Does a Taste of Computing Increase Computer Science Enrollment (original) (raw)
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Assessing the Promise of the Exploring Computer Science Program
This study investigated the impact of the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program on the extent to which students of all races and gender increased their interest in pursuing a computer science major. ECS is designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around computer science concepts. If the course is successful, it will increase students' expectancies of success as well as increase their perceived value for the field of computer science. Using survey research, we sought to measure whether students' course experiences influenced their expectancies and value. The results indicate that students who feel that the course met their goals tended to have higher expectancy and value, which led to increased interest in pursuing a computer science major.
Does Exploring Computer Science Increase Computer Science Enrollment
American Educational Research Association, 2018
This study investigated the impact of the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program on the likelihood that students of all races and gender would pursue further computer science coursework in high school. ECS is designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around computer science concepts. The results indicate that students who pursued ECS as their first course were more likely to pursue another course relative to taking a traditional course as the first course.
The impact of meaningful high school computer science experiences in the Chicago Public Schools
2015 Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), 2015
We report on initial outcomes of the Taste of Computing project, under which a meaningful computer science course has been initiated in many high schools of the Chicago Public Schools system. Surveys of students have shown that they attribute high value to the course and have experienced increases in their understanding and interest regarding the computing field. Data was also collected from teachers participating in professional development regarding their preparation and confidence in teaching the new course. We report on the strengths of various survey responses and their relationships, and we compare student responses by race and gender. The data provide a good basis for exploring the impact of meaningful computer science instruction on students from groups underrepresented in computing; of several hundred students surveyed, nearly half were female, and over half were Hispanic or African-American.
Equal Outcomes 4 All: A Study of Student Learning in ECS
SIGCSE ’18: 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2018
This study investigated patterns in the development of computational thinking practices in the context of the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program, a high school introductory CS course and professional development program designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around CS concepts. Past research indicates that the personal relevance of the ECS experience influences students' expectancy-value towards computer science. Expectancy-value is a construct that is predictive of career choices. We extended our research to examine whether expectancy-value influences the development of computational thinking practices. This study took place in the context of two ECS implementation projects across two states. Twenty teachers, who implemented ECS in 2016–17, participated in the research. There were 906 students who completed beginning and end of year surveys and assessments. The surveys included demographic questions, a validated expectancy-value scale, and questions about students' course experiences. The assessments were developed and validated by SRI International as a companion to the ECS course. Overall, student performance statistically increased from pretest to posttest with effect size of 0.74. There were no statistically significant differences in performance by gender or race/ethnicity. These results are consistent with earlier findings that a personally relevant course experience positively influences students' expectancy for success. These results expanded on prior research by indicating that students' expectancy-value for computer science positively influenced student learning.
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 2009
This paper describes an exploratory study to identify which environmental and student factors best predict intention to persist in the computer science major. The findings can be used to make decisions about initiatives for increasing retention. Eight indices of student characteristics and perceptions were developed using the research-based Student Experience of the Major Survey: student-student interaction; student-faculty interaction; collaborative learning opportunities; pace/workload/prior experience with programming; teaching assistants; classroom climate/pedagogy; meaningful assignments; and racism/sexism. A linear regression revealed that student-student interaction was the most powerful predictor of students' intention to persist in the major beyond the introductory course. Other factors predicting intention to persist were pace/workload/prior experience and male gender. The findings suggest that computer science departments interested in increasing retention of students set structured expectations for student-student interaction in ways that integrate peer involvement as a mainstream activity rather than making it optional or extracurricular. They also suggest departments find ways to manage programming experience gaps in CS1.
