Uneven playing fields: State variations in boys' and girls' access to and participation in high school interscholastic sports

Using 2000 aggregate Office of Civil Rights (OCR) data combined with demographic and contextual data from National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES); this paper finds gender parity in only a handful of states, wide variation among states in girls and boys access to single-gender interscholastic sports and teams, and that states vary widely in patterns of participation in single-gender sports activities. Regression analyses suggest that gender disparities in athletic participation opportunities among states is associated with states per pupil expenditures and student racial composition. Gender disparities in single-gender athletic participation rates among states are strongly associated with participation opportunities as well as per pupil expenditures and student racial and composition.