Roundtable on Data Science Postsecondary Education A Compilation of Meeting Highlights (2020) / Chapter Skim
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9 Meeting #8: Challenges and Opportunities to Better Engage Women and Minorities in Data Science Education
9 Meeting #8: Challenges and Opportunities to Better Engage Women and Minorities in Data Science Education
Pages 107-121
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From page 107... ...
He noted that tremendous challenges and opportunities exist to improve equity and diversity in STEM education programs and workplaces. He suggested that the emergence of data science, with its focus on new paradigms, has the potential to create a watershed moment to better engage women and minorities in STEM fields and beyond.
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From page 108... ...
Bobb described inequities in access to computing education and their impacts on undergraduate enrollments of underrepresented minorities. While Atlanta's population is greater than 50 percent African American, only three African American students are enrolled in Advanced Placement computer science courses in local public high schools, and this population is similarly underrepresented in Georgia Tech's College of Computing, according to Bobb.
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From page 109... ...
PANEL PRESENTATIONS ON EXISTING PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY EFFORTS TO INCREASE DIVERSITY Student-Centered Interventions to Retain Women, Underrepresented Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Computing Ayanna Howard, Georgia Institute of Technology and Computing Research Association Before beginning her presentation, Howard mentioned that the Computing Research Association -- Women (CRA–W) 3 will soon change its name and mission statement to include all underrepresented populations, including persons with disabilities.
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From page 110... ...
Celebrating Women in Statistics and Data Science: Goals, Creation, Implementation, and Outcomes Dalene Stangl, Carnegie Mellon University and American Statistical Association Committee on Women in Statistics Motivated by the words of Susan Ambrose and Barbara Lazarus at Carnegie Mellon in 1992 -- that traditional pedagogical approaches emphasizing male patterns of behavior have restricted teaching and learning for women -- Stangl and a team of women in STEM at Duke University committed to "disrupting the hierarchy." In particular, Stangl's participation in the Grace Hopper Conference on Women and Computing,10 which today attracts more than 20,000 female participants annually, illuminated the different educational and professional experiences of men and women. With the help of a $10,000 grant from the American Statistical Association (ASA)
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From page 111... ...
AWM's programs for middle and high school girls include essay contests, mathematics days, and mentorship, and more than 200 AWM student chapters are located on college campuses across the country, she explained. For women who are more advanced in their careers, AWM offers travel grants, semiannual conferences, workshops, prizes, and distinguished lectureships.
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From page 112... ...
Radunskaya noted the value of dedicating time and financial resources to middle school programs, camps, 1-day events, and other partnerships to motivate children to study STEM, and she emphasized the importance of respecting the people involved in organizing such programs. She also suggested that funding be allocated to research experiences for undergraduates that intentionally engage underrepresented minorities.
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From page 113... ...
Underrepresented Populations in STEM In response to a question about issues facing women in STEM today, Stangl stated that many of the problems that existed 25 years ago remain widespread. She said that structural changes (e.g., more flexible teaching)
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From page 114... ...
In terms of best educational practices, she emphasized accessibility at the postsecondary level, and she encouraged participants to sign the "Computer Science for All" Accessibility Pledge16 to make computer science materials more accessible. OPEN DISCUSSION Diversity in the Professoriate Isbell described Diversifying Future Leadership in the Professoriate (FLIP)
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From page 115... ...
KEEPING DATA SCIENCE BROAD Renata Rawlings-Goss, South Big Data Hub Rawlings-Goss explained that the four big data hubs are part of an NSF initiative to bring together academic, industry, and government researchers and practitioners in the data science space for the benefit of U.S. economic and social well-being.
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From page 116... ...
The report revealed that implicit bias training for faculty, staff, and institutions; culturally relevant, high-quality curricula; and respect for the role that 2-year institutions, minority-serving institutions, and K-12 schools play in program development are essential. Rawlings-Goss also described the DataUp program (hosted by the South Big Data Hub in partnership with the Carpentries)
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From page 117... ...
THE DSX PROJECT: A FIRST LOOK AT DATA SCIENCE EDUCATION ON SPELMAN AND MOREHOUSE CAMPUSES Brandeis Marshall, Spelman College Marshall described the Data Science Extension (DSX) Project, which is funded by NSF, as a 3-year targeted infusion project between Spelman and Morehouse Colleges -- both of which are private, minority-serving, baccalaureate, liberal arts institutions that have mathematics and computer science departments but do not have statistics departments.
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From page 118... ...
Treisman asked whether Marshall has surveyed the faculty and students on their levels of comfort with data science tools such as Python, and Marshall noted that the vast majority of incoming students at pelman arrive without any computational knowledge. S HISPANICS AND NATIVE AMERICANS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE: PATTERNS, PRESSURES, AND PROGRAMS Lydia Tapia, University of New Mexico Tapia showed a series of graphs from CRA's Taulbee Survey to demonstrate that Hispanic and Native American students continue to be significantly underrepresented in computer science bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs (Zweben and Bizot, 2018)
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From page 119... ...
Successful programs at the K-12 levels include the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge,19 which is an expo of student computing projects with mentorship opportunities; the Tapia Lab20 Demos; and the New Mexico CS4All program,21 which trains students in dual enrollment classes and trains teachers who will be working with those students. At the undergraduate level, the NASA Swarmathon22 and the Robot Guru both engage underrepresented students in computer science.
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From page 120... ...
The first group focused its discussion on leveraging programs that have been successful for underrepresented populations in other fields. On behalf of his group, Kolaczyk reported that because "data science" is an amorphous term, it can prove challenging to recruit undergraduates into the field.
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From page 121... ...
He noted that PK-12 teachers could be given stipends, perhaps from industry, to participate in data science initiatives and to develop innovative educational programs. At the postsecondary level, scholarships would assist students who do not have the means to complete their degrees, although complications may arise if these funds come from companies that have expectations for the students after graduation.
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