24, and 60 percent of those 25 to 29 think abstinence programs effectively reduce or prevent the occurrence of HIV/AIDS. Another 49 percent of people ages 18 to 24 and 52 percent of those ages 25 to 29 say the programs reduce or prevent unwanted pregnancies.

All-Boys Charter School is Denied (The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 19, 2006)
The Philadelphia School Reform Commission turned down a proposal for an all-boys charter high school yesterday, but proponents say they intend to press their case that such a charter school is legal.

New City Program Designed to Match Girls with Mentors (The Baltimore Sun, January 19, 2006)
One caring adult can make a difference in a young person's life, the saying goes. That's the philosophy City Council President Sheila Dixon has embraced with the Young Women in Action Girls Mentoring Program, a new initiative targeting girls at six Baltimore middle schools. About 60 girls from each school will be chosen to participate in volunteer-led workshops addressing issues that include peer pressure, conflict resolution, health and dating. Pupils eventually will be paired with mentors from the community.

All Boys, All Girls (The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 18, 2006)
Fueled by concerns that public inner-city schools are failing to educate low-income and minority students, schools for boys or girls only are on the rise.Before 1996, there were three publicly funded single-sex schools in the country, including Philadelphia High School for Girls. Today, there are 42. The roster includes two more Philadelphia schools, E. Washington Rhodes and Thomas FitzSimons, which became single-sex in September.

Vallas Rejects Gay Schools (Philadelphia Daily News, January 12, 2006)
New York City has a public school exclusively for gay and Lesbian students.But Philadelphia will not follow suit, school district CEO Paul Vallas said yesterday. "No. That stigmatizes people, Vallas said. “I think it would do more harm than good.”

Sex-Ed Battle Hits New Turf (The Washington Post, December 9, 2005)
Educators' efforts to talk more frankly about homosexuality are raising alarm among those who believe such topics are taboo in U.S. classrooms.

Book Banning Spurs Protest (The Baltimore Sun, December 7, 2005)
An award-winning book about an overweight girl who doesn't fit in at school or with her family apparently doesn't fit in at Carroll County school libraries: The district's superintendent ordered the novel stripped from the shelves. Students at Winters Mill High in Westminster have begun a petition drive to get the book, The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things, returned to the libraries. Superintendent Charles I. Ecker said he found the language and sexual references in Carolyn Mackler's book, a top choice nationally among teenage readers, inapproriate.

A Second Look: Boys on Girls' Team (The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 7, 2005)
Joe Tornetta is watching from the sidelines as the West Chester School District considers a controversial proposal to exclude boys from girls' field hockey.

Openly Gay Student's Lawsuit Over Privacy Will Proceed (The New York Times, December 2, 2005)
In a case involving a California high school girl who was openly gay at school, a federal judge has ruled that the girl, Charlene Nguon, may proceed with a lawsuit charging that her privacy rights were violated when the principal called her mother and disclosed that she is gay.

Board Picks Members of New Sex-Ed Panel (The Washington Times, October 26, 2005)
The Montgomery County school board has assembled a panel of parents, students and representatives of special-interest groups that will help create a sex-education curriculum, but has not included a representative from a parents group that won a lawsuit blocking a previous sex course.

Center Helps Moms Balance Kids, Education  (The Baltimore Sun, October 23, 2005)
Reva Coleman, 17, hadn't planned on having a baby, but it happened anyway. Now she's got 5-month-old Jeremyah to think about, and that means she's working nearly 40 hours a week at a local Rite-Aid to help support her young family. But she hasn't given up on school. She has three classes to go before she can graduate from Meade Senior High School. She's on track to finish by January. She's even thinking about college. Coleman is one of seven students taking classes at a new center for teen parents in Odenton, run by the county school system and the YWCA.

Boys on Girls' Teams Drive Gender Debate (The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 21, 2005)
As boys seek a spot in sports traditionally played by girls in America - field hockey, for example - they are clashing with more than wooden sticks. At issue is not only safety - often bigger and stronger boys posing an injury risk to girls - but also the collision between equal rights and a level playing field. The controversy is rising anew in the region because a West Chester Area school board member, Joseph P. Green Jr., introduced a proposal Monday night to exclude boys from girls' field hockey. It also would prohibit district teams from playing against teams that include boys.

'Ex-Gays' Study Central to Debate (The Washington Times, September 27, 2005)
A 2003 study on whether homosexuals can change their sexual orientation has become a central issue in the Montgomery County sex-education debate.

Parents Seeking Tolerance of Gays (The Washington Times, September 26, 2005)
A Montgomery County parents group yesterday hosted a forum in Bethesda to promote teaching about and acceptance of homosexuality in public-school sex education. "It is critical for [Montgomery County public schools] to continue its tradition of promoting tolerance in a population as diverse as ours," said Christine Grewell, co-founder of Teachthefacts.org (TTF). The group hosted an afternoon forum at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, which was attended by about 100 people.

ACLU Targets Abstinence-Only Programs (The Washington Times, September 22, 2005)
The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday began a campaign to urge officials in 18 states to reject abstinence-only sex-education programs.

School Newspapers Fight to Write About Gay Issues (The Baltimore Sun, September 18, 2005)
Inspired by the increased visibility of openly gay teenagers on campus, students at a Kern County high school decided to explore the topic in the school newspaper, the Kernal. But the night before the series was to go to print in April, the paper's editors said, East Bakersfield High School Principal John L. Gibson pulled the plug, citing concerns for the safety of gay students on campus. Similar scenarios appear to be playing out increasingly in schools across the country as gay and lesbian issues emerge as a topic of choice for high school journalists, said Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Law Press Center in Arlington, Va.

Program Aims to Increase Number of Male Black Teachers (The Baltimore Sun, September 12, 2005)
Prince George's County schools and Bowie State University have teamed up in an effort to attack a chronic problem in Maryland education—the shortage of African-American men teaching in public schools. The recently announced Men Equipped to Nurture program will help male teachers earn full certification by paying for their classes and certification exam fees. Other institutions in Maryland and beyond are watching closely.

District Stepping Up Efforts to Draw Parents (Philadelphia Daily News, August 31, 2005)
As schools across the country begin opening their doors, fathers, grandfathers and other concerned men are heeding the call of Chicago-based Black Star Project to walk their children to school on the first day. Men in cities from Washington, D.C., to Waukegan, Ill., from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, have contacted nonprofit Black Star to volunteer to become coordinating representatives to get the word out.

Opinion: A Tolerant, Scientific Approach (The Washington Post, August 25, 2005)
"Last year, at the request of teachers and staff members, the Montgomery County Board of Education unanimously approved an updated sex education curriculum for eighth and 10th grades that revised two 45-minute class lesson plans. For the first time, teachers were going to be able to answer students' questions about sexual orientation. The Montgomery County public schools also produced a video about condom use to replace one that was seriously outdated. These simple updates quickly turned into a political battlefield when some individuals announced that they wanted to recall the whole school board over them. As they began organizing, others realized that people in our community needed to stand up for common sense. We call ourselves TeachTheFacts.org."

Tech Camp Focuses on Girls (The Baltimore Sun, August 7, 2005)
Tech Camp for Girls, a program offered by instructors Brandi Shepard and Frank Lanzer at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, MD is for girls in middle school and explores such topics as computer-aided drafting and design, Web-page design, digital photography, computer programming and computer construction.

Lights, Cameras Help Girls Put Leadership Into Action (The Baltimore Sun, July 22, 2005)
McCormick, a 16-year-old rising senior at Western High School, is one of the 13 girls participating in a new two-week program designed to develop girls' leadership skills as they tackle a problem in the Baltimore metropolitan community. The project for the inaugural year is to determine how to get younger people more interested in the city's classical arts.

Getting More Girls to Study Math, Tech (San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 2005)
For all the attention focused in recent years on the problems of getting more girls and women interested in science, math and technology, advocates say there is still a long way to go.

Downstate Education: Program Puts Girls to Test; Math, Science Focus of Studies (Delaware State News, July 18, 2005)
The Girls Explorations in Mathematics and Science program at Delaware State University, which accepts about 25 percent of applicants and has seven states represented this year, allows girls to take courses in biotechnology, applied mathematics and information science.

Manhunt: Schools Try to Attract More Male Teachers (CNN.com, July 13, 2005)
As a new academic year approaches, school districts, education groups and universities are exploring ways to get more men into a field long dominated by women. Their goal is to provide more male role models in class and to diversify the labor pool of dedicated teachers.

Group Changes Tack on Teen Abstinence (The Washington Times, July 12, 2005)
A leading pediatricians group is drawing fire for "diluting" its previous position on teen sexual abstinence and urging doctors to "help ensure" that all teens have access to contraception, including emergency contraception.

NEA Bolsters Gays on Policy, Practices (The Washington Times, July 8, 2005)
The National Education Association ended its four-day convention here with a big victory for members promoting homosexual advocacy, but debate by conservatives seeking resolutions condemning adult-minor sexual contact and supporting respect for "all living things" was cut off.

Parents to Be on Sex-Ed Panel (The Washington Times, July 7, 2005)
Parents and community members will have more representation than special-interest groups on an advisory panel that will help design a new sex-education curriculum in Montgomery County.

