An Approach for Recruitment, Persistence and Retention of CS/ITS Majors

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RPR (An Approach for Recruitment, Persistence, and Retention of CS/ITS Students) provides full four-year scholarships to a cohort of 13 academically-talented and financially-disadvantaged majors in Computer Science and Information Technology & Systems majors. Recruitment initiatives focus on program features that have broad appeal to a diverse population of students, including women. RPR's intellectual merit is grounded in its coordination of initiatives found to be effective in recruiting and retaining students. The program features a cohort approach to learning, including a common freshman year experience where students participate in a two-semester active learning CS sequence, a self-management course that aids in student persistence and retention, and a discrete mathematics course. In addition, students have opportunities to engage in applied research and internships and to be paired with industry mentors. Program evaluation focuses on the effectiveness of recruitment strategies in attracting a diverse cohort and on core program features in aiding student achievement, persistence and retention. The broader impact of RPR is to promote growth and diversity in the CS/ITS field and to disseminate evaluation findings through peer-reviewed publications such as the Proceedings of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) and the Journal of Computer Sciences in Colleges.