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Expansion of AP computer science courses draws more girls and minorities

Testing totals for female, black and Latino students all doubled in 2017
Ten years ago, girls were so scarce in high school computer science classes that the number of female students taking Advanced Placement tests in that subject could be counted on one hand in nine states. In five others, there were none.

Latino and African American students were also in short supply, a problem that has bedeviled educators for years and hindered efforts to diversify the high-tech workforce.

Now, an expansion of AP computer science classes is helping to draw more girls and underrepresented minorities into a field of growing importance for schools, universities and the economy.

Testing totals for female, black and Latino students all doubled in 2017, following the national debut of an AP course in computer science principles. It joined a longer-established AP course focused on the programming language Java.

Racial and gender imbalances persist. But education leaders said the data show a significant advance in a quest to banish the stereotype that computer science is mainly for coding geeks who tend to be white or Asian American boys.

“We're trying to diversify a field that for whatever reason has remained not so for generations,” said David Coleman, president of the College Board, which oversees the AP program. “Really, what this is about is computer science breaking out of its narrow role.”

Coleman acknowledged: “There's more work to do.”

About 27 percent of roughly 100,000 AP computer science test-takers last spring were girls. Black students accounted for 5 percent of those tested and Latino students for 15 percent, well below their overall shares of school enrollment.

The quest to broaden the computer science talent pool hinges, in many ways, on stoking the passion of students such as Adesoji Adenusi and Daijah Etienne to explore the power of programming.

The two Maryland teenagers were hunting one recent morning for commands in Java to maneuver a wheeled robot, known as the Finch, through left-handed turns along the edges of a square floor mat. Keeping the gizmo on track was not easy.

At the keyboard, Adenusi toyed with numbers for wheel velocity. “A couple extra zeros never harmed anybody,” he joked.

“It depends,” shot back Etienne as she walked with the balky little robot. “What if you put a couple extra zeros on a check?”

Adenusi, 18, and Etienne, 17, both seniors, are in the Java-centered class called AP Computer Science A at Charles H. Flowers High School in Prince George's County.

Adenusi, who aims to major in computer science in college, said he is drawn to video-game design and has developed an appreciation for the precision and creativity the subject demands. “Everything really in coding is a choice,” he said. “Colors, shapes, sizes — that's all up to you.”

Etienne, who is considering studying computer engineering in college, also took AP Computer Science Principles in the past school year. She said the courses have deepened her understanding of the power of software to make objects come to life. “An iPhone, for example,” she said. “A block of metal, in all honesty. But when you add the coding, it becomes something more.”

At Flowers High, 86 students took an AP computer science test in the spring. That was more than triple the total of 26 in 2016. The new principles course fueled the growth. Most of the school's students are African American. Nearly half of those enrolled in AP computer science are girls.

College Board data show that 20 high schools in Maryland, Virginia and the District notched gains in 2017 of at least 50 students in AP computer science testing, compared with the previous year. Thomas S. Wootton High in Montgomery County had the largest growth: Its students took 238 of the exams, up from 76 in 2016.

Universities are tracking these developments closely because they have struggled for years to broaden the demographic base of students in computer science beyond white and Asian American men. The AP program, which enables students to obtain college credit through testing, offers one of the strongest links between high schools and higher education.

For more than 30 years, high schools have offered AP classes in computer science. But about 10 years ago, educators began to worry about participation. Overall numbers were low. About 20,000 students took the computer science tests in 2007, fewer than the totals for AP French or studio art.

A closer look showed even more dismal trends that year: Only about 3,360 females and 1,300 Latino students took the computer science tests. The African American total was a mere 734.

Trevor Packer, senior vice president of the College Board and longtime head of the AP program, said annual reports on computer science testing in that era would make him wince. Idaho, for example, counted 25 boys taking the tests in 2007 — and zero girls.

Tenth-graders Marcellus Cannon, left, and Christian Vasquez Rubio work with a robot in a Computer Science Principles course at Flowers High. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

With help from the National Science Foundation, the College Board and computer scientists at various universities fashioned a new course meant to appeal to a broader audience. AP Computer Science Principles, or CSP, launched nationally in fall 2016.

Teacher Marilyn Fitzpatrick gives guidance to 10th-graders Stephanie Okoro and Reginald Bryant in her AP Computer Science Principles course at Flowers High. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

A College Board video promoting the course made explicit appeals to underrepresented students. “A lot of girls are intimidated because they see computers as, like, a ‘guy thing,' ” one girl says in the video. “If more girls were, like, encouraged, then that wouldn't be an issue anymore.”