IBM Science Camp Targets Girls (Chicago Tribune, July 6, 2005)
Women lag men when it comes to choosing careers in math and science. IBM is trying to buck that trend.

Schools Incite Feud with Sex-Ed Advisers (The Washington Times, July 5, 2005)
Citizens groups are feuding with Montgomery County Public Schools officials over how to appoint members to an advisory panel that will help create a new sex-education curriculum.

Va. Teens Play the Game of Life, on a Budget (The Washington Post, June 30, 2005)
Kelsie Garvey dreamed of being an interior decorator, her purple, blue and lime green bedroom evidence of her talent in the field. That is, until she visited the Reality Store, a game organized by Fairfax County, local teenagers and financial institutions and designed to give teenage girls a taste of real life on a budget.

Mean Girls Start to Practice in Preschool (St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 28, 2005)
Girls as young as 4 consciously manipulate and damage relationships by excluding others or withdrawing their friendship, according to new research at Brigham Young University. The research team says the study is the first to examine the correlation between aggression and peer social status in early childhood.

Montgomery Reaches Sex-Ed Agreement (The Washington Post, June 28, 2005)
Montgomery County schools will exclude any reference to specific religious beliefs from its soon-to-be revised sex education curriculum -- but may still include discussion of sexual orientation -- under the terms of an agreement approved by the school board last night.

Spellings Avoids PTA Ties to Pro-Gay Advocacy Group (The Washington Times, June 25, 2005)
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings urged 1,700 National PTA members yesterday to lead the way toward increased parental involvement in schools, but sidestepped the PTA's embrace of a pro-homosexual advocacy group at its yearly convention here.

Students Get Government Lesson (Delaware State News, June 22, 2005)
Delaware ranks second among states for the highest percentage of female legislators, according to 2005 statistics from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. The figure is 33.9 percent — seven women in the Delaware Senate and 14 in the House. Wednesday morning, the percentage of females in Delaware's legislature climbed to 100. Sixty high school girls from across the state descended on Legislative Hall Sunday for Girls State, an annual government education program run by the American Legion Auxiliary.

As School Bus Sexual Assaults Rise, Danger Often Overlooked (The Washington Post, June 14, 2005)
Although many school systems don't identify bus assaults independently of all school violence, administrators, teachers and bus drivers say the nature and frequency of the attacks are increasing, and at younger ages.

Diversity Committee Flunks Barney Video (The Miami Herald, June 12, 2005)
A video that aims to teach tolerance to schoolchildren has been canceled for Broward County schools after critics said it could confuse preschool and elementary kids about the difference between family members and strangers and open the door to discussion about sexual orientation.

Students Praise Class on Abuse (The Washington Times, June 10, 2005)
A new high school curriculum that would teach teenagers about violence in relationships won plaudits yesterday from students at Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School in Northwest, some of whom have become champions of the cause. The "Love Is Not Abuse" curriculum, spearheaded by fashion conglomerate Liz Claiborne Inc., would teach teenagers how to deal with and prevent physical and verbal abuse and sexual pressure in dating relationships.

Gay Rights Battlefields Spread to Public Schools (The New York Times, June 9, 2005)
Emboldened by the political right's growing influence on public policy, opponents of school activities aimed at educating students about homosexuality or promoting acceptance of gay people are mounting challenges to such programs, at individual schools, at statehouses and in Congress.

Diversity Tints New Kind of Generation Gap (USA Today, June 9, 2005)
Generational differences highlighted in Census Bureau population estimates released today add complexity to everything from politics to marketing. Even segments of society that once seemed homogeneous are far more difficult to define today.

Title IX Suit Rejected (Salt Lake Tribune, June 7, 2005)
The Supreme Court refused to consider reinstating a lawsuit that accuses federal officials of discriminating against male athletes in enforcing equal opportunities for women. Justices, without comment, rejected an appeal Monday from the National Wrestling Coaches Association and other groups that have been fighting federal policies under the anti-discrimination law known as Title IX.

In Girls, Aggressive Behavior is Becoming a Bigger Problem (The Baltimore Sun, May 29, 2005)
Suspensions of female students for fighting in Baltimore County schools have risen 43 percent over the past two academic years: from 1,067 in 2001-2002 to 1,523 in 2003-2004, according to statistics from the school system.

Sex-Ed Opponents Part of Movement to Reclaim Schools (The Washington Times, May 27, 2005)
Parents who stopped a new sex-education curriculum in Montgomery County, Maryland, are at the nexus of a national trend in parental activism in school matters.

4 Charged in Assault at Wheaton High (The Washington Post, May 25, 2005)
Four male high school students surrounded a 16-year-old girl at her desk during a Wheaton High School class and touched her in a sexually inappropriate way, then one exposed himself to her, according to the principal and Montgomery County police.

Matching Boys with Books (Christian Science Monitor, May 24, 2005)
Not only do boys consistently test lower than girls on reading, but they are well known to be reluctant readers. Some teachers suggest that the problem is only getting worse—that boys today have more distractions, particularly electronic ones—and are even less likely to come to class ready to get excited about a book.

Small Interest Could Be Big Deal for Title IX (USA Today, May 17, 2005)
Schools that use a new survey of students' interest in playing varsity sports will be obligated to examine adding teams for women even if only small numbers of female students indicate they are interested, the Bush administration says.

Schools Expected to Defer on Sex-Ed (The Washington Times, May 11, 2005)
Montgomery County public schools today likely will agree to extend until December a temporary restraining order on teaching a new sex-education curriculum, an attorney for a group suing the school system said yesterday.

Fathers Joining the PTA (The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 8, 2005)
The PTA does not track the sex of its 6.5 million members, but it estimates that about 10 percent are men. At the state level, the number of male presidents has grown from two in 2001 to 10 this year.

Judge Blocks Md. School Health Program (The Boston Globe, May 6, 2005)
A federal judge on Thursday blocked a county school system from instituting a health curriculum that includes discussions of homosexuality.

Lawsuit Filed Over Sex Education Policy (CNN.com, May 4, 2005)
Two groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to block a health curriculum that would allow discussions of homosexuality with eighth graders, and a video to be shown to sophomores demonstrating how to use a condom.

Abstinence Program Shows Results (The Washington Times, April 28, 2005)
Girls who participate in the Best Friends abstinence program are substantially less likely to use drugs or engage in premarital sex than peers who are not in the program, a study says. The peer-reviewed study, published this month in the Institute for Youth Development's Adolescent & Family Health, also found extraordinary results among the Best Friends' high school participants, known as Diamond Girls.

Montgomery Schools Revise Sex Ed Course After Backlash (The Washington Times, April 23, 2005)
The Montgomery County public school system has changed parts of its new sex education curriculum after parents criticized it as favoring a homosexual agenda and encouraging promiscuity.

Opinion: Give Girls Support to Excel in Science (The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 19, 2005)
" Initiatives such as Women in Science Fairs sponsored by Cheltenham Elementary School and Glenside Elementary School introduce young students to female role models in science. In the fairs, elementary school children interact with young women scientists from regional high schools conducting experiments. At Cheltenham High, young women also get help and support from the Students for Environmental Action club."

Government Abstinence Web Site Draws Ire (San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 2005)
An array of advocacy groups are calling on the federal government to take down one of its new Web sites, saying it presents biased and inaccurate advice to parents on how to talk to their children about sex.

Justices Widen Right to Sue Under Title IX (The Baltimore Sun, March 30, 2005)
A girls basketball coach who complained that his players got shabbier treatment than the boys team - then found himself benched - can sue for retaliation, the Supreme Court said yesterday in a case that expands the protections of a landmark gender equity law. In a 5-4 decision, the court sided with Roderick Jackson, a high school girls basketball coach in Birmingham, Ala., who said his coaching duties were stripped after he repeatedly complained that the equipment and practice facilities provided to his team were inferior to what the boys received.

High Court Supports Title IX Protection (The Washington Post, March 30, 2005)
The Supreme Court toughened a federal law against sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs yesterday, ruling that it prohibits not only unequal treatment of girls and women at school, but also official retaliation against anyone -- male or female -- who blows the whistle on unequal treatment.

Black, Asian Women Who Have Degrees Earn More Than Whites (The Baltimore Sun, March 28, 2005)
Black and Asian women with bachelor's degrees earn slightly more than similarly educated white women, and white men with four-year degrees make more than anyone else. A white woman with a bachelor's degree typically earned nearly $37,800 in 2003, compared with nearly $43,700 for a college-educated Asian woman and $41,100 for a college-educated black woman, according to data being released today by the Census Bureau. Hispanic women took home slightly less, at $37,600 a year.

Surveys Can Be Used to Show Title IX Compliance (USA Today, March 22, 2005)
New federal guidelines for compliance with Title IX, the law that has helped get more women involved in sports, permit schools to avoid adding more athletic opportunities for students if an Internet survey indicates they are not interested.

Montgomery Parents View Sex-Ed Video (The Washington Post, March 20, 2005)
About 200 people, most of them parents, gathered yesterday at the Montgomery County campus of Johns Hopkins University to watch a video that has become the most disputed seven minutes of the county schools' curriculum. The viewing of "Protect Yourself," produced by the school district for use in 10th-grade classrooms, was sponsored by a group opposed to the video. Audience members were mostly engrossed as they watched a young woman on the screen talk about abstinence, safe sex and the properties of latex, then unroll a condom onto a cucumber.

