College Athletics: Education Should Improve Its Title IX Enforcement Efforts
Fast Facts
In 1972, Title IX required equity for women in college athletics. Yet 50 years later, women still participate in college athletics at lower rates than men—despite enrolling in college at higher rates.
The Department of Education enforces Title IX. It obtains agreements from some colleges to resolve potential compliance issues and monitors their actions. In some of the 26 cases we reviewed, Education took over a year to review and approve a college's plans. In five cases, it didn't communicate with the college for 5 years or more.
We recommended that Education set timeliness goals to address delays, and more to improve Title IX enforcement.
Highlights
What GAO Found
GAO found that more women enroll in college than men, but more men participate in varsity college athletics. The overall athletic participation rate for women was 14 percentage points lower than their enrollment rate in academic year 2021–2022. At about two-thirds of colleges (63 percent), the rate of women's athletic participation was at least 10 percentage-points lower than their enrollment rate. Further, 40 percent of colleges not only had a large difference between women's athletic participation and enrollment rates, but also offered the same number or fewer varsity sports for women in academic year 2021–2022 compared to 2009–2010.
Women Participated in Varsity College Athletics at a Lower Rate Compared to Their Enrollment Rate, Academic Year 2021–2022
Note: For purposes of collecting athletics data, the Department of Education instructs colleges to report transgender participants consistent with their gender identity.
GAO found that Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) oversees compliance with Title IX athletics requirements primarily by investigating complaints and it conducts few proactive activities. Specifically:
- OCR uses Education athletics data on scholarships and participation to help select colleges for the small number of athletics reviews it initiates, but does not use the data to inform other oversight activities. Analyzing data regularly and expanding its use of data could help OCR do more proactive oversight.
- After obtaining formal agreements from colleges to address potential Title IX compliance issues, OCR did not always communicate with colleges and respond to their monitoring reports in a timely way. In some cases GAO reviewed, OCR took more than a year to review and approve a college's plans to address potential compliance issues. In 10 of 26 cases GAO reviewed, OCR did not communicate with the college for a year or more. In five other cases, there was no communication for 5 or more years. Such delays can prevent colleges from addressing compliance concerns. Establishing agency timeliness goals for monitoring activities could help OCR respond to colleges in a more timely way and help ensure that colleges promptly address potential compliance issues.
- OCR does not require staff to record due dates for responding to colleges they monitor, and staff do not always enter this information in OCR's management system. This limits OCR's ability to track its responses and ensure that colleges address potential compliance issues in a timely way.
Why GAO Did This Study
Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal financial assistance, including college athletics programs. OCR is responsible for enforcing Title IX by investigating complaints, negotiating agreements with colleges to address concerns, and monitoring agreements.
GAO was asked to review opportunities for women college athletes. This report examines (1) college athletic opportunities for women and (2) the extent to which Education oversees compliance with Title IX college athletics requirements.
GAO analyzed the most recent available Education data reported by colleges for academic year 2021–2022 and analyzed OCR case management data for academic years 2008–2009 through 2021–2022, the most recent data available. GAO reviewed documentation for a nongeneralizable sample of 26 of 79 publicly available OCR athletics cases, selected to include a variety of athletics issues. GAO also interviewed Education officials and college athletic stakeholder groups, and reviewed federal laws and regulations.
Recommendations
GAO is making three recommendations to Education to (1) expand its use of athletics data for oversight, (2) establish timeliness goals for responding to college monitoring reports, and (3) require OCR staff to record due dates for Title IX monitoring activities. Education agreed with the first and third recommendations. It did not agree or disagree with the second, but GAO continues to believe the recommendation is warranted.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Education | The Secretary of Education should ensure that the Office for Civil Rights regularly analyzes available Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data and expands its use of the data for oversight activities, consistent with available resources. (Recommendation 1) |
Education agreed with this recommendation and stated that it will continue reviewing EADA data in support of enforcement activities, as appropriate, dependent on available staff and other resources. Education provided an example in which it recently relied on EADA data to resolve a case. We agree that EADA data can be helpful in resolving specific cases. However, the intent of our recommendation is for Education to periodically analyze EADA data for more proactive and broader oversight activities, such as the examples we provide in our report. We continue to believe that Education should regularly analyze the EADA data and expand its use for oversight activities, consistent with available resources.
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| Department of Education | The Secretary of Education should ensure that the Office for Civil Rights establishes agency timeliness goals for reviewing monitoring reports and for responding to colleges during monitoring of Title IX athletics cases. (Recommendation 2) |
Education neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation, stating that it has already implemented it. Specifically, Education cited a provision in its performance plans for investigative staff that staff should routinely determine compliance with respect to submitted monitoring reports within 90 days of receipt, on average. We acknowledge Education's performance standards for investigative staff, but these are not the same as having overall agency timeliness goals and performance. To implement this recommendation, Education should establish overall agency timeliness goals for reviewing monitoring reports and for responding to colleges during monitoring of Title IX athletics cases. Individual staff performance results do not provide an overall picture of agency timeliness.
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| Department of Education | The Secretary of Education should ensure that the Office for Civil Rights requires staff to consistently record due dates in the case management system for responding to colleges' monitoring reports in Title IX athletics cases. Management should use information from the case management system to evaluate response times against established timeliness goals. (Recommendation 3) |
Education agreed with this recommendation and said that it would routinely record due dates in the case management system for responding to colleges' Title IX athletics monitoring reports. In addition, Education stated it will also periodically review information from the case management system to evaluate response time frames, as appropriate. We will monitor the progress of these efforts.
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