Collaborative Research: EXT: Mobilizing Implementation of Effective Practices to Increase Participation of Women in Computing

国家妇女与信息技术中心(NCWIT)寻求为全国范围内、显著和持续增加的信息技术本科学士学位课程的女性入学和毕业提供推广服务。目标是积极瞄准现有的学术部门联盟。NCWIT学术联盟这一联盟渴望实施有效的做法，以增加妇女对其方案的参与。该计划的一个关键过程是迅速发展多种类型的“模范机构”，这些机构将成为可复制的成功榜样。这些范例的进程和结果将得到广泛传播，并将为变革努力提供支持，从而增加其他机构成功效仿有效进程的可能性。示范机构将作为全国的证明点，并将成为加速区域变革的枢纽。贝尔实验室的一名研究员和院长计算研究和信息技术社区的一名受人尊敬的成员将领导这项改革努力。在计算和程序评估方面研究女性问题的社会科学家将实施、咨询、收集和分析数据。在评估计划性教育改革方面，一位全国公认的领导者将对拟议的扩展服务进行外部形成性评估。我们的统一改革计划包括一年一度的研讨会，以传播以证据为基础的有效实践，并支持向地区社区进行外联、招聘和传播。我们将提供与实施专家和行业成员的定制咨询，以及教职员工与研究相关的创新和发展的小额赠款。评估被纳入项目的每一个方面，以最大限度地提高所有利益攸关方的积极成果。我们向一个致力于实现真正变革的团体积极传播和实施已知有效做法的模式，将使我们能够迅速创建模范机构。这样的机构可以作为全国的证明点，并将成为加速区域变革的中心。智力上的优点：这个项目在成功增加女性参与计算机方面具有得天独厚的优势。学术联盟已经到位，正在发展，并渴望实施干预措施。每个成员承诺只实施研究表明的做法，以增加招募和留住妇女的人数。干预措施将通过由专业社会科学家领导的严格的社会科学方法进行密切评估。每个学术联盟成员将被支持收集和分析自己的数据，以便进行形成性评估，并将数据提供给NCWIT进行终结性评估。针对每一项干预的多管齐下的方法将专注于改变制度，而不仅仅是克服女学生的“缺陷”。因此，它需要较少的资源，并将在资助期后持续下去。广泛影响：增加妇女参与信息技术对国家产生深远影响。信息和计算技术不仅以前所未有的方式渗透到我们日常生活的方方面面，而且所有的工程和科学发现和创新现在都被认为依赖于计算科学。不断增加的合格计算专业人员队伍支持国家目标：纳米技术、网络基础设施倡议，以及我们的经济、安全、国防和医疗保健系统都依赖于计算。增加妇女的参与不仅满足国家需要，而且通过整合不同的想法改善计算机系统、应用程序和产品的开发和设计，同时帮助克服妇女的经济差距。

The National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) seeks to establish an extension service for nationwide, significant, and sustained increase in enrollment and graduation of women in undergraduate information technology bachelor's degree programs. The goal is to actively target an existing coalition of academic departments. This coalition, the NCWIT Academic Alliance, is eager to implement effective practices for increasing participation of women in their programs. A key process in the plan is to develop quickly many types of "exemplar institutions" that will serve as replicable role models of success. Processes and outcomes of these exemplars will be broadly disseminated, and support will be provided for change efforts, increasing the likelihood that other institutions can successfully emulate the effective processes. Exemplar institutions will serve as proof points to the entire nation and will become hubs for accelerated regional change.A Bell Labs Fellow and a respected member of the computing research and information technology community of deans will lead the reform effort. Social scientists who are experts on issues of women in computing and program evaluation will implement, consult, collect and analyze data. A nationally recognized leader in assessing programmatic educational reform will conduct the external formative evaluation of the proposed extension service.Our Unified Program of Change includes annual workshops for disseminating evidence-based effective practices and for supporting outreach, recruiting, and dissemination to regional communities. We will provide customized consultations with experts in implementation and industry members as well as small grants for research-related innovation and development by faculty. Evaluation is built into every aspect of the project to maximize positive outcomes for all stakeholders. Our model of active dissemination and implementation of known effective practices to a group committed to effecting real change will allow us to create exemplar institutions quickly. Such institutions can serve as proof points to the entire nation and will become hubs for accelerated regional change.Intellectual Merit: This project is uniquely situated for success in increasing the participation of women in computing. The Academic Alliance is in place, growing, and eager to implement interventions. Each member is committed to implement only practices shown in research to increase recruitment and retention of women. Interventions will be closely evaluated through rigorous social science methods, led by expert social scientists. Each Academic Alliance member will be supported in collecting and analyzing its own data for ongoing formative evaluation, and will supply data to NCWIT for summative evaluation. The multi-pronged approach to each intervention will focus on changing the system, not just overcoming "deficiencies" among female students. Thus it requires fewer resources and will be sustained beyond the funding period.Broad Impact: Increasing women's participation in IT has far-reaching national consequences. Not only do information and computing technologies pervade all aspects of our everyday lives in an unprecedented way, but all engineering and science discovery and innovation are now considered to be dependent on computational science. Increasing the pool of qualified computing professionals supports national goals: nanotechnology, the Cyberinfrastructure Initiative, and our economic, security, defense, and health care systems all depend on computing. Increasing the participation of women not only provides for national needs, but improves the development and design of computing systems, applications, and products through the integration of diverse ideas while helping overcome economic disparities for women.