ABSTRACT
On September 17, 2002, the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics held the second of four public meetings to hear testimony about Title IX and its current enforcement mechanisms. On January 31, 2003, the Commission released its report to Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Among other things, the report recommended that the Department of Education consider permitting colleges to use interest surveys as part of their planning for athletics. Girls also dominate in most high school extracurricular activities. Nationally, they are 70 percent of students in vocal music, 64 percent of those in orchestra, and 61 percent of those in speech and drama. They also outnumber boys in activities like yearbook, honor society, and student government. The proportionality test purports to be a test of gender fairness. There is significant evidence that women, as a group, have less interest in collegiate sports than men, in part because they have broader extracurricular interests.