Educators Differ on Why Boys Lag in Reading (The Washington Post, March 15, 2005)
Enticing boys to read--and to keep reading--is the flip side of the sometimes fierce debate about girls and their math and science abilities, and both issues are receiving new attention as educators focus on how boys and girls learn differently.

Girls Face Discipline After Fight At Roxborough High (The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 15, 2005)
A continuing neighborhood dispute erupted anew at Roxborough High School yesterday morning, and ended with a dozen girls facing disciplinary action after a melee outside the gymnasium. One senior was found with a box-cutter, although she did not use it in the fight, said Philadelphia School District spokesman Fernando Gallard.

New Scholarship Honors Woman's Work in Education (The Baltimore Sun, March 13, 2005)
Harford County's Highlands School Foundation is celebrating co-founder Beth Maahs-Hoagberg's 30 years of serving students with learning disabilities by establishing a scholarship in her honor.

ACLU Wants schools to Invite Gay Author Again (Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 11, 2005)
The ACLU of Virginia is asking Chesterfield County Public Schools officials to reinvite a gay author who last week was barred from speaking at Manchester High School.

Schools Chosen for Sex Course in Montgomery (The Washington Times, March 5, 2005)
The Montgomery County [Md.] public sachool system yesterday announced the three high schools and three middle schools that will participate in a pilot program for a sex education curriculum that has riled some parents and activist groups throughout the county.

Signatures Collected Against Sex Curriculum (The Washington Times, February 24, 2005)
Catholic parishes, with encouragement from the Archdiocese of Washington, are in the midst of a petition drive against new sex-education classes in Montgomery County public schools.

Boys, Girls Are Faring Equally, Study Finds (The Washington Post, February 23, 2005)
Contradicting both sides in the long-running debate on whether boys or girls have it better in America, the most comprehensive examination of the overall well-being of male and female children has found that the sexes are faring about equally.

Building Up Girls' Technology Skills (The Baltimore Sun, February 13, 2005)
Project ESTEEM, or Enhancing Science & Technology Education & Exploration Mentoring, exposes seventh- and eighth-graders to technology through hands-on activities and field trips. The program, a partnership between centers at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is targeting girls at two Anne Arundel County middle schools - Corkran and Brooklyn Park - and plans to expand to four additional schools in the Baltimore area over the next two years. Boys are also welcome.

Young People 'Need' New Sex-Education Funding Plan (The Washington Times, February 11, 2005)
Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday called for a new sex-education funding program that matches abstinence-education funding dollar for dollar. Young people "deserve this and they need it," said Rep. Barbara Lee, California Democrat, lead sponsor of the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) bill, which calls for $206 million in federal funding for comprehensive sex education — the same amount proposed this week for abstinence education in President Bush's budget.

Sex-Ed Battles Raging in Region (The Washington Times, February 10, 2005)
Montgomery and Fairfax counties' sometimes angry debates about homosexuality in public school curriculums are generating national attention and attracting advocates from both sides of the issue.

Gay-Themed High School Play Sparks Va. Protests (The Washington Post, February 9, 2005)
The Loudoun County students who staged a play over the weekend about a high school football star's homosexuality heard some gasps, along with expressions of support, during their play's two-day, modestly attended run at Ashburn's Stone Bridge High School. Now, thanks to a high-decibel dust-up over freedom of expression and values, student writer-director Sabrina Audrey Jess's one-act play, "Offsides," has a dramatically expanded audience.

Letter on Homosexuality Prompts Rebuke From Board (The Washington Post, February 4, 2005)
The Fairfax County School Board issued a public reprimand last night to a member who sent a letter to high school principals urging them to ensure that students hear the views of people who believe homosexuality is a choice and a "destructive lifestyle."

Decoding Why Few Girls Choose Science, Math (The Washington Post, February 1, 2005)
Teachers and scientists say that there are greater differences in learning styles within each sex than there are between the sexes and that any school or teacher that doesn't approach students as individuals is missing the mark.

Spellings Wants PBS Money Back (The Washington Times, January 27, 2005)
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has asked the Public Broadcasting Service to refund taxpayer dollars used to create and distribute an episode of a cartoon program that features lesbian parents, saying the subject matter was inappropriate and undermines the show's effort to promote literacy.

Sex-ed Courses Called Flawed (The Washington Times, January 26, 2005)
Critics of a new sex-education curriculum in Montgomery County public schools say the program teaches that homosexuality is not a choice without including scientific information to the contrary. "It's inadequate," said Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. "It's an exercise in social advocacy, primarily."

Boys Fall Behind Girls in Grades (The Detroit News, January 9, 2005)
According to the U.S. Department of Education, boys have fallen behind girls in academic achievement. Fewer boys than girls are enrolling in and graduating from college and fewer men have master's and doctoral degrees. While it may look like girls have won the gender wars, some wonder if something is amiss. In the last 30 years, more boys than girls have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and learning disabilities, and more boys have dropped out of school.

Girl Gang Violence Alarms D.C. Officials (The Washington Post, December 28, 2004)
Girl gangs have been on the rise for several years in the District and other cities, including Chicago, Philadelphia and New York, gang experts say. No one has been killed in girl gang confrontations in the District, but an escalation of gang-related violence in recent months has officials alarmed about the possibility, particularly during the city's school holiday break, which continues through Sunday.

School Sued Over Sexual Harassment (The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 8, 2004)
The boys accused of sexually harassing their classmates got their punishment in the summer when they went before a family court judge. Now the parents of two girls at DeMasi Middle School want the Evesham Township Board of Education to answer for the pain and humiliation they say their daughters were forced to endure at the boys' hands for the better part of a school year. The families this week sued the board and the township in a case that experts say reflects a growing awareness about what constitutes inappropriate conduct among peers and about what schools are required to do about it.

Frist Calls for Review of Abstinence Programs (The Baltimore Sun, December 6, 2004)
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said yesterday that the government should review federally funded sexual abstinence programs, under fire from Democrats who say they contain false and misleading medical information. The "abstinence-only" programs, which got $170 million from Congress this year, teach children and teenagers the benefits of abstaining from sex until marriage. By law, they are not allowed to discuss any benefits of birth control or condoms in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. A report last week by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat, found that 11 of the 13 most widely used programs contain misinformation. He said they underestimate the effectiveness of condoms in preventing pregnancy and the spread of disease, exaggerate the prevalence of emotional and physical distress after abortion, blur science and religion or get fundamental scientific facts wrong.

Writing on the Rightness of Sex-Ed Changes (The Washington Post, December 5, 2004)
Under changes in Montgomery County's curriculum, 10th-graders -- except those whose parents opt them out of the sex-ed portion of the required high school health education class -- will see a short video demonstrating how to apply a condom. Also added will be a one-week instructional segment on sexual identity, including discussions about homosexuality and bisexuality.

Parents Organize To Fight New Sex-Ed Curriculum (The Washington Times, December 5, 2004)
Montgomery County parents met yesterday to organize against changes in the public school system's sex-education curriculum in which students are told that homosexuality is not a choice and that same-sex couples are one form of a family.

Pay Closer Attention: Boys Are Struggling Academically (USA Today, December 2, 2004)
Girls are taking the nation's colleges by storm. They're streaming to campuses in greater numbers, earning better grades and graduating more often. The same phenomenal success shows in high schools, where girls dominate honor rolls, hold more student government spots and rake in most of the academic awards. So says a just-released report from the U.S. Department of Education. Impressive. But the real news is tucked into the deeper, darker corners of the report. Boys are doing miserably, and nobody knows quite why. On measures ranging from writing ability to the likelihood of needing special education, boys are flat-lining — or worse.

Colleges Court a New Minority: Boys (The Baltimore Sun, December 2, 2004)
To place well in influential college rankings, selective colleges must enroll as many top high school students as they can - and most of those students are women. Administrators are watching closely for the "tipping point" at which schools become unappealing to both men and women. They fear that lopsided male-female ratios will hurt the social life and diverse classrooms they use as selling points. Despite employing the same tactics used for years to lure ethnic minority students, few colleges say they give admissions preferences to boys. But high school counselors and admissions experts say they believe it is happening.

Lawsuits Shed New Light on Sexual Harassment of Teens (The Washington Post, December 2, 2004)
Since teens are new to the workforce, they expect the same teasing that happens in high school hallways, experts say, but when teasing is taken to another level, they do not know what to do, particularly if it involves an older co-worker. In one of the few studies that has measured sexual harassment occurrences among teens who work part time, 35 percent of 712 high school students surveyed said they had experienced it.

Support of Gays Pushed in Schools (The Washington Times, December 1, 2004)
Civil liberties and homosexual rights advocates have renewed their push for community programs to bolster support in schools for homosexual youths, just weeks after voters repudiated same-sex unions in 11 state referendums.

Supreme Court Ponders Protection for Girls' Coach (The Houston Chronicle, November 30, 2004)
A landmark gender equity law should protect people who report complaints of discrimination, the Supreme Court was told today as it heard arguments in the case of an Alabama coach fired when he protested the unequal treatment of his girls' high school basketball team.