Last spring, 92 girls from Idaho took an AP computer science test. Most were in Computer Science Principles.

Owen Astrachan, a professor of the practice of computer science at Duke University who helped develop the new class, said it is meant to complement Computer Science A.

“In CSA, it's all programming, all the time,” Astrachan said. “In CSP, programming is part of it, but it's not the center of it.” Students have more freedom to design their own projects in CSP. They are assessed at the end of the course on a digital portfolio of work — including a task focused on creating a computer program — as well as a multiple-choice test.

Duke gives credit to students who get a top score of 5 on the new exam or scores of 4 or 5 on the original computer science exam, allowing the students to place into higher-level courses. “I'm a big fan of trying to empower high schools,” Astrachan said.

Expanding computer science in high schools takes more than adding a new AP course. It also requires investing in teachers, who often are not experts in the field. Course offerings have long been skimpy in many schools. In 2014, The Washington Post found that fewer than 1 in 10 high school students in the Washington region were taking a computer science course.

College professors, mindful of these issues, aim to help.

David J. Malan, who teaches a popular introductory course in computer science at Harvard University, said a version of it tailored to the AP CSP curriculum is available online for high school teachers who want to mine it for problem sets and homework assignments. The goal, he said, “is broadening access to and interest in computer science.”

At Flowers High, Marilyn Fitzpatrick has taught computer science for five years. She said she wants students to see connections from the classroom to the working world in disciplines such as software development and cybersecurity.

“I try to engage them all,” she said. “We need more minorities in the field.”

On this December morning, her computer science classes were bustling with students who programmed robots — including a daredevil racing device with nubby tires called an Ollie — and completed self-paced assignments at terminals.

On the walls were posters with inspirational quotes, including one from President Barack Obama: “Don't just play on your phone, program it.”

Christian Vasquez Rubio, 15, a sophomore in CSP, fiddled with coding commands for an Ollie to navigate an obstacle course. He said it was his first AP class. “This is a fun way to learn,” he said. “I like it when we're able to do hands-on stuff.”

Vasquez Rubio said he's intrigued by careers related to computer science. “I don't know what exactly, but somewhere in the field.” And college? “Of course,” he said. “That's a big goal of mine.”

Source: Published originally on The Washington Post, Expansion of AP computer science courses draws more girls and minorities, by Nick Anderson, January 8th, 2018.

Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 3:10 PM
  • Author: The Washington Post by Nick Anderson

UCR Identified as National Leader for Latino Student Success

Raza Grad 2017 - PHOTO CREDIT MICHAEL J ELDERMAN
Report comes on the heels of similar findings related to African American graduation rates

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The University of California, Riverside has been listed among ten top-performing colleges nationally for Latino student success according to findings released today in Washington, D.C.

The Education Trust, a non-profit think tank based in Washington D.C., looked at 613 public and private four-year colleges nationwide and singled out ten campuses nationwide as models for promoting Latino student success. Rather than ranking schools strictly on national averages, The Education Trust compared institutions of similar size, SAT scores, and number of Pell Grant recipients and then highlighted those campuses with significantly higher than average graduation rates among Latino students. The findings are published in, “A Look at Latino Student Success: Identifying Top- and Bottom-Performing Institutions.

UCR is widely respected as a national model for student success across ethnic and economic categories. According to the most recent national data, the six-year graduation rate for Latino students in the U.S. is 54 percent. The rate at UCR is nearly 20 percentage points higher at 73 percent.

In addition to performing higher than national averages, UCR is one of few institutions nationwide to have eliminated achievement gaps across ethnic groups and income levels. In 2016, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities honored UCR with the prestigious “Project Degree Completion Award” for innovation in improving student success.

“Being named a top-performing institution is a testament not only to our students but also to the faculty and staff across campus dedicated to helping our students succeed,” said UCR Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox. “The disparities in student success are a national crisis in higher education in the U.S. The Education Trust's analysis is critical in identifying the schools like UCR that are moving the needle on graduation rates so that our successes can be emulated across the country.”

In March, The Education Trust released a similar report covering African American student success. UCR was one of just three schools to be named top-performing institutions in both reports.

Founded in the early 1990s, The Education Trust is a national non-profit advocacy organization that promotes academic achievement for students at all levels of the education system, particularly for students of color and low-income students. 

Source: Published originally on ucrtoday.ucr.edu, UCR Identified as National Leader for Latino Student Success, by John Replogle, December 14, 2017.

