EVALUATION OF SEX-EDUCATION CURRICULA - MEASURING UP TO THE SIECUS GUIDELINES

Most sexuality education curricula developed the past 20 years were no t thoroughly evaluated. This study provides results from a content ana lysis of 10 sexuality education curricula for junior and senior high s chool students. Nine nationally available sexuality education curricul a and one curriculum guide comprised the sample. The basis for analysi s was the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, developed by the Sex Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) and an instrument developed to measure bias in the curricula. Trained code rs found that Sex Respect and Teen Aid addressed less than half the to pics suggested by the SIECUS guidelines. Several of the curricula cont ained gender and sexual orientation bias. Certain key concepts such as ''Sexual Behavior'' and ''Society and Culture'' were not adequately a ddressed by most of the curricula. Findings indicate that of 10 curric ula, only six are considered acceptable for educating junior and senio r high school students.