Friday, January 30, 2009

Ohio school district provides good model

In Ohio, the Middletown School District undertook a voluntary study of equity in athletics and found some things to fix. (I always question how "voluntary" some of these studies are, but it appears that administrators just wanted to get a sense of the state of things.)
In addition to examining facilities, the study look at sports offerings and participation. There was the typical number-crunching of participation opportunities by gender and a survey of female students to find out what they wanted to play. Those two components have lead to the decision to add, district-wide, a sport for girls. Lacrosse ad gymnastics are both being considered.
Additionally, the study encourages more opportunities at the elementary school level to cultivate interest early on.