Young people of color face many challenges. STEM fields – and even more so CS fields – face persistent disparities for women, Latinos, and Black people; the CS workforce is 75% male and 90% White or Asian (McAlear et al., 2018; NSB, 2018; Xue & Larson, 2015). Across many CS companies, women of color comprise 1% or less of all employees (Evans & Rangarajan, 2017) while Black and Latino employees are 8-9% (EEOC, 2016). The consequences are a less robust workforce, Potential Solution: Focus on Identity to Strengthen Computer Science Education. The authors propose to develop an innovative CS curriculum to include experiential learning activities that integrate STEM, computational and ethnic-racial identity development. Learning about computer science, in combination with authentic learning experiences, and a focus on identity development, has potential to improve motivation and aspirations for sustained study in CS (and STEM more broadly).
Applied Research Fellow: Fe Moncloa, Ph.D.