Appendix VII: Comments from the 

 Department of Education 



UNTTED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 



OPnCE OF THE ASaaTAfrT SECRETART FOR CIVIL RIGHTS 



July 2, 2004 



Ms. Cornelia M. A«bby 

 Director, Education, Workforce, 

 and Income Security Issues 

 United States Oeneral Accounting Office 

 Washington, DC. 20548 



Dear Ma. Aabby: 



Thank you fiw this opportunity to cotnment on the GAO draft report entitled Gender 

 Issues: Women 's Participation in the Sciences Has Increased, but Agencies Need to Do 

 More to Ensure Compliance with Tule /T (GAO-04-639). 



I am pleased that your report acknowledges the Department of Education's extensive 

 activities under Title DC of the Education Amendments of 1972 to monitor the 

 compliance with Title IX of recipients of federal fuiancial assistance through assurances 

 of compliance, technical assistance, complaint investigatioiis, and periodic compUance 

 reviews. The report makes no recommendations for fiuther action from the Department 

 of Education, and a careful reading of the fiill report makes it clear that the Department of 

 Education has done everything required by the Title IX regulations. On occasion the 

 r^Kirt lumps the four fedraal agencies studied together, and refers to them as "the federal 

 scioice agencies." Unfortunately, in some of the summaries, conclusions, and the 

 synopses printed in the left-hand cohmm, the report makes general statements about "the 

 federal science agencies" failing to conduct coiiq>Uance reviews, which may be 

 appropriate for the other agencies but is not an accurate reflection of ttie rqwrt's findings 

 regarding the Dq>artment of Education. 



I would also tike to take this opportunity to put the number of compliance reviews 

 reported for the Department of Education in a broader perspective. TTiis teport on Title 

 IX is narrowly focused on women in math and science in the postsecondary education 

 setting. The report correctly finds ttiat the Department of Education has done three 

 compliance reviews smce FY 1993 of postsecondary education institutions focused 

 specifically on math and science. However, these three reviews are the narrow 

 mtersection of the Department's larger efforts in women in math and science and women 

 in postsecondary education. Since FV 1993, the Department has conducted a total of 15 

 reviews in the area of women in math and science, but 12 of the reviews were at the 

 secondary level addressing the "pipeline" issues raised in this report. Since the reviews 

 were not of postsecondary institutions, they were not reported Similarly, since FY 1993 

 the Department has conducted 17 non-athletics Title DC compliance reviews of 

 postsecondary institutions on issues such as sexual harassment, grievance procedures, due 



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GAO-04-639 Gender Issues 



