Resources

How Can Reducing Unconscious Bias Increase Women's Success in IT? Avoiding Unintended Bias in Letters of Recommendation (Case Study 1)

How Can Reducing Unconscious Bias Increase Women's Success in IT? Avoiding Unintended Bias in Letters of Recommendation (Case Study 1)

Research shows that even individuals committed to equality harbor unconscious biases that impact everyday decisions and interactions. In the IT workplace, unconscious gender bias can mislead employers, both male and female, to make inaccurate judgments in hiring, performance reviews, and promotion. This case study highlights findings on the differences between letters of recommendation for women and men and gives practical ways to reduce bias when writing letters of recommendation.

Categories: Unconscious Bias
Types: Promising Practices
How Do You Recruit or Retain Women through Inclusive Pedagogy? Designing for Diversity (Case Study 2)

How Do You Recruit or Retain Women through Inclusive Pedagogy? Designing for Diversity (Case Study 2)

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. A new, smaller introductory computer science class tailored for inexperienced students at the University of Virginia recruited more minority and women students and resulted in many more students declaring a major in computer science.

Categories: Teaching & Curriculum
Types: Promising Practices
Talking Points

Institutional Barriers & Their Effects: How can I talk to colleagues about these issues?

Institutional barriers (IBs) are policies, procedures, or situations that systematically disadvantage certain groups of people. IBs exist in any majority-minority group situation. When an initial population is fairly similar (e.g., in male-dominated professions), systems naturally emerge to meet the needs of this population. If these systems do not change with the times, they can inhibit the success of new members with different needs. IBs often seem natural or “just the way things are around here.”

Categories: Organizational / Systemic changeUnconscious Bias
Types: Talking Points
NCWIT Scorecard

NCWIT Scorecard: A Report on the Status of Women in Information Technology

The NCWIT Scorecard shows trends in girls' and women's participation in computing in the U.S. over time, providing a benchmark for measuring progress and identifying areas for improvement.



The Scorecard is available in a variety of formats for your convenience.

Types: Statistics & Reports
University Pathway to IT and Computing Careers

University Pathway to IT and Computing Careers

Part of Counselors for Computing, this card connect students' interests with IT and computing career paths that can be achieved through enrollment in a university or four-year college. Degree programs are linked to job titles, projected growth, and wages. Counselors for Computing (C4C) is a project of the NCWIT K-12 Alliance, made possible by the Merck Company Foundation.

Types: Counselors for Computing
How Do You Introduce Computing in an Engaging Way? Snap, Create, and Share with Scratch (Case Study 5)

How Do You Introduce Computing in an Engaging Way? Snap, Create, and Share with Scratch (Case Study 5)

Engage students not already drawn to computing by creating academic and social environments where these students feel like they belong. Students respond positively to solving real-life problems that draw on their existing knowledge and interests and that involve collaboration in hands-on projects. Scratch is a free “media rich programming environment” in which novice programmers can quickly express their creativity while learning computational thinking.

Categories: Teaching & Curriculum
Types: Promising Practices
How Do You Retain Women through Collaborative Learning? Pair Programming (Case Study 1)

How Do You Retain Women through Collaborative Learning? Pair Programming (Case Study 1)

Collaborative learning can improve retention rates, critical thinking, appreciation of diversity, and development of social and professional skills. When implementing collaborative learning, match students roughly according to experience levels and make sure to give students opportunities to work together for both graded and un-graded assignments. Pair programming assignments within computer science courses both attract and retain more students in CS majors. In addition, women feel more confident when pair programming is used in the classroom.

Categories: Teaching & Curriculum
Types: Promising Practices
Survey-in-a-Box

Survey-in-a-Box: Student Experience of the Major

A survey and associated resources for assessing, interpreting, and improving the climate of undergraduate computing departments to improve retention of and increase enrollment by all students.

Types: Programs-in-a-Box
Which computing majors are right for me?

Which computing majors are right for me?

This card, co-branded with ACM, explains how computing interests and talents line up with different undergraduate degrees and the careers that follow.

Types: AspirationsOther
America's Got Talent but Not Enough Is Going into Computer Science

America's Got Talent but Not Enough Is Going into Computer Science

CS Principles is a new Advanced Placement computing course in development by NSF and the College Board, designed to be engaging, inspiring, and rigorous. This resource provides the rationale for CS Principles and describes how to support its implementation.

Types: Statistics & Reports

Pages