'Storm Brewing' on Sex-Ed Course (The Washington Times, November 24, 2004)
Opponents and supporters of the proposed changes to the sex-education curriculum in Montgomery County are waging a battle over whether to allow school officials to include the topic of homosexuality. Parents have begun campaigns to either encourage or stop the county from implementing the changes, which would, among other things, identify same-sex couples as a type of family. Opponents also started a move to recall the Montgomery County Board of Education, which voted Nov. 9 to test the new curriculum in six schools next spring.

Many Schools Discuss Gays (The Washington Times, November 23, 2004)
An increasing number of area school systems talk about homosexuality in their sex-education classes, a topic that one Maryland district wants to include as part of its curriculum next fall.

Enforcement of Civil Rights Law Declined Since '99, Study Finds (The New York Times, November 22, 2004)
Federal enforcement of civil rights laws has dropped sharply since 1999, as the level of complaints received by the Justice Department has remained relatively constant, according to Justice Department data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

A Growing Gender Gap Tests College Admissions (The Los Angeles Times, November 21, 2004)
To place well in influential college rankings, schools must enroll as many top high school students as they can — and most of those students are female.

Math Venture Calls on Girls to Do Better (The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 19, 2004)
Fourth and fifth graders at Loring Flemming Elementary in Gloucester Township are shareholders in a specialty-gift company, Project GEM (Gender Equity in Math). The venture was launched in 2002 as an extracurricular activity to help bridge the gender gap in math.

Sex Classes Concern New Board Member (The Washington Times, November 19, 2004)
A new Montgomery County Board of Education member said yesterday he does not want the public school system to become a pioneer in sex education by teaching students that homosexual couples are families.

'Gay-Straight' Clubs in Schools Anger Foes (The Washington Times, November 18, 2004)
Family groups and state lawmakers say "gay-straight" student clubs in the region — some even are operating at middle schools — promote homosexuality and encourage teens to be sexually active. Students in Virginia, Maryland and the District have formed dozens of such school clubs in an attempt to foster tolerance.

High Schools Tackling Athletic Equality for Girls (The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 15, 2004)
After decades of inequities, Title IX has transformed women's athletics at the college level since it was passed in 1972. Now, officials at Wissahickon and other high schools nationwide are learning that the mandates apply to a broad swath of issues in high school sports, including booster club fund-raising.

Educators Want More Mr.'s in Their Classrooms (St. Petersburg Times, November 14, 2004)
recent National Education Association survey shows that the number of male public school teachers is at a 40-year low.

Opinion: If Every Child Were My Child . . . (Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 11, 2004)
Public School students in Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, and Richmond are collectively 55 percent white and 45 percent children of color, according to state Department of Education data. Yet the average white student in the county schools is exposed to a student body that is less than 10 percent students of color, while the average student of color in the city schools is ex- posed to a student body 5.5 percent white.

Sex-ed Critics Intend to Fight (The Washington Times, November 11, 2004)
Pastors and parents of Montgomery County said yesterday they are uniting in opposition to a new sex-education program in high schools that they think promotes homosexuality.

Groups Push for Teacher Diversity (CNN.com, November 9, 2004)
A small but growing body of research shows minorities tend to do better in class and face higher expectations when taught by teachers from their racial or ethnic group, says the National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force, a partnership led by six groups.

In Texas, a Stand to Teach 'Abstinence Only' in Sex Ed (Christian Science Monitor, November 9, 2004)
Presidential politics isn't the only realm where the Texas way prevails. As a heavyweight in the $4.3 billion textbook market, the state puts its stamp on materials bound for many of the nation's classrooms. On Friday, two messages came through loud and clear as the State Board of Education voted on a new list of approved health books: That abstinence should be taught without any textbook discussion of contraception. And that the books should be explicit about marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Texas is one of 21 states with a centralized process to review textbooks, but it's the second-biggest market.

Nine Girls Face Charges After School Fight (Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 5, 2004)
Police arrested nine high school girls yesterday and charged three of them with felonies after a fight between two students turned into a brawl. The teenagers are all students at the Capital City Program, the Richmond public school district's privately-run alternative program for disruptive students.

Teaching to Spark a Change (The Baltimore Sun, October 28, 2004)
Like the more established all-boys St. Ignatius Loyola Academy in Mount Vernon and the co-ed Mother Seton Academy in Fells Point,the Sisters Academy of Baltimore is part of the Nativity Educational Centers Network, which emphasizes small classes, extended days and school years, and tuition-free education of low-income students. It is one of 55 such schools nationwide, but one of seven that serve only girls.

Safe-Sex Activists Oppose Abstinence-Only Texts in Texas (The Washington Times, October 12, 2004)
Texas education officials and activists on all sides of the sex-education debate are battling over the adoption of new health textbooks for the state's 7,800 public schools.

Gender Gap Sends Schools On Man Hunt (Indianapolis Star, October 11, 2004)
School officials nationwide are looking for more than a few good men to offset gender gaps in teaching, particularly in elementary school classrooms.

Same-Sex Classrooms Get Tested At Stonewall Jackson Middle School (The Charleston Gazette, October 4, 2004)
Stonewall Jackson, on Charleston’s West Side, is the first public school in West Virginia to segregate students by gender in grades six through eight for classes in English, math, science and social studies. Other courses, including art, physical education and band, are mixed.

A Push For Phys Ed (The Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2004)
A new study makes a strong case that physical education may be the single best strategy for curbing the nation's growing child obesity problem — at least among girls.

Big Pay Gap Between Men, Women Persists (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 6, 2004)
The persistent gap between what men and women earn has been narrowing over the years, but the progress women have seen in their paychecks is too small and has come too slowly for Heather Arnet. "We are part of a systematic problem,'' said Arnet, executive director of the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania, a new organization that promotes equal opportunity for women and girls in 11 counties around Pittsburgh.

Alternative School Set To Open In City (Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 28, 2004)
Richmond public schools contracted with the Nashville, Tenn.-based Community Education Partners (CEP) to run the new Capital City Program. The CEP model separates students by gender into "learning communities." At the Capital City Program, the school year will begin with a high school community for each gender and a middle school community, Fellows said. A second middle school community should be added as the year progresses, he said.

Number Of Single-Sex Classes Grows (CNN.com, August 26, 2004)
For an increasing number of public schools, the formula for a better education requires a little arithmetic: Divide the girls from the boys.

Vallas Boosts Biz To Women, Minorities (Philadelphia Daily News, August 24, 2004)
Over the last two years, the school district, under the direction of school chief Paul Vallas, has made doing business with minority and female-owned businesses a priority. At the same time that Mayor Street has come under fire for the low percentage of city contracts awarded to minority firms, some say Vallas is rewriting the book on how to bring women and business people of color into the fold.

School System Plans To Study, Document Acts Of Discrimination (The Baltimore Sun, August 22, 2004)
Anne Arundel County school officials plan to better document discriminatory acts as community leaders try to build support among parents concerned about inequities within the schools. Starting this academic year, school staff will submit reports about incidents that may be motivated by bias based on religion, disability, sexual orientation, race or nationality, so district officials can track where and when they occur.

Black Teen Girls At Very High Risk For HIV Infection (The Washington Times, July 11, 2004)
Sexually active black teenage girls are at particular risk for infection with the virus that causes AIDS, but specially tailored prevention programs built around race and culture can help reduce their risk, according to a new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

NEA Caucus Highlights Sex-Abuse Report (The Washington Times, July 8, 2004)
Members of the National Education Association's conservative caucus yesterday asked state leaders of the teachers union to address a federal research report on sexual abuse by teachers and other public-school employees.

The New Face Of Underage Drinking: Teenage Girls (Christian Science Monitor, July 8, 2004)
The evidence is growing that it is now girls, not boys, who constitute the majority of youths using alcohol.

NEA Republicans Alter Rules To Oust Their Leader (The Washington Times, July 6, 2004)
Republican delegates to the National Education Association's annual convention yesterday changed their caucus' rules in order to remove their chairwoman over her stance against homosexuality.

Nea Groups Protest Award To Gay Studies Activist (The Washington Times, July 3, 2004)
Leaders of two groups within the National Education Association objected yesterday to plans of union leaders to confer a human rights award tonight on the founder of a homosexual network in schools.

Study Cites Adult Sexual Offenses In Schools (The Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2004)
Nearly 10% of U.S. elementary and secondary students will experience some kind of sexual misconduct by school employees — from inappropriate jokes to actual molestation, according to a report compiling more than 10 years of research on sexual abuse in classrooms.

Children Face Sexual Misconduct At Schools (The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 1, 2004)
More than 4.5 million students endure sexual misconduct by employees at their schools, from inappropriate jokes to forced sex, a report to Congress says.

Title IX Trickles Down To Girls Of Generation Z (The New York Times, June 29, 2004)
While the familiar battles over Title IX take place at colleges and universities, the battleground has been extended to high schools and middle schools. It is not only lawsuits that have become more common. At the federal Department of Education, the agency responsible for enforcing Title IX, the number of complaints involving sex discrimination in high school and even middle school athletics has outpaced those involving colleges by five to one since 2001.

Gay Group Heads To PTA Meeting (The Seattle Times, June 23, 2004)
A national gay-advocacy group was surprised but pleased when the National PTA invited it to propose a workshop for its national convention.

