Weaving a Computer Science Tapestry: Results of a Workshop Promoting the Recruitment and Retention of Girls in High School Computer Science

Although enrollment and degree production in Computer Science (CS) bachelor’s degree programs have been increasing, enrollment of and degrees awarded to women have continued to decline as a result of poor experiences prior to entering college. A lack of prior computing experience, unenthusiastic teachers, gender stereotypes, and uninformed parents and administrators are the most frequently suggested reasons for the continued low participation of female and minority students in high school computing courses. This paper reports on a workshop designed to prepare high school CS teachers to meet the challenges of recruiting and retaining a diverse student population in their CS courses. We had three overall goals for the workshop: 1) introduce pedagogical strategies designed to dispel stereotypes and be engaging and accessible to all students; 2) demonstrate proven strategies and techniques for recruiting and retaining more students, and especially girls and minorities, into CS courses; and 3) provide a variety of reliable, research-based resources that outline the importance of CS education and the opportunities the discipline can offer to use when talking to students, parents, other teachers, and school administrators. We present evidence of the immediate success of this workshop through an overview of each of the workshop sessions, a comparison of the participants’ expectations as stated before the workshop with the results of a formal evaluation and assessment independently conducted at the end of the workshop, and an assessment of the workshop from the invited speakers’ perspectives. We also discuss the lessons learned in the organization and production of this workshop from both technical and participant perspectives and how we plan to apply these lessons in future iterations of this workshop.