Posted on Monday, December 18, 2017 at 7:30 AM
  • Author: Inside UCR by John Replogle

La Iniciativa Alimentaria Global de UC ANR apunta hacia la seguridad alimentaria y obesidad

Kristal Caballero
Tres estudiantes de la Universidad de California fueron elegidas por la División de Agricultura y Recursos Naturales como becarias de la Iniciativa Alimentaria Mundial (GFI, por sus siglas en inglés) durante el periodo 2017-18.

Las estudiantes de postgrado de la UC Berkeley Kristal Caballero, Elsbeth Sites y Sonya Zhu son las becarias de la GFI y trabajarán con académicos y personal de ANR para abordar el tema de cómo alimentar de manera sustentable y nutritiva a una población mundial que en el 2025 alcanzará los ocho mil millones de personas.

Las becarias de la GFI son parte de un grupo de 50 estudiantes y graduados de la UC que trabajan en proyectos relacionados con los alimentos en los 10 campus de la UC, la oficina del presidente de la UC, el Laboratorio Nacional Lawrence Berkeley y la UC ANR.

Elsbeth Sites
La presidenta de la UC, Janet Napolitano, lanzó a nivel estatal el programa Iniciativa Alimentaria Global en el 2014 con el objetivo de colocar a la UC, California y al mundo en vías a la sustentabilidad. Cada participante recibe un premio de cuatro mil dólares para ayudar a financiar investigaciones, proyectos o internados generados por estudiantes que apoyan los esfuerzos de la iniciativa enfocados en la seguridad alimentaria, salud y sustentabilidad.

Las becarias de la GFI se reúnen en conferencias, viajes de estudios y eventos para hacer contactos. La primavera pasada, UC ANR llevó a cabo el recorrido de becarios por el delta de los ríos Sacramento-San Joaquín para aprender más sobre la relación entre alimentos, agricultura y medioambiente.

Las becarias de la GFI 2017-18:

Kristal Caballero, de San José, es estudiante de postgrado de la Facultad de Salud Pública de la UC Berkeley. Con su trabajo en el equipo de Comunicaciones Estratégicas de UC ANR, Caballero se enfocará en esfuerzos de divulgación de información y educación para educar al público sobre nutrición, seguridad alimentaria, programas federales de alimentos, desperdicio de alimentos, obesidad infantil y temas relacionados. Caballero utilizará una variedad de herramientas de comunicación para publicar los resultados de la investigación del Instituto de Políticas sobre Nutrición sobre temas relacionados con la nutrición y alimentos y para informar a los legisladores.

Sonya Zhu
Elsbeth Sites, de Benicia, es graduada de la Facultad de Salud Pública de la UC Berkeley. Como parte de su trabajo con los investigadores del Instituto de Políticas sobre Nutrición, Sites piensa explorar la forma en la que el sueño afecta a la obesidad infantil analizando los factores sociales y culturales que podrían impactar el sueño de los niños mexicoamericanos y a su vez saber cómo el sueño impacta su dieta y actividad física.

Sonya Zhu, de Iowa City, Iowa, es estudiante de postgrado de la Facultad de Políticas Públicas Goldman, de la UC Berkeley. Zhu conducirá un segundo análisis del estudio Comunidades Saludables en el Instituto de Políticas sobre Nutrición, un estudio observacional de más de cinco mil niños de entre cuatro y 15 años que fueron reclutados en 130 comunidades de todo EUA entre el 2013 y 2015. Ella examinará el efecto que tiene la inseguridad alimentaria en el hogar en la conducta dietética y actividad física.

Las becarias de la Iniciativa Alimentaria Global de la UC ANR 2017-18.
Posted on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 12:19 PM
  • Author: Pamela Kan-Rice. Adaptado al español por Leticia Irigoyen.

Why Higher Education Depends on The Hispanic Market

Higher Education
As with so many other industries, higher education is facing major existential challenges. Among the biggest issues raising questions around the fundamental model of colleges and universities include: 

  • Reduced revenue driven by flat/declining enrollment and reduced public funding 
  • Reduced demand resulting from a shrinking pool of high school students and stagnating household incomes 
  • Increased questions about the value of a four-year college degree as young people's attitudes change and demand increases for better outcomes 
  • Technological disruption with the growth of online education, MOOCs (massive open online courses), and other non-traditional forms of education powered by digital technology 

These challenges are causing universities, colleges and other education providers to merge, restructure and fundamentally rethink their business models. While many of the changes are likely necessary for the continued viability of higher education, the U.S. Hispanic market is one overlooked bright spot and opportunity.

