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During the three years of our project, we will interview approximately 40-50 African-American and Latino/a high school students (equally divided
by gender) in three public schools. The interviews will focus on students' decisions to enroll in computer science classes, their experiences in
the classes, and their decisions to persist (or not persist) in these classes. We will also talk informally with teachers to better understand
the opportunites each of the schools provides.
Our overall research questions are:
- What are the institutional and structural aspects of high school computer science education that narrow the pipeline for different groups of
underrepresented minority and women students?
- What are the psychological and cultural factors linked to studying computer science that could be affecting college-bound underrepresented minority
students' interest in, motivation, and decisions to study (or not study) computer science?
Our project is based on perspectives from computer science and the social sciences.
An advisory committee consisting of high school educators and higher education
faculty will participate in the planning and assessment. The research will be
conducted in collaboration with UCLA's Outreach--a
program devoted to increasing the numbers of underrepresented minorities who
are college-bound and admitted to the University of California campuses. The
principal investigators are Researcher Jane Margolis, Ed.D and Professor Jeannie
Oakes, Ph.D.
Interview protocols:
Student interview protocol
Computer Science educator protocol
Non-Computer Science educator protocol
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