Study Finds Details Prevail in Much of Sex Education

Sex education courses in America’s schools often are based on either an “abstinence only” curriculum or a more comprehensive program that also includes contraception. But a study released Tuesday found that the line between the two approaches increasingly has blurred.

While local or state laws often mandate which type of sex-education program is used in schools, the report by the Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that many students may be getting comprehensive, detailed information--such as how to use a condom--regardless of which curriculum is taught.

That discrepancy is apparent in the gap between what school administrators believe is covered in their sex education programs and what students say they are learning, according to the study. While only 58% of principals surveyed described their school’s sex education program as comprehensive, covering everything from birth control to the emotional issues around sex, a larger number of students--80%--reported that their courses covered such details.

The study, “Sex Education in America,” was based on surveys of more than 4,000 public secondary school students and their parents, sex education teachers and principals.

“Some abstinence-only courses in fact are providing more information about safer sex and birth control,” said Tina Hoff, a director of the Kaiser Family Foundation. Regardless of the approach, Hoff said, “those who have had sex education . . . were more informed and had a better preparedness than those that hadn’t.”

In part, the report found, students are getting specific information because of questions they raise in the classroom.

“When the doors are closed in that classroom, it is hard to predict what goes on--even though the board, the superintendent, the principal have said, ‘This is the curriculum,’ ” said Ramon Cortines, former interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, who commented on the findings at a news conference in Washington.

But a separate study released Tuesday by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based reproductive rights group, found that 22% of sex education teachers surveyed reported that their schools restricted their ability to answer questions.

The Guttmacher study also found that teachers in abstinence-only programs are almost twice as likely to teach that contraceptives are ineffective or not teach about them at all.

Both studies concluded that students need more practical information in sex education classes. The basics of reproduction, information about AIDS/HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and messages about abstinence are now standard in sex education. But the Kaiser study found that most parents want schools to go further and address issues often labeled controversial, like abortion and sexual orientation.

“Contrary to conventional wisdom, when it comes to sex education, parents want it all,” said Steve Rabin of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Most parents who want their children to abstain from sex until marriage are the same parents who want their children to learn how to use a condom.”