How to change undergraduate computing to engage and retain more women

My Blog@CACM post for this month talks about the Weston et al paper (from last week), and about a new report from the Reboot Representation coalition (see their site here). The report covers what the Tech industry is doing to close the gender gap in computing and “what works” (measured both empirically and from interviews with people running programs addressing gender issues).

I liked the emphasis in the report on redesigning the experience of college students (especially female) who are majoring in computing.  Some of their emphases:

• Work with community colleges, too.  Community colleges tend to be better with more diverse students, and it’s where about half of undergraduates start today.  If you want to attract more diverse students, that’s where to start.
• They encourage companies to offer “significant cash awards” to colleges that are successful with diverse students. That’s a great idea — computer science departments are struggling to manage undergraduate enrollment these days, and incentives to keep an eye on diversity will likely have a big impact.
• Grow computer science teachers and professors. I appreciated that second emphasis.  There’s a lot of push to grow K-12 CS teachers, and I think it’s working.  But there’s not a similar push to grow higher education CS teachers. That’s going to be a chokepoint for growing more CS graduates.

The report is interesting — I recommend it.