The availability of sex education in large city school districts

Abstract

Because relatively little is known about the extent to which sex education is taught in public schools, a survey of school districts in cities with populations over 100,000 was conducted in January 1982. Respondents indicated that sex education, in some form, is provided by 80 percent of the districts, and 85 percent of the 9.3 million students get some sex education in school. The differences in the availability of sex education among elementary, junior and senior high schools are surprisingly small. Rather than provide separate sex education courses, most districts integrate the material with other curriculum subjects. Ninety-four percent of districts with sex education said that one of their major goals is "to promote rational and informed decision-making about sexuality." The second most popular goal, chosen by 77 percent of the districts, is "to increase a student's knowledge of reproduction;" 40 percent of the districts chose reduction of unwanted teenage pregnancy as a major goal. The numbers of students participating in sex education are large, perhaps because almost half of the districts have compulsory courses. The mean student participation rates are 73 percent for elementary schools and 76 percent for both junior and senior high schools. Sex education in elementary school programs generally involves five or fewer hours of instruction annually. At the junior and senior high levels, it most often consists of 6-10 hours of teaching time. The average sex education program for a district covers at least 18 topics.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

PIP: A survey of school districts in US cities with populations over 100,000 was conducted in January, 1982. Respondents indicated that sex education, in some form, is provided by 80% of the districts, and 85% of the 9.3 million students get some sex education in school. The differences in the availability of sex education among elementary, junior and senior high schools are surprisingly small. Rather than provide separate sex education courses, most districts integrate the material with other curriculum subjects. 94% of districts with sex education said that on of their goals is "to promote rational and informed decision-making about sexuality." The numbers of students participating in sex education are large, perhaps because almost 1/2 of the districts have compulsory courses. Sex education in elementary school programs generally involves 5 or fewer hours of instruction annually. At the junior and senior high levels, it most often consists of 6-10 hours of teaching time. The average sex education program for a district covers at least 18 topics. Over 90% of the districts cover physiology, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy and parenthood. Over 80% also include sexual relationships, communication and decision-making, as well as intercourse and the probability of pregnancy. The proportions of districts covering topics dealing with the avoidance of pregnancy (contraceptives, sources of family planning services and the most likely time in the menstrual cycle for pregnancy to occur) are between 72 and 79%. Districts providing sex education to at least 75% of their student body and discussing physiological topics for at least 1 class period constitute only 34%. If topic introduction before the 9th grade is a criterion of comprehensiveness, only 20% of the districts cover physiological and interpersonal topics in depth.