Diversity Called An Advantage In Student Politics (The Baltimore Sun, June 23, 2004)
Why do students at Wilde Lake High School do so well in government?Assistant Principal Marcy Leonard attributes their success to the school's "very diverse student body." "That diversity is ethnic; it's socio-economic; it's a political diversity," Leonard said. "The student member can't possibly represent every student in Howard County. They [Wilde Lake students] are able to have input from their experiences with students from diverse backgrounds."

Kanawha School Board Settles Harassment Suits (The Charleston Gazette, June 19, 2004)
The Kanawha County Board of Education has settled lawsuits filed on behalf of three girls that accused a teacher at McKinley Middle School of sexual harassment.

Justices Will Review Title IX Case (The Washington Times, June 15, 2004)
The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will decide whether the leading federal law on gender equality in school sports also protects those who protest alleged discrimination against girls' and women's athletic programs.

Typecasting Is Out On High School Stage (The Washington Post, June 13, 2004)
As schools throughout the Washington area diversify, drama teachers say they are casting across cultures, creating racially eclectic families and forcing audiences to stretch their imaginations a bit more. But colorblind casting, as the practice is known, has its challenges: Scripts often need to be retooled to eliminate references to tans or hair color, and students of different backgrounds have to be persuaded to try out for shows not written for them.

It Pays to be a Man -- Still (The Charleston Gazette, June 4, 2004)
If a woman wants to make more money than a man, her job options are severely limited. She could clean up hazardous waste. Or install telecommunications lines. But not much else. The Census Bureau compiled statistics on hundreds of job categories from its 2000 headcount and found just five where women typically earn at least as much as men.

Rowing Scholarships Available. No Experience Necessary (The New York Times, May 28, 2004)
As an effort to satisfy Title IX legal requirements for gender equity in federally funded institutions, many colleges have added nontraditional sports for women, like rowing.

Special Ed Program Found Lacking (The Baltimore Sun, May 26, 2004)
The Baltimore County school system is unnecessarily segregating children with disabilities, providing inferior special education programs at schools in poor neighborhoods and disproportionately placing boys in special education classes, according to a study presented to the school board last night.

Diversity On Schools' Agenda (Philadelphia Daily News, May 26, 2004)
Female and minority contractors have received 17 percent of the school district contracts awarded this year, up from 5 percent at this time last year, said Karen Burke, the Philadelphia school district's chief operating officer. But she confirmed that 72 of the 77 people that the school district employs in the painter/masonry area white and that only five are African-American.

Separating The Sexes: A New Direction For Public Education? (Christian Science Monitor, May 25, 2004)
Whereas in the past, only limited subjects like gym or sex education could be held in single-sex classrooms, under new federal regulations, a school may create an all-girls physics class, for example, as long as the same caliber of textbooks and equipment is available to boys in a coeducational setting.

School To Test All-Boy Classes (The Baltimore Sun, May 24, 2004)
Pressed by federal law, educators for more than three decades have worked hard to assure equal opportunity for girls - to the point of upbraiding teachers for not calling on girls as often as boys. But now the tables are turning. Twin Ridge Elementary School in southeast Frederick County is about to turn the spotlight on the less gentle sex. Beginning this fall, the school will create boys-only classrooms in the fourth and fifth grades in hopes of closing a worrisome gender gap.

'Cohort' Tackles Tougher Courses As A Team (The Washington Post, May 11, 2004)
The "Cohort" program at Wakefield High School unique effort to persuade adolescent black and Hispanic boys that they could, if they pushed hard enough, get their high school -- and eventually the world beyond their school -- to take them seriously.

Opinion: Teaching Girls Not To Be Mean (The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 7, 2004)
". . . suggesting mean behaviors are normal behaviors is simply wrong. Research shows that young women feel threatened and uncomfortable participating in or even watching bullying between peers. Most welcome opportunities to learn better ways of relating."

A Return To Roots (Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 4, 2004)
One increasingly popular response to what some call the "boy crisis" is a return to education's roots: To isolate boys, either in single-sex schools or in single-sex classes within co-educational schools.

Class Teaches Boys To Be Men (The Baltimore Sun, April 30, 2004)
Gorham L. Black III knows what it means to be a man. That's why the 61-year-old retired Army colonel, now a substitute teacher at Reservoir High School, lectures a class on the subject. Once a month, 30 boys sit in Black's third-floor classroom for 30 minutes to hear practical instructions on "What It Is To Be a Man."

Boys More Likely To Have Dyslexia, New Study Finds (The Arizona Republic, April 28, 2004)
Dyslexia really is more common in boys than girls, new research says, contradicting studies suggesting that boys are simply more likely to be diagnosed with the problem because they tend to act up in class when they get frustrated.

Teachers Battle NEA Over Politics (The Washington Times, April 27, 2004)
State affiliates of the National Education Association, a sponsor of last weekend's pro-choice March for Women's Lives, are fighting members who have invoked federal antidiscrimination laws against the union's use of their dues to support abortion, contraception and homosexuality.

Girls In Science (The Washington Times, April 22, 2004)
Metro-area assessment tests are showing that girls are taking an interest in math and science at all grade levels. Maryland girls test higher than boys in math and science, and even more so in reading and the language arts, says Rocco Ferretti, principal at Central Elementary School in Anne Arundel County. The Maryland State Department of Education referred questions about academic performance and gender to Mr. Ferretti, who has worked on the issue.

A Silent Shout For Gay Rights (The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 21, 2004)
Using silence to make a statement, thousands of students will refrain from talking today to protest the harassment of gays and lesbians in schools. A record number of students are expected to participate in the ninth annual Day of Silence, which started at the University of Virginia and is being observed this year at 3,000 schools and colleges. According to the organizers, about 300,000 students, a third more than last year, are expected to join in the protest, which is sponsored by GLSEN - the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network - and the U.S. Student Association.

Lecture Series Salutes Women (The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 13, 2004)
An array of high-powered women who are tops in their fields will share details of their professional lives and describe their efforts to balance career and family in a series of talks beginning this week at Springside School, Philadelphia's oldest private school for girls. Titled "Illuminating Women," the speaker series will include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; Amy Gutmann, president-elect of the University of Pennsylvania; and international opera star Frederica von Stade.

Thanks to Title IX: Cheerleading Is Sport at Maryland (The New York Times, April 4, 2004)
Early this season, Maryland became the first university in the nation to grant its cheerleading squad status as a varsity sport. It is a distinction that helps Maryland comply with the federal gender-equity law known as Title IX. But Maryland's decision to sanction an all-women's competitive cheerleading team has roiled some women's sports advocates, creating an odd face-off between traditional supporters of women's athletics and the latest benefactors of a Title IX opportunity, the cheerleaders. It has stirred an age-old argument about what constitutes a sport and has resurrected longstanding stereotypes.

A Girl Dunks; Enlightened Boys Applaud (The New York Times, April 1, 2004)
The 2004 McDonald's High School All-American dunk contest was won by Candace Parker, a female basketball player.

Opinion: Blackboard Hero (The Washington Post, March 10, 2004)
Corinthian Nutter died a peaceful death last month at age 97 in her Shawnee, Kan., home. Her name is not a household word, but it deserves to be better known as we reflect on the Brown v. Board of Education decision handed down 50 years ago this spring. "Miss Nutter," as her students knew her, was one of thousands of unsung female foot soldiers in the civil rights movement -- ordinary Americans who placed careers and personal safety in jeopardy to fight racial segregation in public schools.

New Rules Would Allow More Single-Sex Schools (USA Today, March 4, 2004)
The U.S. Education Department plans to give public school districts more flexibility to open all-girls and all-boys schools and offer single-sex classes in existing schools.

Women's Roles, Now Writ (Too?) Large (Christian Science Monitor, March 2, 2004)
The movement of trying to write more "her-story" into history, of course, has been going on for decades. But even as this month marks the 17th year that women's history month has been celebrated, there is still much dissatisfaction with the way women have - or haven't - been worked into history curricula.

Opinion: Gay or Straight -- It's Still Harassment (Philadelphia Daily News, February 25, 2004)
Four girls from the Turner Middle School, at 59th Street and Baltimore Avenue, in West Philadelphia, face expulsion for sexually harassing other girls.

Carroll School Offers Girls Lessons In Self-Defense (The Baltimore Sun, February 17, 2004)
Patti Naper is a middle school English instructor who, for 14 days a semester, teaches eighth-grade girls how to defend themselves against a possible attack. Most of the girls in her class at Mount Airy Middle School are 13 years old, just a year younger than Naper says she was when she was raped.

Rape Education Kept Out Of Classes (The Washington Times, February 10, 2004)
In a 49-48 vote, the [Virginia] House defeated a bill that would have allowed public-school teachers to give their students information on how to prevent rape and the emergency contraception available if they become victims of the crime.

A Bitter Irony For Working Women (The Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2004)
A recent study of women in corporate leadership by Catalyst, a New York research organization, found that women accounted for only 15.7 percent of corporate-officer positions and 5.2 percent of top earners at Fortune 500 companies in 2002. Even more telling, the majority of women in top jobs are in staff rather than line positions, which rarely lead to the very top. Women hold only 9.9 percent of line corporate-officer jobs, where they would be overseeing a business that earns money for their company, compared with 90.1 percent for men.

