On March 17, 2005, the U.S. Department of Education ("DOE") issued a new Title IX policy that threatens to reverse the decades of progress women and girls have made in sports. Under the "Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy: Three-Part Test - Part Three" and the model survey accompanying it, schools can now claim they are fully meeting women's interests in sports based simply on the responses, or lack of responses, to an e-mail survey asking female students about their interests in sports. This under-the-radar attack on Title IX's application to athletics was issued without public notice or opportunity for public comment.

It is the position of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE) that the Clarification violates basic principles of equality under Title IX and will perpetuate the cycle of discrimination to which female athletes have been subjected. In particular:

• The Clarification creates a major loophole through which schools can evade their obligation to provide equal opportunity in sports. It conflicts with a key purpose of Title IX-to encourage women's interest in sports and eliminate stereotypes that discourage them from participating-and inappropriately puts the burden on female students to show that they are entitled to equal opportunity, instead of on schools to demonstrate that they are in compliance with Title IX.

• The Clarification eliminates schools' responsibility to look broadly and proactively at whether they are satisfying women's interests in sports by allowing schools to rely solely on an e-mail survey of enrolled and admitted students. Such a survey is likely to measure only the discrimination that has limited women's opportunities in sports.

• The Clarification authorizes a survey methodology that is scientifically flawed and inconsistent with prior Department policies. For example, the Department states that failure to respond to the survey is evidence of a lack of interest in playing sports.