Eckes Offers Title IX Expertise
Suzanne Eckes, the Susan S. Engeleiter Professor of Education Law, Policy, and Practice in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, spoke about the future of Title IX enforcement in schools across the country in articles recently published by The Hechinger Report and Salon.
Both articles discussed a series of lawsuits related to Title IX and how those lawsuits have led to a patchwork of Title IX enforcement from state to state.
Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding.
The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit national media outlet focused on education, asked Eckes to explain the impetus of the lawsuits. She explained the Biden administration put forward new Title IX rules that expanded the definition of “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity, and that many of the lawsuits are focused on transgender students’ use of restrooms.
Eckes told Salon, a national news site focused on politics and culture, the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold legal blocks on the new rules in 10 states has also barred protections unrelated to provisions named in the lawsuits. The new rules included provisions related to access to lactation spaces for parenting students and prohibiting schools from asking about job applicants’ marital status.
“It’s a really confusing patchwork (of Title IX enforcement) right now,” Eckes said. ”It’s just causing a lot of confusion, I would say, across the country.”
Bell on PBS Wisconsin
Courtney Bell, director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), which is housed in the School of Education, joined PBS Wisconsin’s “Here and Now” for a wide-ranging interview that touched on the state of education in the U.S and abroad, as well as new WCER research.
The 35-minute television broadcast covered how WCER is structured and funded and its wide variety of research, evaluation, and development projects. Post-COVID challenges such as learning loss and mental health issues were also highlighted. Bell said many researchers are still digging into the pandemic’s long-term effects — and the path forward.
“In my world, researchers who are working with school districts and with higher education institutions, we’re still totally dealing with COVID,” Bell said. “I don’t think the news was awful for every child in the country, but overwhelmingly, the conversation in the research community is, ‘What are we doing now to remedy this situation?’ There are big learning losses that will affect this whole generation of kids.”
Overall, Bell urged broad social investment and collective action to overcome challenges and promote student success.
“Education belongs to all of us,” she said. “And, unless we understand that, we’re going to keep wanting to point fingers. That is not going to solve the problem.”
In Other Reports
- Lynda Barry, an associate professor of interdisciplinary creativity in the Art Department, discussed how people can reconnect with the art of drawing in an interview with NPR’s “Bullseye with Jesse Thorn.”
- Anthony Hernandez, a teaching faculty member in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, spoke about the financial challenges facing some Hispanic-serving institutions in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report on the financial struggles and uncertain future of Milwaukee’s Alverno College.
- Megan Reilly, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Drama, served as a panelist during the Cap Times Idea Fest 2024. The panel focused on how theatre can thrive in a digital age.
- Shawn Robinson, senior research associate at WCER’s Wisconsin’s Equity & Inclusion Laboratory, appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio to share his remarkable journey toward literacy and his award-winning graphic novel series, “Dr. Dsylexia Dude.”
- Professor Stacey Lee, the School’s associate dean for education, graduate student Chundou Her, and alumnae Susan Tran Degrand and Sara Lam were named in Madison365’s annual list of “Wisconsin’s Most Influential Asian American Leaders.”