They're 'Out' At School, And Tension Is In (The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 8, 2004)
Philadelphia high schools are struggling with a new problem in student behavior: rising tensions between heterosexual and openly lesbian girls. Nationwide, lesbians increasingly are declaring their sexual orientation and publicly displaying their affection for each other at younger ages, and Philadelphia appears in step with that trend. The phenomenon has led to embarrassing moments in some cases and physical clashes in others. Accusations of intimidation have surfaced on both sides: from lesbians who say they are being harassed and from heterosexual girls who say they have been grabbed and bothered.

In Fighting Stereotypes, Students Lift Test Scores (The New York Times, January 20, 2004)
Girls and low-income minority students are more likely to improve their scores on standardized tests when they are taught ways to overcome the pressures associated with negative stereotypes, according to a new study of seventh graders.

Arundel Schools Met Goal On Buying From Minority Companies (The Baltimore Sun, January 8, 2004)
The Anne Arundel County school system exceeded its goal of buying 14 percent of its supplies and services last year from businesses owned by women or racial minorities, but spent less with such businesses than in previous years, according to a report presented to the school board yesterday.

Settlement In Gay Suit Ex-Students Claimed Harassment (San Francisco Chronicle, January 7, 2004)
It began nearly 10 years ago and ended Tuesday in a San Jose federal courtroom with a $1.1 million settlement and a promise by Morgan Hill Unified School District administrators to create a mandatory training program to promote gay tolerance.

My Sister's Circle Offers Support To City Girls (The Baltimore Sun, January 4, 2004)
Dozens of upper-school students from Bryn Mawr, Roland Park Country School, Garrison Forest School and Maryvale Preparatory School volunteer to tutor Baltimore middle school girls as part of a mentoring program called My Sister's Circle.

School Sees Plus In Splitting Up Students By Gender (The Seattle Times, January 2, 2004)
A practice usually associated with private schools, single-sex class has become a growing phenomenon in public schools in the past two years, education experts said.

Graduate Gender Gap (The Buffalo News, December 18, 2003)
Women now earn about 57 percent of the nation's bachelor's degrees, up from 49 percent in 1980, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

UNICEF: 65 Million Girls Missing Out On Schooling (The Washington Post, December 11, 2003)
Some 65 million girls worldwide are kept out of school, increasing the risks that they will suffer from extreme poverty, die in childbirth or from AIDS and passing those dangers from generation to generation, the U.N. children's fund said Thursday.

Schools, Liability, And Sexual Harassment (Christian Science Monitor, December 8, 2003)
Two hours before she would be stabbed to death during sixth period, a lawsuit contends, Ortralla Mosley complained to teachers at Reagan High School that her ex-boyfriend was becoming increasingly violent with her and that she was worried about her safety. That suit, filed in Austin, Texas last week, says school officials knew of Marcus McTear's violence with girls but were "deliberately indifferent." Now Ortralla's mother, Carolyn, is suing the Austin Independent School District for wrongful death under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sexual discrimination in public schools.

A Md. School Tries An About-Face (The Washington Post, December 1, 2003)
Forestville Military Academy began a dramatic experiment last year -- to see whether a low-performing, chaotic high school in Prince George's County could become one of the nation's few coeducational public military schools.

Getting To Root Of School Discipline Disparities (The Baltimore Sun, November 19, 2003)
"The folks at the Maryland Justice Policy Institute -- a pretty liberal outfit dedicated to finding alternative ways of dealing with crime and punishment -- dared to wade in where many fear to tread. Their Web site listed data for the 1998-1999 school year, breaking down suspensions in Maryland public schools by race. The data showed that 11.2 percent of Maryland's 307,906 black students received suspensions, a higher rate than other groups: 5.8 percent of the state's 463,280 white students, 8.8 percent of 2,840 Native American students, 5 percent of 33,580 Hispanic students and 2.2 percent of 34,065 Asian students. Maryland State Department of Education figures for the school year 2000-2001 show a black suspension rate of 56.76 percent, a white rate of 38.63 percent, a Hispanic rate of 3 percent and an Asian rate of 1.8 percent."

Wanted: Men, Hispanics For PTA Duty (CNN.com, October 27, 2003)
Outreach is happening across the country as the PTA aims to recruit members and develop leaders among groups not widely represented, particularly men and Hispanics.

Girls Were Central To School's Success (Philadelphia Daily News, October 27, 2003)
IN 1983, Central High School, Philadelphia's "magnet" public school for top academic achievers, was hurting. Enrollment that year was down to a mere 1,000. Misgivings about public schools in general and reluctance by some to attend a male-only institution were keeping top candidates away. What restored the elite school's luster, of all things, was a lawsuit filed by three girls seeking only to become Central students.

Men Trailing In College Achievement (The Baltimore Sun, September 24, 2003)
Between 1975 and 2001, the number of bachelor's degrees earned by men increased by 5 percent. The number earned by women increased by 70 percent. Among African-Americans, about twice as many women as men are now earning four-year degrees.

Girls Surging Past Boys Academically, New Study Says (The Seattle Times, September 20, 2003)
Throughout the industrialized world, girls are better readers than boys, according to a startling new study of 42 countries. Girls also have higher expectations than boys of holding good jobs someday.

Teacher Shortage Or Glut? (The Baltimore Sun, September 17, 2003)
That teacher shortage we've read and heard so much about? It really doesn't exist. The problem isn't the number; it's the distribution, not only by content area but by gender and, to some extent, by race.

U.S. Officials Pull Questions From Surveys About Children (The New York Times, September 16, 2003)
The board that oversees national achievement tests has moved to curtail sharply the background surveys of students, teachers and principals that accompany the examinations, alarming researchers and others who rely on the surveys as an important source of information.

Public Schools Are Looking For A Few Good Men (The Washington Times, August 28, 2003)
The nation's public school teachers are overwhelmingly white women — outnumbering men by a 3-to-1 margin — and they have an average age of 43, according to a survey by the National Education Association.

School Board Decides: City Schools Will Merge (Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 18, 2003)
The Richmond School Board has voted unanimously to combine Armstrong and John F. Kennedy high schools into one high school and Mosby and Onslow Minnis middle schools into one middle school by fall 2004. The combined high school would be able to offer more advanced classes and foreign languages, Butts said, more sports for girls, and both varsity and junior-varsity sports.

Sex-Ed Group Faces New Review (The Washington Post, August 16, 2003)
The Bush administration will conduct the third review within one year of the comprehensive sex education organization Advocates for Youth, prompting the group and a congressman to charge that it is being punished because of its opposition to abstinence-only AIDS prevention programs.

Boy Scouts Lose Funding Over Anti-Gay Policy (Philadelphia Daily News, August 1, 2003)
The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania has cut off all funding to local Boy Scout organizations because of the Scouts' anti-gay policy, the charitable organization announced yesterday.

Same-Sex Classes Program Expanding In Chesterfield (Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 30, 2003)
The "unified grouping" program at Bailey Bridge Middle School lets pupils study core subjects - math, English, social studies and science - in classes with other pupils of the same sex. Assistant Principal Scott Ludlow said there were lower rates of tardiness, fewer detentions and higher grades in the same-gender classes compared with the co-ed classes.

First Public Gay High School To Open In NYC (CNN.com, July 29, 2003)
New York City is creating the nation's first public high school for gays, bisexuals and transgender students.

Too Few Good Men (Christian Science Monitor, July 15, 2003)
Demand for male teachers in lower grades is growing, but so is the list of reasons why men don't go into teaching.

Title IX Rules Get Upheld, Clarified (The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 14, 2003)
The U.S. Department of Education concluded its yearlong review of Title IX yesterday by reaffirming the existing rules of compliance, while making a modest change of emphasis.

Girls Edge Boys At Head Of The Class (The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 14, 2003)
Girls for years have outperformed boys in the classroom, experts say.

Title IX Rules Abandon Sex Quotas In Athletics (The Washington Times, July 12, 2003)
The Bush administration announced yesterday that colleges and universities no longer must prove "substantially proportionate" participation of men and women in sports programs as the main way to comply with the federal Title IX sex-discrimination ban.

The Face Of The American Teacher (USA Today, July 2, 2003)
While public school students have grown much more diverse in the past 30 years, schools still rely overwhelmingly on white women to teach them. And despite decades of efforts to attract more minorities and men, they simply aren't stepping into the frame.

Delaware Rights Bill Vote Delayed  (Delaware State News, June 26, 2003)
A much-anticipated decision on an anti-discrimination bill had to be delayed Wednesday. The bill, HB 99, forbids discrimination based on an individual's sexual orientation in several areas, including housing and employment. Delaware law already prohibits discrimination on a variety of factors such as gender, race, age and religion.

Md. Votes For Rights Of Its Gay Students (The Baltimore Sun, June 25, 2003)
Ending years of dispute, the Maryland Board of Education voted yesterday for the first time to explicitly protect gay and lesbian students from harassment in the state's public schools.

Pew Pulls Boy Scout Council's Grant (The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 25, 2003)
The Pew Charitable Trusts has killed a $100,000 grant to the region's largest Boy Scout council because of its policy of discriminating against homosexuals.

