Professor Valerie Barr: “Visualising progress in expanding computer use: The value of context”

Valerie Barr, Margaret Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Bard College, along with Carla E. Brodley and Manuel Pérez-Quiñones, conduct a new study to examine how colleges should rethink their data measurement metrics to improve diversity and broaden participation in computer science analysis and assessment. “Concerns about representation in computer science in the United States have sparked numerous activities to broaden participation,” they write. However, Barr points out that “standard analysis of computer science degree data does not account for the changing demographics of the student body in terms of the total number and relative proportion of gender, racial, and ethnicity groups defined by the federal government.” The study argues that accounting for students’ intersectional identities, along with using multiple data analysis methods, would contribute to more accurate assessments of the effectiveness of curricular, pedagogical, and institutional interventions to broaden representation in computer science.

By date: 07.09.2024