We interviewed individuals with current and previous program responsibility and analyzed information from the WEEA Program Office, the Department of Education’s Grant and Contract Service Office files, WEEA’s Publishing Center, and independent reviews of the program. Yet one of the three WEEA objectives is to help educational institutions meet the requirements of title IX prohibiting sex discrimination in all educational institutions receiving federal funds. Local and state education agencies received only 15 percent and 2 percent of the awards, respectively. Audiences Addressed

The most frequent level of participants targeted was elementary and secondary students (about 36 percent of projects), followed by parents or other nonschool adults (25 percent). Based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 40 former grantees, we found service activities funded by WEEA often appeared to continue beyond the funding period. However, continuation was contingent upon the availability of other outside funding. Question 2

			Did WEEA Promote Gender Equity? In this way, they apparently hoped to provide girls and women with services to compensate for past—and possibly current—educational inequities. Did WEEA Meet Legislative Requirements? The Clinton administration requested and received an increase in the WEEA appropriation from $1.98 million in each of fiscal years 1993 and 1994 to $3.97 million in fiscal year 1995. Some programmatic changes will be required owing to the recent legislation reauthorizing WEEA, but it is not clear whether the Department will make fundamental changes in the design and implementation of the program. Instead, projects typically provided short-term direct services, often career counseling, remedial and other academic instruction, and personal support services, such as psychological counseling, that were not integrated with on-going school-based activities. The absence of evaluation information on past WEEA projects means that the program is left with little evidence of their effectiveness in eliminating sex bias in education. First, the stated purpose of the act was expanded with the following language: “it is also the purpose of this part to provide educational equity for women and girls who suffer multiple discrimination, bias, or stereotyping based on sex and on race, ethnic origin, disability, or age.”
Second, the small grant program was replaced with a challenge provision, which authorized the Secretary to award grants of up to $40,000 to activities “to develop comprehensive plans for the implementation of equity programs; innovative approaches to school community partnerships; new dissemination and replication strategies; and other innovative approaches to achieving the purposes of WEEA.”
Finally, the act required the Secretary to ensure that at least one grant or contract was available during each funding year to support each of six activities authorized in the 1974 amendments. 3. 4.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Education's Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) Program, focusing on: (1) what interventions were implemented under WEEA between 1986 and 1991, by whom, for what audiences, and at what costs; (2) whether these activities promoted educational equity for women and reflected legislative requirements; and (3) how changes in program administration affected the ability of the WEEA Program to achieve its legislative purpose.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) the WEEA Program funded 205 general and challenge grants between 1986 and 1991 to promote gender equity in all educational institutions receiving federal funds; (2) the WEEA Program addressed gender equity primarily by providing direct services such as career counseling, remedial academic instruction, and personal support services to girls and women to compensate for past and current inequities; (3) elementary and secondary school students were the most frequently targeted participants, followed by parents and other adults from outside the schools; (4) colleges received 36 percent of WEEA grants, nonprofit or community groups received 32 percent of WEEA grants, and local and state education agencies received 15 percent of WEEA grants; (5) WEEA activities often continued beyond the funding period, but continuation of services was contingent upon the availability of other outside funding; (6) the Clinton Administration requested and received an increase in WEEA funding from $1.98 million to $3.97 million in fiscal year 1995; (7) there was limited information on the effectiveness of past WEEA projects in eliminating sex bias in education because WEEA did not require grantees to produce materials on service activities; and (8) it was not clear whether the Department of Education would make fundamental changes in the design and implementation of the WEEA program.