The coordinator provides parent education, teacher and staff inservice training, team-teaching experiences, student counseling and a broad range of support activities related to the wider community as well as to the schools involved. The need for a coordinator for programs may depend on size and/or diversity of the school population, professional readiness of teachers and types of programs to be implemented. Despite the advances made in the Pomona program, there continue to be such problems as occasional resistance from special interest groups, administrators and school staff, individual instructors' personal value conflicts, transitional nature of student population and turnover in teacher personnel. A coordinator for sexuality programs is certainly not a total remedy for such problems in all school districts; but as an essential element in the solution of those problems, he/she provides an approach which will help school districts in initiating and implementing programs with a greater degree of success.
PIP: The attempt is made to demonstrate the causative effect of careful ongoing coordination of a high school sex education program and the eventual successful implementation of this program despite the fact that it experienced the common financial, academic, and social obstacles. The sexuality unit for 9th grade students was initiated by the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) Study Committee at Pomono High School in California. This pilot study was undertaken in response to a dramatic increase in school dropouts related to pregnancy during the 1973-1974 school year. According to results of pretest and posttest scores, 90% of the students in the sex education classes experienced a 50% gain in knowledge. The sexuality unit is a 6-8 week segment (30-40 hours) of a required science course for 9th grade students. The instructional content includes self-awareness, understanding others, masculinity/femininity, reaching biological maturity, physiology of the reproductive system, venereal diseases, causes and effects of teenage pregnancies, and contraception and responsible decision-making. The coeducational classes have a maximum enrollment of 34 students. The program's sex education coordinator works only with staff and classes involved in the family life education program as a resource/nurse teacher. The coordinator's goal is to promote effective sex education by assisting the teacher and the community in program implementation. Discussion includes planning and initiating the program, inservice training for teachers, parent education, and team teaching.