Sex ed in schools: Little connection between what's taught, teen behavior

　　By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

　　Another pregnant teenager in the limelight has focused new attention on just how much teens know about sex and when they know it.

　　This pregnant teen, of course, is the 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and the pregnancy has reignited the national debate over two different approaches to sex education: abstinence-only vs. comprehensive. But as it turns out, there's no systematic tracking of what U.S. schools are teaching kids about sex — and either way, there seems to be little connection between what they're taught and their behaviors, researchers say.

　　"As much as we fight about sex education, we actually know very little about it in the real world," says Sarah Brown, CEO of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

　　State and local policies trickle down to the individual classrooms. A study of sex education in Illinois public schools published earlier this year found that 30% of those teaching the subject had never received training.

　　Teens say their schools take a whole gamut of approaches, from neglect to scare tactics.

　　"There was no sex education in my school," says Rebecca Carroll, 18, of Linden, Tenn. "It was in our book, but when I took it, the teacher completely skipped over the section on sexual health."

　　Taylor McCleod, 17, a high school senior from Cincinnati, says he learned about sexually transmitted diseases in ninth-grade English class. "They came in with projectors and showed us the diseases. Everybody was a little bit shocked to see the actual pictures."

　　Bridget Rekow, 18, says her ninth-grade health class in Ellendale, N.D., split into two sections, for girls one semester, boys the next. "One of the females didn't know where babies come from. … Some were already sexually active. It was a little late for them."

　　Some teens report a better experience.

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