The people at the Women's Law Center (they brought attention to the potential gender equity problems in Pittsburgh in the first place) were kind enough to send us a link to their blog post on the Pittsburgh Title IX audit. The information I found initially was fairly vague. But their post has numbers that reveal the extent of the gender disparity.
In order to bring all nine schools into compliance with Prong 1, a total of 784 opportunities for girls would have to be added. Whether the district will choose to head towards proportionality or opt for prong three compliance is not known. An action plan is forthcoming that will address the many, many issues in Pittsburgh.
WLC's post reminds us the compliance is not just about the number of opportunities to play but about uniforms (which girls' teams are short on), scheduling of practice and game times (also an issue), access to medical support/athletic trainers (there is ONE athletic trainer for three schools--a problem for every student-athlete), and the number and quality of coaches (again--also an issue affecting girls' teams disproportionately).
I am sure we will be hearing more about Pittsburgh as they work to remedy these problems.
