Researching Pre-College Factors that Lead to Persistence in Computer Science

这个研究项目正在研究全国范围内为K-12学生提供计算机科学（CS）和计算思维（CT）的广泛努力，通过测量它们对学生在计算机相关领域的职业兴趣和他们对计算机的态度的影响。虽然向大学预科学生提供CS和CT体验得到了广泛的支持，但很少有关于校内/校外课程的流行程度以及个人爱好和探索的国家统计数据。无论人们对大学预科CS和CT计划有多么热情，关于它们对学生的长期影响的确凿证据却很少。尽管许多项目已经被单独评估过，但该领域尚未研究大学预科学生的CS和CT经历对他们对CS和STEM职业的兴趣、对CS的态度以及CS身份的相对影响。本研究测量了CS和STEM教师，以及其他学科的教师，以及在线资源创建者，校外教育工作者和其他相关专业人员做出的关于使用计算机和CT活动的决策的影响。本研究有能力揭示最有前途的教育实践和干预措施（许多是在国家科学基金会的支持下发展起来的），包括在全国具有代表性的一年级大学生中进行的校内计算机和CT教学、课后项目、竞赛和俱乐部。由于女性和某些种族和少数民族在STEM和CS劳动力中的代表性不足一直是一个长期存在的问题，因此该项目将重点关注女孩和代表性不足的少数民族。它将决定这些群体获得各种CS和ct相关机会的程度，以及这些机会转化为对他们有利的长期成果的程度。本回顾性队列研究采用流行病学方法，控制了先前兴趣和背景变量，将收集具有全国代表性的8,000名大学生分层随机样本（注册了强制性大一课程，因此包括对CS和CT有不同兴趣和经验的学生）。它将模拟任何先前的计算机科学和计算机科学相关的经验预测学生的计算机科学态度，身份和职业兴趣的程度，使用线性和逻辑回归。流行病学技术提供了一种成本效益高且易于理解的方法，可以同时检验多种假设，同时控制个体受试者不同的大量人口统计学和背景因素。该项目由CS for All: Research and RPPs项目资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research project is studying the wide range of efforts underway nationwide to offer computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) to K-12 students, by measuring their impact on students' career interest in computer-related fields and on their attitudes toward computing. While there is widespread support for offering CS and CT experiences to pre-college students, there are few national statistics on the prevalence of in-school/out-of-school offerings, as well as personal hobbies and explorations. However great the enthusiasm about pre-college CS and CT initiatives, little definitive evidence exists about their long-term effects on students. Whereas many programs have been evaluated individually, the field has yet to examine the relative impact of pre-college students' CS and CT experiences on their interest in CS and STEM careers, their attitudes toward CS, and their CS identity. This study measures the impact of decisions about the use of computers and CT activities, made by CS and STEM teachers, as well as teachers of other subjects, along with those made by the creators of online resources, out-of-school time educators, and other involved professionals. This study has the capability to reveal the most promising educational practices and interventions (many developed with NSF support), including in-school computing and CT instruction, after-school programs, competitions, and clubs in a nationally representative sample of first-year college students. Because the under-representation of females and certain racial and ethnic minorities in the STEM and CS workforce has been a long-standing concern, this project will have a strong focus on girls and underrepresented minorities. It will determine both the degree to which these groups have access to the various CS and CT-related opportunities and the extent to which these opportunities translate into positive long-term outcomes for them.Using epidemiological methods that control for prior interest and background variables, this retrospective cohort study will collect a nationally representative, stratified random sample of 8,000 college students (enrolled in a mandatory freshman course, so that students with all levels of interest and experience in CS and CT are included). It will model the degree to which any prior CS- and CT-related experiences predict students' CS attitudes, identity, and career interests, using linear and logistic regression. Epidemiological techniques offer a cost effective and well-understood methodology to simultaneously test multiple hypotheses, while controlling for a host of demographic and background factors that differ for individual subjects. This project is funded by the CS for All: Research and RPPs program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.