Education Week - April 26, 2023 - 3

Title IX Proposal Rules Out
Full Ban on Trans Athletes
It's been a conundrum. How do you keep sports fair for both cisgender
and trans girls? The Biden administration has come up with
a proposal that appears to try to achieve that balance.
Under a proposed change to Title IX regulations, schools would
be unable to categorically ban transgender students from joining
athletic teams consistent with their gender identity. But they would
be able to limit trans athletes' participation in some circumstances.
The proposed rules would specifically prevent schools from adopting
a " one-size-fits-all eligibility criteria " for sports, says the U.S.
Department of Education.
Still, schools would be allowed to bar transgender youth from playing
sports consistent with their gender identity if the student's participation
would make it difficult to achieve fairness in competition,
safety, or any other stated objectives of the sport. That would have to
happen on a case-by-case basis and in a way that minimizes harm to
any students who can't participate in a sport, according to the Education
Department.
The department said it expects elementary and middle school
students would be able to play sports that align with their gender
identity while some limitations may be imposed at the high school
and college levels.
The rules would also require schools to consider varying competition
levels, such as varsity, junior varsity, and no-cut teams, and
varying skills required for different sports.
" Clarifying about the blanket bans being discriminatory is huge
because it will have an impact on so many state laws that have blanket
bans right now on the books, " said Shiwali Patel, a lawyer at the
National Women's Law Center.
But groups like the law center may want to see more explicit language
about what circumstances would prevent a trans student from
participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, she said.
VIDEO
Students Want to Feel
Safe at School. Here's
What They're Asking For
2022 Was a Record Year
For Efforts to Ban Books
Book banning seems to have turned into a new national pastime.
Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries
set a record in 2022, says a report from the American Library Association.
More
than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in
2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the
most since the ALA began keeping data 20 years ago.
" I've never seen anything like this, " said Deborah Caldwell-Stone,
who directs the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom. " The last two
years have been exhausting, frightening, outrage-inducing. "
The new report not only documents the growing number of challenges
but also their changing nature. A few years ago, complaints
usually arose with parents and other community members and referred
to an individual book. Now, the requests are often for multiple
removals and organized by national groups such as the conservative
Moms for Liberty, which has a mission of " unifying, educating and
empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of
government. "
Last year, more than 2,500 different books were objected to, compared
with 1,858 in 2021 and just 566 in 2019. In numerous cases,
hundreds of books were challenged in a single complaint. The ALA
bases its findings on media accounts and voluntary reporting from
libraries and acknowledges that the numbers might be far higher.
Librarians around the country have told of being harassed and
threatened with violence or legal action.
Caldwell-Stone says that some books have been targeted by liberals
because of racist language-notably Mark Twain's The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn-but the vast majority of complaints come from
conservatives, directed at works with LGBTQ+ or racial themes,
such Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer.
Bills facilitating the restriction of books have been proposed or
passed in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma,
among other states.
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Students across the country worry
school shootings are becoming
routine. So they're walking out of
school and demanding " common
sense " gun laws.
edw.link/StudentSafetyVideo
Vol. 42 * Issue 30 * April 26, 2023
4 Cultivating the Next Generation
Of Women Leaders in Schools and Districts
8 How Career Prep Programs Went
From 'Dumping Ground' to Top Priority
9 'Don't Say Period' Bill Is Latest Example
Of States' Efforts to Limit Sex Education
10 Education Savings Accounts,
Explained
12 Schools Are Confronting Centuries of Racial
Injustice. Will They Offer Reparations?
14 Schools Turn to AI to Detect Weapons
OPINION
16 Stop Recruiting Black Teachers
Until You Can Retain Them
17 I Quit Teaching for Ed Tech
24 Teachers Deserve the Chance
To Learn From Failure
DEPARTMENTS
2 Briefly Stated
6 What the Research Says
18 Letters to the Editor
21 EdWeek Top School Jobs
Education Week

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Education Week - April 26, 2023

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