Tacoma Public Schools fulfills its commitment to achieve equitable participation for girls in school sports and celebrates the resolution of a 10-year investigation by the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights with a reception Sept. 30 at Foss High School.
Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) announced the resolution of a 10-year enforcement action by the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that sought equal athletic opportunities and participation between male and female student athletes.
The district hosted a celebratory news conference and reception today prior to a girls’ volleyball game at Foss High School for student-athletes, coaches, athletic directors and administrators at Foss High School.
In 2000, a citizen filed a complaint with the federal government that Tacoma Public Schools discriminated against girls by not offering them an equitable number of opportunities to participate in school sports. At that time, TPS had 4,441 male students enrolled (51.1 percent) and 4,242 female students enrolled (48.9 percent). But participation in sports clearly leaned toward male student athletes. In all sports in 2000, male student athlete participation was 1,604 (57.2 percent), while female student athlete participation was 1,200 (42.8 percent).
On November 6, 2000, the school district signed an agreement with the Office for Civil Rights to fix the inequity and comply with the federal law governing gender equity known as Title IX.
On August 12 the Office for Civil Right notified TPS that it had fulfilled its commitment to achieve equitable participation for girls in school sports – based on participation statistics from the 2009-2010 school year – and that it had closed the case.
Specifically, last school year, the district satisfied equality in interscholastic sports and squads, total high school enrollment by gender and total athletic participation by gender. The district's high schools offered 12 sports for girls and 10 sports for boys with a total of 83 squads for girls and 74 squads for boys. The district's enrollment, by gender was 3,821 boys (51.1 percent) and 3,655 girls (48.8 percent), and total athletic participation for boys was 1,369 (50.7 percent) and 1,331 (49.3 percent) for girls.
One of the actions the district undertook to satisfy the requirements of the agreement and Title IX included hiring Jennifer Kubista, an athletic director with a long track record and support for work on behalf of Title IX, in 2003. Kubista earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in Management from Gonzaga University in 1997 and her Master of Arts in Education in Sports Management from the University of Connecticut in 1999. She received her Certified Athletic Administrator (CAA) credentials in 2008 from the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. Kubista went to work making sure the participation of male and female students in the district's athletic program was substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments.
“It’s not every day you get to witness the result of such an enormous effort driven by a team of individuals of students, parents, community members, coaches, staff members and athletes,” said Kubista, director of athletics and activities. “It is truly an honor to recognize the hard work of all who have made this achievement possible.”
The district set a goal to have fully functional and equitable participation for both female and male athletes without achieving that equity by cutting sports for male student athletes. Indeed, male participation continued to flourish and was not reduced throughout this process. The district developed a plan and took steps to satisfy the agreement.
The district added sports, specifically girls’ bowling, water polo and wrestling, as well as additional squads. TPS developed outreach activities at the middle-school level to encourage participation in interscholastic athletics. Adding coaching positions when necessary, and creating an Athletics Improvement Committee to improve co-curricular student activities within the district, aided in the compliance.
The additional female sport teams and female coaching positions were added in the district as follows:
- 1999-2000 – Girls’ bowling
- 2002-2003 – Girls’ water polo
- 2009-2010 – Girls’ wrestling teams at Foss, Lincoln and Mount Tahoma high schools because of female participation numbers
- 2007-2010 – Additional coaches at Lincoln, Mount Tahoma, Stadium and Wilson high schools for girls’ tennis because of high female participation numbers
“I am confident that these athletic opportunities will enable us to continue to meet our own mission objectives and allow our students to serve as an integral part of the community for many years to come,” said Superintendent Art Jarvis. “I congratulate the athletics’ staff and the community for their roles in ushering in this outstanding achievement.”
“The Women’s Sports Foundation applauds the Tacoma School District No. 10 for achieving gender equity in its high school athletic programs after 10 years of diligent work. The Foundation advocates for equality under Title IX and strives to ensure equal opportunities for all girls and boys. We hope the efforts made by Tacoma School District No. 10 will encourage other schools to follow suit,” says Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Senior Director of Advocacy for the Women’s Sports Foundation.
The Women’s Sports Foundation is the leading national advocacy organization for the participation of women and girls in sports. It was founded by women’s tennis star Billie Jean King in 1974.
The district will continue to monitor participation and enrollment rates, as well as conduct interest and abilities surveys every three years.
Background
On August 12, 2010, the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) closed its monitoring of the Agreement to Resolve (agreement) entered into by the Tacoma School District No. 10 (district), on November 6, 2000.
In the agreement, the district agreed to ensure that its male and female high school students were provided athletic participation opportunities that equally effectively accommodate their interests and abilities consistent with the requirements of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX).
OCR applies the following Three-Part Test to determine whether an institution is providing nondiscriminatory participation opportunities for individuals of both sexes:
- whether interscholastic level participation opportunities for male and female students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments; or
- where the members of one sex have been and are underrepresented among interscholastic athletes, whether the district can show a history and continuing practice of program expansion which is demonstrably responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the members of that sex; or
- where the members of one sex are underrepresented among interscholastic athletes and the district cannot show a continuing practice of program expansion such as that cited OCR Reference No. 10001160 above, whether it can be demonstrated that the interests and abilities of the members of that sex have been fully and effectively accommodated by the present program.
Under the terms of the agreement, the district made the following commitments:
- complete a fair and comprehensive evaluation regarding the interests and abilities of male and female high school students; and
- determine if the participation of male and female students in the district's athletic program was substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments.
Based on the information the district provided, the district satisfied prong 1 of OCR's Three-Part Test for determining whether a recipient is equally effectively accommodating the athletic interests and abilities of students of both sexes, completed the actions required under the agreement and OCR closed this case.
Understanding Title IX and Athletics
1. Participation
The first compliance prong of Title IX deals with overall sport and athletic participation offerings available for men and women. A three-part test for participation opportunities determines if institutions provide female and male students with equal athletic opportunities. In order to comply, institutions must pass one of these three tests:
- Prong One: Proportionality—male and females participate in athletics in numbers substantially proportional to their respective enrollments in school,
- Prong Two: History and Continued Practice of Program Expansion—the institution shows a history and continuing practice of program expansion which is demonstrably responsive to the developing interests and abilities of members of the underrepresented sex, or
- Prong Three: Full Accommodation of Interests and Abilities—the institution demonstrates that the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex (females) are fully and effectively accommodated by the existing programs.
An institution fulfills the compliance requirement for participant opportunities if it adheres to any (or just one) of the three tests listed above.