External Research

This brief report outlines the results of a study done at the request of the Arkansas State Legislature's Joint Interim Committee on Education. The study provides interesting data on the reasons for higher attrition rates among K-12 computer science teachers.

This thought-provoking report explores the current crisis in K-12 computer science education in South Carolina, and provides a comprehensive action plan to ensure that South Carolina's students have the knowledge and skills they need to prepare for 21st century jobs. This report was authored by the Computing Competitiveness Council, a group of interested parties in South Carolina who are concerned about computing education in the schools and universities and the negative impact on economic development that will result from a continued shortage of students interested in and eventual college and university graduates educated in computing. Input for the CCC proposal came from the software industry, university and technical college faculty, high school teachers, and parents of South Carolina. Input was also solicited from department chairs in computing of nine of South Carolina's public universities, including all those with accredited computer science degrees, and direct feedback has come from representatives of eight of those departments.

Additional input from the academic community has come from two other teachers, from several corporate members of the software industry in South Carolina, and from department chairs or designees from three other public university departments in South Carolina offering undergraduate degrees in computer science and one other technical college. In the interests of timeliness we are submitting this letter without waiting to receive a formal endorsement from these individuals.

Among the individuals who have contributed to this proposal are:

Rita Anderson, Parent, Irmo High School, and IT professional
Duncan Buell, Professor and Chair, Computer Science and Engineering, USC Columbia
Caroline Eastman, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, USC Columbia
Jim Forth, Parent, Irmo High School
Ron Fulbright, Chair, Informatics, USC Upstate
Donn Griffith, Outreach Coordinator, College of Engineering and Computing, USC Columbia
Bruce Martin, Instructor, Midlands Technical College
Tom Rogers, Teacher, Southside High School, Greenville
Chris Starr, Professor and Chair, Computer Science, College of Charleston
Steve Stevenson, Professor, Computer Science, Clemson University
S. Velummylum, Professor, Mathematics and Computer Science, Claflin University
Ken Weaver, Instructor, Computer Science, Clemson University

This thesis reports on the creation and evaluation of a new programming system for middle school girls called Storytelling Alice that presents programming as a means to the end of storytelling. Storytelling Alice includes high-level animations that enable users to program social interactions, a gallery of characters and scenery designed to spark story ideas, and a story-based tutorial. To evaluate the impact of storytelling support on girls' motivation and learning, I compared girls' experiences using Storytelling Alice and a version of Alice without storytelling support (Generic Alice). Results of the study suggest that girls are more motivated to learn programming using Storytelling Alice; study participants who used Storytelling Alice spent 42% more time programming and were more than three times as likely to sneak extra time to work on their programs as users of Generic Alice (16% of Generic Alice users and 51% of Storytelling Alice users snuck extra time).

Maryland's Task Force on the Status of Women and Information Technology has released a major new study focusing on women and information technology. The report, called In the Center of the Storm: Addressing the Challenges of Maryland's Tightening IT Market, provides a succinct review of the problems and practical steps that can be taken at all levels to address them. During the 2004 session of the Maryland General Assembly, the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee and the House Economic Matters Committee heard legislation addressing the declining percentage of women entering and remaining in information technology (IT) professions. Senate Bill 917 (Chapter 489) and House Bill 1538 (Chapter 490) established a 20-member Task Force on the Status of Women and Information Technology to study this decline and its impact on the future of the IT workforce in Maryland, to examine existing laws and services pertaining to the issue of women in IT, to develop a statewide Women and Information Technology Plan and to formulate strategies to implement and promote this plan.

This 2005 Master's project from the University of Kansas examines the results of a survey of high school computer science teachers in Kansas concerning the current state of teacher preparation, teacher responsibilities, teacher support, and professional develoment in Kansas high school computer science programs. The surveys' inquiries focused on teacher-perceived instructional proficiency, and correlation factors for teachers' awareness and utilization of professional development opportunities for high school computer science educators. Research from the secondary teachers' points of view demonstrates there is a need for support and calls upon those who influence the professinal development opportunities for secondary computer science educators.

Despite the digital saturation of today's youth across demographic groups, students of color and females remain severely underrepresented in computer science. Reporting on a sequential mixed methods study, this article explores the ways that high school computer science teachers can act as change agents to broaden the participation in computing for historically underrepresented students. Three high school case studies reveal a critical need for professional development and support to do this work. The subsequent part of the study focuses on the impact of a district-university intervention which trained 25 urban teachers to teach Advanced Placement computer science in their schools. The swift success of this intervention was evident from the following years' dramatic increase in course offerings and enrollment of females, Latinos, and African Americans.