District on Cutting Edge in Gender Equity

Talk about lucky stiffs.

These 15 seniors at Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks may be the nation’s only high school students who are learning anatomy firsthand. They dissect human cadavers.

Teacher Nancy Bowman handpicks the students for her honors anatomy class. They are the brightest and most motivated of students. They all list medical school in their plans. And 10 out of the 15 students are girls.

Richard Simpson, an assistant superintendent with the Conejo Valley Unified School District, cited the cadaver class as an example of the district’s progressive attitude toward gender equity. Although the district doesn’t dispute the importance of treating girls equally, Simpson said, Thousand Oaks schools are far ahead of the problems outlined in the American Assn. of University Women’s study, “How Schools Shortchange Girls.”

“We’re certainly not perfect, but we’re certainly not starting from scratch, either,” Simpson said.

According to the district’s most recent statistics, compiled in 1991:

* The percentage of girls and boys in high school math classes matched exactly their representation in the schools: 53% boys and 47% girls.

* Enrollment in science classes was only slightly off of the overall figures: 54% boys and 46% girls.

* In elective classes such as physics and chemistry, boys far outnumbered girls. In physics the ratio of boys to girls was 2 to 1. However, girls outnumbered boys in anatomy and physiology classes.

Simpson said women also are well-represented in administrative jobs. More than three-fifths of all elementary school principals are women, as is 40% of the administrative staff in the district’s high schools.

More than two-thirds of the central administration is female, and women hold a 3-2 majority on the school board, Simpson said.

Members of the AAUW agree that gender bias is not as serious a problem in the Thousand Oaks schools as in other districts, but said the school district has no cause to be complacent.

Association member Paula Osterbrink, who recently met with the Westlake High School faculty to discuss gender bias, said some teachers refuse to admit that any problem exists.

“There’s often denial that this is an issue that affects our girls as well as our boys in our schools,” Osterbrink said. “There’s a natural reticence on the part of teachers as well as parents to admit there’s a bias on the part of gender equity.”