Women and minority students are not in computing courses under the same conditions as their white male classmates. Instructional practices offer opportunities to level the playing field and improve the retention of underrepresented students. More students with learning and physical disabilities are in the educational pipeline than ever before. Being aware of the issues, tools, and services for students with disabilities makes it easier for them to learn and for you to teach them.

Flexible work arrangements and career paths, along with re-entry training and support, can attract and retain mid-career female employees. Military spouses are a large and often overlooked population that could be well-served by IT training and could bring more diversity to IT. The Women in Technology (WIT) Military Spouse Certificate Program is one innovative program that attempts to meet this need.

Making curricula more relevant to students, introducing collaborative learning into the classroom, and tailoring courses to different student experience levels benefit female as well as male students. This approach to introductory computing involves encouraging social interaction and creativity while presenting subject matter that is relevant to non-computing majors. Evaluation at Georgia Tech showed that the Media Computation approach resulted in increased student success rates (earning an A, B, or C) from 72 percent to about 85-90 percent.