APPROACH
NCWIT and their partners commit to scaling the successfully piloted AspireIT computing outreach program to serve an additional 10,000 middle school girls by 2018. NCWIT will recruit 600 high-school and college aged women from their Aspirations in Computing alumnae pool and 250 host organizations to co-create and deliver 400 computing-focused after-school programs, summer camps, clubs, and workshops for middle-school girls across the country.
NCWIT's organizational partners and nearly 3400 Aspirations in Computing alumnae will be invited to apply for this initiative. NCWIT will pair the selected young women with host organizations and provide them with grants to launch the program, and a toolkit that includes curricula and program tools/approaches. NCWIT will hold seven grant rounds over four years, providing a total of .85 million through 400 awards of - per site, depending on the duration of the program delivered. A minimum of 6 hours of program time must be provided and program leaders will receive a stipend determined by the host organization.
The 600 program leaders selected will be responsible for designing the outreach program in partnership with the host organizations, recruiting program participants and delivering the instruction. Host organizations will contribute technical expertise, facilities, staff, and networks among other resources.
NCWIT will build out the online program implementation portal to support administration, data collection, tracking, and evaluation of the program.
They will also develop communications systems to stay in touch with program leaders and participant's families as they move through the educational pipeline, offering them further opportunities in technology and tracking their progress.
NCWIT's corporate partners will provide the funding to support the program, as well as industry volunteers and other resources such as software, hardware, and technical training for program leaders.
This will be a staged scale up that will add new sites annually. Program evaluation, toolkit revision and technology updates will also occur on a yearly basis.
ACTION PLAN
Year 1 (2014 - 2015)
Target: (40 sites/1000 participants)
- Recruitment of program leaders and partner organizations (ongoing)
- Design of program toolkit (7/14 - 10/14)
- Release of program toolkit (11/14)
- 1st Grant Round (2/15)
Year 2 (2015 - 2016)
Target: (80 sites/2000 participants)
- Recruitment of program leaders and partner organizations (ongoing)
- 2nd Grant Round (6/15)
- Toolkit Revision (9/15)
- Y1 Evaluation Report (10/15)
- Technology Update (1/16)
- 3rd Grant Round (1/16)
Year 3 (2016 - 2017)
Target: (120 sites/3000 participants)
- Recruitment of program leaders and partner organizations (ongoing)
- 4th Grant Round (6/16)
- Toolkit Revision (9/16)
- Y2 Outcomes/Evaluation Report (10/16)
- Technology Update (1/17)
- 5th Grant Round (1/17)
Year 4 (2017-2018)
Target: (160 sites/4000 participants)
- Recruitment of program leaders and partner organizations (ongoing)
- 6th Grant Round (6/17)
- Toolkit Revision (9/17)
- Y3 Evaluation Report (10/17)
- Technology Update (1/18)
- 7th Grant Round (1/18)
- Cumulative Outcomes Report (12/18)
The participation of women and girls in computing and IT, already underrepresented, has been declining. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, interest in majoring in computer science (CS) by first-year undergraduate women has declined 64% from 2000-2012, and in 2012 only 18% of CS undergraduate degree recipients were female. This shortage is also evident in high school. College Board data shows that only 19% of 2013 AP Computer Science test takers were female, though young women make up 56% of all AP test takers.
When young women do participate, high school CS classes are often dominated by boys, making girls feel out of place. Informal education bridges this gap by overcoming accessibility barriers and stereotypes and giving girls an opportunity to explore computing and IT interests in a welcoming environment. The two critical sticking points for K-12 informal education organizations to provide meaningful technology outreach are: the impetus to focus limited resources on computing over other priorities; and availability of qualified instructors.
To address these barriers and increase the pool of young women entering high school excited to learn more about computing and information technology, in 2013 NCWIT launched AspireIT. This pilot program pairs recipients of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing, which honors young women at the high school level for their computing-related achievements, with not for profit organizations within their network, to create and run computing outreach programs for middle school girls. AspireIT employs a 'near-peer' approach that provides middle school girls with a positive, sustained experience of learning and creating computing alongside their peers in high school and college. AspireIT has served more than 2000 girls through 70 programs and has proven to be a scalable, low cost model with high return on investment.
NCWIT and their partners have continued to seek additional funding to scale up the AspireIT program. AspireIT has been unique in its ability to leverage local resources and ability to teach a girl at an average of $100 per girl served. Additionally, NCWIT has continued to seek local organizations to act as program hosts.
NCWIT AspireIT provides tools, program leaders, and implementation grants to partners interested in hosting AspireIT outreach programs.
NCWIT provides research-based practices for recruiting young women into computing. Resources are free to download at www.ncwit.org/resources.
NCWIT staff and research scientists are experts in K-12 practices for computing education.
