˲ Through capacity-building workshops, conferences, and professional development, Alliances inspire faculty, teachers, and other professionals to develop collaborations and change the climate in computer science education.

˲ Organizations across the computing education spectrum benefit from Alliances’ resources, finding new approaches to teaching and learning, recruiting and retaining students, and developing public/private partnerships.

˲Alliances are well positioned to serve as national resources, disseminating promising practices, scaling tested models, and supporting national and regional efforts to broaden participation. In this capacity, they disseminate new knowledge and research about broadening participation in computing through publications, presentations, conferences, and Web-based dissemination strategies.

˲ Evaluation at both the Alliance and the program level is critical for documenting Alliances’ influence and outcomes. However, more and stronger data are needed to document the influence of the Alliances (individually and collectively) on broadening participation in computing.

The evaluation team discovered that BPC Alliances employ many different approaches, influencing people, organizations, infrastructure and ultimately the landscape of the field, demonstrating that there is no “one right way” to broaden participation in computing. Together, the Alliances for Broadening Participation in Computing are building a more equitable ecosystem for computer science education in the U.S.

 

References

1. Chubin, D. E. and Johnson, R. Y. A program greater than the sum of its parts: The BPC Alliances.

Commun. ACM 54, 3 (Mar. 2011), 35–37; DOI:

10.1145/1897852.1897866

2. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (Feb. 2016); www.whitehouse.gov/ostp

 

Leslie Goodyear ( [e-mail]) is Principal Research Scientist at Education Development Center (EDC, Inc.). Her work includes multiple evaluations of NSF programs and projects focused on broadening participation in S TEM.

Gary Silverstein ( [e-mail]) is an Associate Director at Westat, Inc. His work focuses on project monitoring and program evaluation of efforts to enhance educational opportunities at the K– 20 levels.

Linda P. Thurston ( [e-mail]) is professor of Special Education, Counseling, and Student Affairs in the College of Education at Kansas State University. She serves as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, is the Lydia E. Skeen Chair in Education, and is a co-principal investigator of the Kansas LSAMP program.

Copyright held by authors.

chusetts at Amherst; http://expanding- computing.cs.umass.edu/

˲Institute for African-American Mentoring in Computing Sciences (iAAMCS), Clemson University; http://

 

˲ Into the Loop (ITL), University of California Los Angeles; http://idea. gseis.ucla.edu/projects/into-the-loop

˲ National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), University of Colorado at Boulder;

 

˲ STARS Computing Corps (STARS), University of North Carolina at Charlotte; http://starscomputingcorps.org/ The programs and resources offered by these Alliances have leveraged public and private partnerships to target computing education in K– 20 grade levels, preparing diverse students for careers in computing and computer science. These activities built a foundational wealth of knowledge and practices for the field of computing education research and diversity education research. The foci for these Alliances are seen in the figure here.

Documenting and assessing the as-
sociations, relationships, outcomes,
and influence among Alliances and
with their partners was a significant
undertaking because of the reach and
depth of the Alliances’ partnerships. In
addition, the Alliances target different
but overlapping audiences; implement
a variety of strategies and activities; de-
velop multiple types of resources and
products; and partner with diverse orga-
nizations to reach their outcomes and
objectives. In consideration of these
challenges, the evaluation team utilized
a multiple-method case study approach
to answer a variety of evaluation ques-
tions related to the Alliances’ influence
on students, faculty, organizations and
the infrastructure of computing educa-
tion and efforts to broaden participa-
tion. This column describes a small part
of the findings of the evaluation.

The evaluation team described the program accomplishments in two stages. The first five years of the Alliances were spent developing and testing models, such as courses, mentoring, service learning, workshops, summer programs, fellowships, webinars, and competitions. The second five years of the program focused more on leveraging knowledge and serving as national resources. Examples of activities during these years are influencing policies, serving as national resources, fostering research, facilitating networks of professionals and supporting a national infrastructure.

A cross-case analysis showed several findings related to the accomplishments and reach of the Alliances.

˲ Alliance partnerships and activities reached every state in the U.S.

˲Alliances use diverse strategies to expose students to computing concepts and careers, influencing their interest and confidence in pursuing computing careers.

Foci of Eight Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances

The Alliances AccessComputing

Supporting students with disabilities to pursue degrees in computing fields

Into the Loop

Enhancing high school students’ computer science learning through implementation and dissemination of equity-focused curricula and professional development

Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI)

Leveraging member institutions to increase the number of Hispanic students who complete degrees in computing

Institute for African-American Mentoring in Computer Science

Addressing the shortage of African Americans pursuing Ph.D.’s and research careers in computing-related fields

Sustainable Diversity in the Computing Research Pipeline Increasing the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in computing research careers

National Center for Women & Information Technology (NC WI T)

Bringing together universities, non-profits, and for-profit organizations to advance women’s and girls’ participation in computer science

Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP)

Increasing the number and diversity of students completing computing degrees by supporting state-level computing education policy change

Students in Technology, Academia, Research, and Service Alliance (STARS)

Fostering a community of practice for students through service learning and building computing education capacity in member institutions