BPC-DP: Leveraging Institutional Data Collection and Analysis as an Entry to BPC Work: A Pilot Program to Support Emerging DEI Efforts

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Broadening participation in computing (BPC) is a national priority. However, the capacity of higher education institutions to monitor and report on BPC data is highly variable. Building on work that was successfully conducted through the BRAID initiative, a BPC effort at 15 undergraduate computing departments, this project engages three to five institutions that have had no or limited engagement with previous BPC initiatives. Efforts include collecting undergraduate computing enrollment and degree attainment (EDA) data disaggregated by gender and race/ethnicity, creating data visualizations to analyze departmental trends and patterns, and working closely with institutional partners to understand their BPC data and develop effective strategies for maintaining and reporting it. This project stands to inform change and data-driven decisions to improve BPC at the institutional-level and enhance the validity of BPC data that is provided to external stakeholders.There is broad consensus on the critical necessity of robust data in addressing persistent participation gaps in computing. This project’s data collection process is intentionally designed to serve as an initial entry point into leveraging departmental data for BPC efforts by focusing on EDA patterns narrowly within the Computer Science major and more broadly across “All Computing” majors. The key outputs of this project include: 1) detailed, interactive data visualizations that depict trends by gender (e.g., women in computing), race/ethnicity (e.g., Black students in computing), and the combination of these identities (e.g., Black women in computing), and 2) one-on-one workshops with each participating institution to highlight key findings and guide participants to consider specific actions and interventions to address participation gaps. With an enhanced understanding of their BPC data and related trends, institutions can engage more meaningfully in other existing BPC efforts.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.