Alliance Is Looking Out For Rights Of Gay Pupils (The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 14, 2003)
Schools have been among the most unsafe settings for gay youth, surveys show. The antidote: school-based clubs known as the Gay-Straight Alliance. They have existed since 1989. The number of alliances registered with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network nearly doubled this school year to about 1,750. Nearly all the 50 or so Pennsylvania high schools and middle schools that registered their clubs with the network are in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties.

Board Opposes Schools Proposal (The Baltimore Sun, May 29, 2003)
The Carroll County school board voted yesterday to send a letter to the state Board of Education opposing a contentious proposal aimed at explicitly protecting gay and lesbian public school students from discrimination and harassment.

The New Gender Gap (BusinessWeek, May 26, 2003)
From kindergarten to graduate school, boys are fast becoming the second sex.

Decades Later, Schools Still Struggle With Implementing Title IX (The Boston Globe, May 25, 2003)
More than two decades after Title IX passed, high schools and colleges around the country are still grappling with how to implement it.

Acute Shortage Of Men Teachers (The Baltimore Sun, May 7, 2003)
Male teachers are the bald eagles of Maryland education, especially in the early grades: They're sighted only occasionally, and they've been officially designated an endangered species; that is, they've been declared a shortage "area" by the state Board of Education.

UMBC Event Encourages Girls To Excel In Science (The Baltimore Sun, May 4, 2003)
The University of Maryland of Baltimore County -- in collaboration with the public school systems of Howard and Baltimore Counties -- recently hosted "Computer Mania Day", an event designed to encourage the enrollment of girls in information technology studies.

A Man's Place? As Head Of The Class (The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 31, 2003)
Teachers, administrators and educational researchers agree that when a man decides to teach the youngest of children, he shoulders expectations and suspicions his female counterparts do not.

Cafritz Criticized For Voucher Support (The Washington Post, March 31, 2003)
District School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz's newfound support for a school voucher program advocated by the Bush administration has drawn sharp criticism from educators, elected leaders and parent advocacy groups.

Education Pays Off Most For White Men (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 21, 2003)
Educational gaps between men and women and whites and blacks have narrowed in recent years, but this much has not changed: A highly educated white man makes much more money than anyone else, according to Census Bureau estimates being released today.

Title IX Panel's Proposals Tossed (San Francisco Chronicle, February 27, 2003)
Under intense criticism that the Bush administration might weaken Title IX—the landmark 1972 gender equity law that has transformed women's sports—Education Secretary Rod Paige unexpectedly rejected all the controversial findings of his own commission.

Title IX Minority Pushes Enforcement, Not Change (CNN.com, February 26, 2003)
The law requiring equal opportunity for male and female athletes can be better enforced and explained, but the push to loosen the rules should be rejected, say two dissenting members of the nation's Title IX panel.

Title IX Reformers Keep Men In Mind (The New York Times, February 26, 2003)
A federal commission formed to examine Title IX, the 1972 law that forced schools to offer women equal opportunity in sports, delivered its final report, recommending that the law be retooled to ensure that new sports opportunities for girls and women do not come at the expense of boys' and men's teams.

Opinion: Panel Reviewing Title IX Ignores High School Girls  (USA Today, February 26, 2003)
"Thirty years after Congress ordered an end to discrimination against women in educational institutions, high schools across the country continue to defy the law when it comes to athletics. The Education Department, which enforces the legislation known as Title IX, received 86 complaints about high schools in 2002, three times as many as it received about colleges. Yet such problems essentially were ignored in the majority report Wednesday by an advisory commission of academic and athletic leaders appointed by Education Secretary Rod Paige to review enforcement of the law."

Paige Rejects Major Title IX Changes In School  (The Washington Times, February 26, 2003)
Education Secretary Rod Paige said last night that he would not consider any major changes in Title IX, the federal education law that requires equal sports opportunities for men and women.

Opinion: Title IX, II  (Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 11, 2003)
"Based on 2001 membership data - raw data from the National Federation of State High Schools, and from the NCAA - for every single NCAA sports opportunity for a woman, there are 17 high-school athletes available to fill the spot; for a man, there are 18. Isn't that equal enough? In fact, women have more opportunity to compete in college than men do. Yet the attitude represented by the Women's Sports Foundation, and other women's groups, is that women are far from achieving gender equity; by their continuing endorsement of proportionality in collegiate athletics, these women's advocates are being purely vindictive."

Girls Form Addictions Faster, Study Suggests (The Arizona Republic, February 6, 2003)
Girls and young women get hooked on cigarettes, alcohol and drugs more quickly and for different reasons than boys and should receive specialized treatment that reflects that, according to a new study released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Group Pledges to Preserve Sports Equity Law (CNN.com, February 6, 2003)
Politicians, actors and athletes have promised to wage a national fight to preserve Title IX, the landmark law designed to give women equal access to sports. The campaign comes as Education Secretary Rod Paige prepares a decision on how the sports equity law is enforced among all schools and colleges that receive federal money.

Science, Math Class May Divide (The Detroit News, February 4, 2003)
When girls don't have to worry about what boys think, they thrive in all academics -- including math and science, according to Principal Carolyn Witte.

Title IX Panel Acts Moderately (The Washington Post, January 31, 2003)
A national commission yesterday decided on a broad menu of recommendations designed to clarify the way colleges and universities can comply with Title IX, but backed away from the most dramatic proposals for altering enforcement of the law that bans sex discrimination in collegiate sports.

Flexibility Sought On Title IX Quotas (The Washington Times, January 31, 2003)
A Bush administration athletic commission voted yesterday to ask the U.S. Education Department to find ways other than quotas to ensure that colleges and universities are not discriminating against women's sports programs. But the 15-member Commission on Opportunity in Athletics voted down a recommendation to ban outright numerical formulas under Title IX federal mandates. Instead, the panel voted 10-5 to ask Education Secretary Rod Paige to consider allowing schools to use student-interest surveys, rather than proportional quotas based on percentages of men and women enrolled, to determine how many teams must be offered for women compared to those for men.

Panel Tempers Title IX Support (The Washington Times, January 30, 2003)
A Bush administration panel considering changes in Title IX federal mandates that require cuts in men's collegiate athletics moved yesterday to temper these requirements, and strongly endorsed strengthening support for women's athletics.

Opinion: Title IX Tip-Off  (The Washington Post, January 29, 2003)
"Tube in to the discussion over Title IX and you'd think that America's universities were gyms and that a student elective meant choosing between football and soccer. Forgotten in the debate, now nearing hysteria, is that the law prohibits sex discrimination in all areas of education . . ."

Commission Set To Make Title IX Rules Less Restrictive (USA Today, January 28, 2003)
The Bush administration's Title IX commission appears set to recommend that the 30-year-old gender equity law in sports be made less rigid, a commission member says.

Changes To Title IX Considered  (The Washington Post, January 24, 2003)
Colleges and universities would be allowed to limit the number of scholarships awarded to female athletes without regard to enrollment under the most controversial recommendation being considered by a national commission studying reform of Title IX, the landmark law that bans sex discrimination in collegiate sports.

Klein High School Sued For Indecision On Gay Club (Houston Chronicle, January 23, 2003)
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in federal court here Wednesday on behalf of a Klein High School lesbian who wants to start a Gay-Straight Alliance, the first time a Texas student has taken such legal action.

Texas Teaches Abstinence, With Mixed Grades  (The Washington Post, January 21, 2003)
In 1995, George W. Bush, who was then governor, signed a law making Texas the third state requiring schools to follow an abstinence-only sex education curriculum. Now President Bush is promoting abstinence-until-marriage programs nationwide, a shift in health policy that has sparked an emotional debate over how to keep young people healthy.

Teenagers Challenge Male-Only Draft Law (The Boston Herald, January 10, 2003)
With a war in Iraq looming, a teenage brother and sister and three friends filed a federal lawsuit yesterday charging that the law requiring all 18-year-old males to register for a possible military draft is unconstitutional because it applies only to one gender.

Title IX Panel Delays Final Report (USA Today, December 22, 2002)
The commission studying possible changes to Title IX cannot meet its deadline for a final report to the Secretary of Education and has revised its timetable by around a month.

Lesbian Teen Sues District For Bias (The Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2002)
A federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a gay teen and her mother claims that a California school district violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The suit seeks changes in school policies to handle harassment of students based on sexual orientation, as well as unspecified monetary damages.

Major Changes Debated For Title IX (USA Today, December 18, 2002)
A commission appointed by the Bush administration is poised to propose profound changes in Title IX, the federal law that forbids sex discrimination at schools and universities receiving federal funds.

Teens Cite Anti-Gay Bias In School (The San Jose Mercury News, December 13, 2002)
At a time when bullying and teasing in schools is a growing concern for educators and parents, a new study finds that students who are gay or thought to be gay are most likely to be targets -- even more than children who are overweight or have disabilities.

Body-Conscious Boys Adopt Athletes' Taste For Steroids (The New York Times, November 22, 2002)
American boys are using steroids more than ever -- law enforcement officials, doctors and teenagers say.

Trading Places In the Cafeteria (The Washington Post, November 22, 2002)
Across the country this week, schools tried to shake up the invisible boundaries -- race, class, clothes, sports -- that come into stark relief in the shifting social structure of the school cafeteria. Mix It Up was the first nationwide activity sponsored by Teaching Tolerance, a program of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

U.Va. Is Opening Teaching Center (Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 7, 2002)
Aided by a $300,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, a University of Virginia institute will open a teaching center this month devoted to new ways of understanding race, gender and nationhood. U.Va.'s Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies will use the grant money to establish the Center for the Study of Local Knowledge in the Construction of Race, Gender and Nation. It opens Nov. 14.