BJC in Action: Comparison of Student Perceptions of a Computer Science Principles Course
The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is a curriculum for the new AP Computer Science Principles course. Over the past 2 years, we have collected post-course surveys from 399 students participating in the BJC course. This paper investigates how the responses of females and students from underrepresented racial minority groups (URMs) differed from those of their counterparts. We found that female students had taken fewer CS courses prior to BJC but that students from URMs had taken more prior CS courses. Both groups were nearly equally likely to recommend the course to a friend, with about 80% recommending. We found no evidence to suggest that female students showed more or less interest in specific CS topics, such as learning how computing has changed the world or making mobile apps/games. Despite having taken more CS courses prior to BJC, we found that students from URMs were overall less likely to intend to take additional CS courses. Overall, our findings are fairly consistent with the literature, and suggest that BJC makes some progress towards broadening participation in computing.
2020 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), 2020
Prior research has shown that students pursuing Exploring Computer Science (ECS) as their first elective course were more likely to pursue another computer science course in high school, as compared to students who took a traditional course as the first course. This study investigated whether the results are consistent when students are pursuing ECS to fulfill the Chicago Public Schools' graduation requirement. ECS is designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around computer science concepts. It is hypothesized that students who are fulfilling a graduation requirement will pursue additional computer science coursework at rates similar to students who were pursuing ECS as an elective course.
Examining science and engineering students' attitudes toward computer science
2009 39th IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 2009
Concerns have been raised with respect to the recent decline in enrollment in undergraduate computer science majors. Women are one subpopulation that is severely underrepresented. To better understand the factors that discourage students, both males and females, from pursuing degrees in computer science, a valid and reliable survey is needed. This type of instrument would support the quantitative tracking of attitudinal changes with respect to the field overtime as well as attitudinal comparisons across various subpopulations. This paper describes a survey which is being developed based on current research in computer science education at the Colorado School of Mines through support of the National Science Foundation. Based on the results of a factor analysis and with respect to the pilot population (Colorado School of Mines undergraduate students), there is evidence to support the assertion that this instrument is accurately measuring the five constructs that it was designed to assess.
Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
The Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum provides foundational knowledge of Computer Science (CS) to high school students as a stand-alone course. ECS began in the Los Angeles Unified School District in the late 2000s where it gained eminence for broadening participation in computing (BPC), with Latinx students representing over 70% of enrollment. This experience report describes a partnership that consists of three Universities, dozens of school districts, the ECS team, and other stakeholders to bring the ECS curriculum in mainly rural school districts in Alabama that have a majority African-American student population. Sixty in-service teachers (one teacher per school) have received professional learning opportunities to gain knowledge and skills to teach ECS. Signs of early broader impacts are emerging: 78% of our ECS enrollment are underrepresented minority (URM) students with nearly half of the cohort consisting of female students. Students reported they were engaged in working collaboratively and sharing responsibilities with others. Furthermore, students who reported being more involved in the ECS course had deeper confidence in their ability to succeed in CS, reported greater overall outcomes, had more confidence in development of 21 st century skills, found the course more relevant, were more motivated to persist in CS, and exhibited increased interest in CS careers. We provide a comprehensive description of the partnership's accomplishments and the evaluation findings on student CS experiences and on teacher self-efficacy in ECS preparation and instruction. Our findings contribute to the BPC literature, specifically for schools with predominantly African-American enrollment in rural communities.
The Impact of the Exploring Computer Science Instructional Model in Chicago Public Schools
The Exploring Computer Science (ECS) instructional model has been expanded to many high schools in the Chicago Public Schools system. Initial results show students value the ECS course experience and have increased awareness of and interest in the field of computer science. A large proportion of the students surveyed belong to groups underrepresented in computing. T he US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2012–2022 projections indicate that the computer and mathematical occupations group is the fifth fastest-growing of the 22 major occupational groups. Furthermore, salary data released in the first quarter of 2015 show that the other faster-growing categories all have substantially lower average annual pay; for the fastest-growing category, pay is about one-third that of the computer/mathematical category. The BLS also notes that 7 of the 10 largest science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations were related to computers, and 93 of the 100 STEM occupations had average pay that was significantly higher than the average of all occupations. But as Figure 1 shows, in contrast to this bright outlook, women, African Americans, and Hispanics are vastly underrepresented in the computing-related workforce and educational pipeline.