Few parents and students know about Title IX and the protections it offers
Washington, DC, April 20, 2022 - A recent Ipsos poll, conducted on behalf of The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland, finds that 50 years after its establishment most parents and secondary school students know little about Title IX.
Detailed Findings
Neither parents nor children ages 12-17, know much about Title IX. Less than half of parents (42%) are familiar with Title IX, among children familiarity drops down to 29%. Among those who have heard at least something about Title IX, the most common source of information for both is the internet (50% among parents, 33% among students).
Title IX is a landmark civil rights law passed in 1972, which among other things, prohibits discrimination based on sex in all education programs receiving federal financial assistance, including, but not limited to, athletics.
Under Title IX, all schools with federally funded athletics programs need to provide equal opportunities and treatment in areas such as practice facilities, coaching, and publicity for boys’ and girls’ sports. However, when presented with questions aimed to test their knowledge about Title IX’s protections, such as whether the law covers all educational programs that receive federal funding (it does) or who can report Title IX violations (anyone), most are unsure.
Overall, while both parents and students know little about Title IX, they overwhelmingly agree that boys’ and girls’ teams should receive equal treatment (83% among parents, 78% among students). While two thirds of parents (68%) and students (66%) believe there are equal opportunities for boys and girls in sports at their/their children’s school, only about a third of parents (35%) and students (32%) believe there are equal opportunities for boys and girls in school sports everywhere in the United States.
Anyone can report what they believe to be a Title IX violation, and all schools with federally funded education programs must have a Title IX coordinator and a procedure laid out to handle Title IX complaints. However, four in five parents don’t know whether their school has a Title IX coordinator (82%) or a procedure for Title IX complaints (80%). In turn, only 48% of parents and 34% of students would feel comfortable submitting a formal complaint to their/their child’s school about a possible Title IX violation in the future.
For more details on this poll, you may visit here.
About the Study
This University of Maryland/Ipsos Title IX poll was conducted March 18-28, 2022, by Ipsos using the KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a representative sample of parents of children ages 12-17 who are currently enrolled in school. With the consent of the parents, we also randomly selected one of their children to complete the child portion of the survey. The sample size is 1,008 parents, and 506 children 12 to 17.
The survey was conducted using KnowledgePanel, the largest and most well-established online probability-based panel that is representative of the adult US population. Our recruitment process employs a scientifically developed addressed-based sampling methodology using the latest Delivery Sequence File of the USPS – a database with full coverage of all delivery points in the US. Households are randomly sampled from all available households in the U.S. All persons in selected households are invited to join and participate in KnowledgePanel. Ipsos provides selected households that do not already have internet access a tablet and internet connection at no cost to them. Those who join the panel and who are selected to participate in a survey are sent a unique password-protected log-in used to complete surveys online. As a result of our recruitment and sampling methods, samples from KnowledgePanel cover all households regardless of their phone or internet status and findings can be reported with a margin of sampling error and projected to the general population.
To weight the parent data, a design weight was calculated to reflect the probability of selection of all panelists assigned to the survey. Then the assignees, who confirmed they are parents of children 12 to 17, were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race/ethnicity, education, Census region, metropolitan status, household income, and language proficiency. The demographic benchmarks, among parents age 18+ with at least one child 12 to 17 years old, came from the 2021 Current Population Survey (CPS) and with language proficiency from the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS). The weighting categories were as follows:
• Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18-39, 40-44,45-49,50+)
• Race/Hispanic Ethnicity (White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, Other or 2+ Races NonHispanic, Hispanic)
• Education (High School graduate or less, Some College, Bachelor's and beyond)
• Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Metropolitan status (Metro, non-Metro)
• Household Income (Under $25,000, $25,000-$49,999, $50,000-$74,999, $75,000-$99,999, $100,000-$149,999, $150,000+)
• Language proficiency (English proficient, Bilingual, Spanish proficient, Non-Hispanic)
Then, the weights of the parents who have at least one child 12 to 17 years who are currently enrolled in school and completed the survey were scaled to reflect the total number of qualified parent completes.
To weight the child data, design weights were calculated to reflect the selection probability of the selected children. This was done by multiplying the parent’s final weight to the number of eligible children in the household. The design weights were then raked to the geodemographic distributions of the 12 to 17-year-old population and scaled to reflect the total number of qualified children completes. The benchmarks came from the 2021 Current Population Survey (CPS). The weighting categories were as follows:
• Gender (Male, Female) by Age (12-13, 14-15, 16-17)
• Race/ethnicity (White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, Other or 2+ Races Non-Hispanic, Hispanic)
• Census region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Metropolitan status (Metro, Non-metro)
• Household income (Under $25,000, $25,000-$49,999, $50,000-$74,999, $75,000-$99,999, $100,000-$149,999, $150,000+)
For more information on this news release, please contact:
Mallory Newall
Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 374-2613
