A Report to the Minnesota Legislature concerning Interscholastic Athletic Equity in Minnesota High Schools

This report analyzes interscholastic athletic programs offered by Minnesota high schools to identify errors in data reporting and suggest corrective action, identify areas of gender inequality in athletic offerings, and identify needed improvements in rule, law, or reporting requirements. The report outlines issues in sports equity, compares sports offerings generally and in various school districts, compares participation data by sport and by student, compares financial data, recommends methods for improving data collection and analysis, and examines changes in statute and State Board rules that could affect sports equity. The first appendix presents athletic report forms for six representative school districts for 1989-90. Other appendices, which comprise the bulk of the report, present data for individual school districts on: (1) secondary enrollment and athletic participation; (2) male and female athletic participation rates and comparisons; (3) school districts ranked by unduplicated comparison of male and female athletic participation rates; (4) school districts ranked by comparison of total athletic participation; (5) school districts ranked by female participation ratio; (6) districts ranked by average number of sports played by male and female participants and by difference in average number of sports played; and (7) state totals for athletic activities for 1989-90, categorized by sport. (JDD)