In many ways, the Hispanic market represents an antidote and counterpoint to the prevailing issues noted above.

Reduced Revenue – Hispanics are seeing significant growth in terms of college enrollment. The number of Hispanic college students in the U.S. reached 3.4 million in 2012, rising from 11% of the U.S. college population in 2006 to over 17%. Hispanic enrollment in colleges, universities and other educational programs is increasing almost across the board.

Reduced Demand – The number of Hispanic high school students in the U.S. is growing rapidly, representing a major supply-side opportunity for colleges and universities. From 2000-2014, the Hispanic high school dropout rate dropped from 32% to 12% (Pew Hispanic Center). Moreover, Hispanic household incomes have been increasing since 2000. Couple this with increasing scholarship and college funding opportunities and demand for college degrees is increasing among Hispanics.  

The Value of a College Education – Hispanics continue to place a high level of importance on education, specifically in the form of traditional four-year college degrees. We have seen consistently across our Hispanic Millennial and Generation Z studies that young Hispanics, regardless of their nativity, diverge from non-Hispanic whites in their positive attitudes and beliefs towards higher education. For instance, 46% of Hispanic Millennials consider graduating from a four-year college as a future goal, compared to only 31% of non-Hispanic Millennials (HMP). Among Gen Z, we see that 67% of Hispanics 11-16 view college as essential, versus only 60% of non-Hispanic whites (We Are Gen Z Report).

The entire higher education industry has a major opportunity and potential “lifeline” with Hispanics. Taking advantage of these opportunities will require more than just simple cosmetic changes to their marketing materials or outreach efforts. To fully take advantage of the Hispanic market, colleges and universities will need to rethink and adjust all elements of their enterprise — from their recruiting to their curriculum, student support, and alumni relations. The lag in Hispanic four-year college completion rates is a testament to the importance of this “all-in” approach. Those that do will be well-positioned to emerge from the current environment as leaders in a new higher education landscape.

Source: Published originally on mediapost.com Why Higher Education Depends On The Hispanic Market by Jose Villa, June 23, 2017

 

Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 2:41 PM

CCNY-UTEP partner to produce next generation Latino professors

The City College of New York is partnering with the University of Texas at El Paso to educate the next generation of Hispanic professors in environmental sciences and engineering. Entitled "Collaborative Research: The Hispanic AGEP Alliance for the Environmental Science and Engineering Professoriate," the five-year project is funded by a $3.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation. It begins July 1, 2017. 

Harlem-based City College, which is designated a Hispanic Serving Institution of Higher Education by the U.S. Department of Education, will receive $2.315 million of the funding and UTEP $1.3 million.  

Under the administration of CCNY's NOAA CREST, the two institutions will collaborate to develop, implement and study a model for training and transitioning Hispanic environmental sciences and engineering (ESE) doctoral students to STEM instructional faculty positions at community colleges and other institutions. Candidates must have completed all coursework and be dissertating, as they transition.  

Participants will primarily include Hispanic doctoral students of Caribbean or Mexican origin, who are advanced level doctoral candidates majoring in ESE fields. These include civil, electrical, mechanical or biomedical engineering; earth and atmospheric sciences; ecology and evolutionary biology, among other disciplines.  

The project will be led by CCNY faculty Jorge E. Gonzalez, Fred Moshary, Joseph Barba, Kyle McDonald and Ellen E. Smiley. UTEP experts include: Miguel Velez-Reyes, Craig Tweedie, and Ivonne Santiago.  

The CCNY-UTEP partnership is in response to the NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program solicitation. AGEP seeks to advance knowledge about models to improve pathways to the professoriate and success of historically underrepresented minority (URM) graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty in specific STEM disciplines and/or STEM education research fields.  

There are three community college partners in the Hispanic AGEP Alliance: LaGuardia Community College, Queensborough Community College and El Paso Community College in El Paso, TX.  

The NSF grant to CCNY and UTEP brings up to $23 million in awards to City College since last fall for training underrepresented minority scientists and engineers. Last September CCNY won a $15.5 million NOAA grant to produce mostly minority STEM scientists.  

In addition, $5.2 million was received from the U.S. Department of Education in October to promote STEM education, particularly among underrepresented groups.  

Source: Published originally on www.eurekalert.org, CCNY-UTEP partner to produce next generation Latino professors, City College of New York by Jay Mwamba, May 26th, 2017.

Posted on Monday, June 5, 2017 at 7:15 AM
  • Author: City College of New York by Jay Mwamba

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