Bush Administration To Remove Barriers To Single-Sex Classes (The Detroit News, September 19, 2002)
The Education Department is drafting Title IX regulations to give schools more flexibility to offer single-sex instruction.

Liberals Opposing More Single-Sex Schools (The Washington Times, September 19, 2002)
Women's and civil rights groups are urging President Bush to drop the idea of allowing school districts to open more single-sex public schools, claiming such schools only promote sexism.

Women's, Rights Groups Oppose OK For Single-Sex Public Schools (The Boston Globe, September 17, 2002)
Advocates say single-sex schools are good for girls and minorities, but women's and civil rights groups are urging President Bush to drop the idea. They contend the schools promote sexism and distract from proven ways to improve education. They also argue that school programs geared to girls generally get less public financial support than coeducational ones.

Single-Sex Classrooms Gaining Favor (CNN.com, September 12, 2002)
The public middle school, plagued by low test scores and unruliness, is near the forefront of an initiative that could catch hold as the U.S. Department of Education drafts regulations making it easier for schools to create gender-specific classes.

More Teachers Bonding With Single-Sex Classes (The Washington Post, September 9, 2002)
Fewer than 400 students in the Washington, D.C. region found themselves in classes segregated by sex when they returned to public schools this month. But the number of boys-only and girls-only classes is expected to increase significantly over the next few years, experts say, as the Bush administration moves to ease three decades of federal restrictions.

Separating Boys and Girls (The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 6, 2002)
FitzSimons Middle School in North Philadelphia, which is being run by the for-profit Victory Schools Inc., is going further than most schools when it comes to security. It is the only school that has separated boys and girls for classes, an approach expected to reduce discipline problems and put the focus on education.

SAT Math Scores Hit 30-Year High (CNN.com, August 28, 2002)
SAT math scores among college-bound students this year hit their highest level in more than three decades, according to a College Board report, which noted that the math gender gap is closing as females' scores rise closer to those of males.

From Title IX To TV Heroes  (The Christian Science Monitor, August 16, 2002)
Some in Hollywood see a link between the 1972 law that leveled the playing field for women athletes and today's kickboxing actresses.

St. Mary's Takes Aim at Shortfalls in Achievement  (The Washington Post, August 11, 2002)
The St. Mary's County public schools will present for the first time next week a draft of a five-year plan for eliminating the achievement gap among its students.

Insecurity Haunts Girls Despite Their Good Grades  (Chicago Sun-Times, July 24, 2002)
A recent study conducted by the University of Illinois found that girls had better grades in four core subjects: language arts, social studies, math and science. But the girls also reported feeling significantly more stress and anxiety, and less confidence in their abilities.

Sex and Scholarship  (The Washington Post, July 21, 2002)
According to the National Association for the Advancement of Single Sex Public Education, about 25,000 students in the Washington-Baltimore area attend more than 50 single-sex schools, all but one private. Parents who would like to send their children to single-sex schools but can't afford the tuition may soon have more options. In May, the Bush administration made clear its intention to encourage the creation of more single-sex public schools.

Special Ed Gender Gap Stirs Worry  (The Boston Globe, July 8, 2002)
Public schools nationwide place twice as many boys as girls in special education, a gender gap that extends from the biggest cities to the smallest towns.

Measure To Woo Men To Teaching Jobs  (CNN.com, July 5, 2002)
Gathered at their annual meeting this week, members of the National Education Association talked about why so few men go into teaching -- recent statistics show that only one in four public school teachers is male.

Still Not Equal | Title IX And The Struggle Over Women's College Sports  (The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 30, 2002)
An examination of data that colleges and universities are required to file with the Department of Education reveals that nearly 80 percent of them are not yet in compliance with Title IX.

Scores Soar at D.C. School With Same-Sex Classes (The Washington Post, June 27, 2002)
At Moten Elementary School in Southeast Washington, the percentage of students scoring in the two highest categories -- "advanced" and "proficient" -- on the math portion of the Stanford 9 test jumped in one year from 49 percent to 88 percent. On the reading portion of the exam, the percentage of students in the top two categories shot up from 50 percent to 91.5 percent. The principal of the school, George Smitherman, attributes the improvement to two major changes: switching to same-sex classes and cutting the one-hour lunch period in half.

Degrees of Separation  (The Washington Post, June 25, 2002)
At colleges and universities across the United States, the proportion of bachelor's degrees awarded to women reached a post-war high this year at an estimated 57 percent. The gender gap is even greater among Hispanics -- only 40 percent of that ethnic group's college graduates are male -- and African Americans, who are now seeing two women earn bachelor's degrees for every man.

Women Have Gone Far Under Title IX  (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 23, 2002)
Thirty years after President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law, its friends and foes see progress in securing women's educational rights but anticipate new challenges to the anti-discrimination law.

Time Fails to Lessen Title IX Furor (USA Today, June 23, 2002)
If every school had begun earnest efforts to obey the Title IX law when Richard Nixon signed it — six days after the third-rate burglary that would lead to the end of his presidency — presumably all would be in compliance today. Instead, culture wars still rage over it.

Opinion: Increase In Women's Sports Not Due To Title IX  (The Washington Times, June 21, 2002)
The author writes: ". . . simply touting the progress of women since the passage of a law does not demonstrate that the law was responsible."

School Programs Help Students Blossom  (The Washington Post, June 20, 2002)
To help minority teens cope with the pressures of adolescence, some Washington-area schools have implemented programs -- such as cotillion ball -- to help the youngsters develop self-esteem and confidence. The effort is part of what educators say is a broader campaign to resolve a long-standing problem: the academic achievement gap separating some minorities from white students.

Study: Delaware State fails in Title IX (Dover NewsZap, June 18, 2002)
Delaware State was one of 30 colleges and universities cited by the National Women's Law Center Tuesday as failing to give female athletes the amount of scholarships required under Title IX.

Title IX Falls Short, Women's Groups Say  (The Arizona Republic, June 14, 2002)
A report issued by the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, on the 30th anniversary of federal legislation barring sex discrimination in school, said that the law has made a huge difference in how many girls play high school and college sports but warned that much more needs to be done.

Sex Bias Cited in Vocational Ed  (The Washington Post, June 6, 2002)
Pervasive sex segregation persists in high school vocational programs around the country -- 30 years after Congress passed a law barring such discrimination in education, according to a study released today.

Sex Bias Charged In Vocational Programs  (USA Today, June 5, 2002)
The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) today will ask the Civil Rights Office of the U.S. Department of Education to investigate vocational-technology programs for violations of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in programs that receive federal money. Targeted states are Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Arizona, California and Washington state.

Study Says Girls Less Interested In Math, Not Less Able  (Detroit Free Press, June 4, 2002)
A new University of Michigan study reports that girls are less interested in mathematics than boys but not necessarily less talented.

Girls Gain Big In Some Sciences  (The Washington Times, June 3, 2002)
Recent studies show that the large gaps in women's educational opportunities overall have decreased or been eliminated. However, disparities continue to exist in certain areas.

Meet the Gamma Girls  (Newsweek, June 3, 2002)
In the context of the current media flurry over two best-selling books about teenage “mean girls," this report finds "evidence that a teenage girl in 2002 can be emotionally healthy, socially secure, independent-minded and just plain nice."

High School Boys Lagging Behind Girls, Study Says  (The Boston Globe, May 21, 2002)
Challenging long-held assumptions that fixing the classroom gender gap requires catching girls up with boys, a study from Northeastern University released yesterday suggests it's the boys who face deeper trouble.

Rules May Open Door to Single-Sex Public Schools  (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 14, 2002)
Congress' education bill, approved last year and signed by President George W. Bush in January, clarified federal law on single-sex schooling, saying school districts could receive federal funding for single-sex schools and classes if comparable coursework and facilities are available to both girls and boys.

Spotlight on Single-Sex Schooling  (The Washington Post, May 14, 2002)
Since the Bush administration announced last week that it would encourage single-sex education in public schools -- after 30 years of federal policy that discouraged it in most situations -- some educators are seeking models to guide them as they consider dividing up their classes.

Single-Sex Schooling Splits Thinking  (The Washington Times, May 14, 2002)
Education groups nationwide are split over the reintroduction of single-sex public schools or classrooms proposed by the Bush administration.

Door is Opening for Single-Sex Classes: Title IX Regulations May Ee Amended  (USA Today, May 9, 2002)
The Education Department has announced plans that could pave the way for legalizing single-sex classes in public schools and make it easier for educators who want to operate all-girl or all-boy public schools.

Title IX Hits Middle America 30 Years After Landmark Anti-Discrimination Law's Passage  (USA Today, June 13, 2001)
Title IX is old enough to be in history books: The federal law turns 30 this month. In the popular imagination, it has come to stand for equality in women's collegiate sports. But the law applies to all schools that receive federal funds, not just colleges, and to all aspects of them, not just athletics. Now, as the law heads toward middle age, high school sports is emerging as a common battleground.

Is It Good for the Kids? (ASCD, December 31, 1969)