Abstract: In 2004, the Computing Research Association (CRA) held its annual meeting in Snowbird, Utah, to update department chairs in computing on trend data and other computing-related issues. Attending the meeting that year were department chairs from seven Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs): California State University-Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), Florida International University (FIU), New Mexico State University (NMSU), Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC), University of Houston-Downtown (UHD), University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez (UPRM), and The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). These chairs realized they had power in numbers and made a decision: “let’s take each of our homegrown best practices and come together as a unified alliance.” The Computing and Information Science Engineering (CISE) directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) had just launched its alliance program to broaden participation in computing, in an effort to meet one of NSF’s goals: accelerate the number of students who enter and complete STEM degrees. UTEP, under the direction of Ann Quiroz Gates, took the lead in writing the successful proposal, with the other six chairs as co-investigators. That funding officially launched the establishment of the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) in 2006 to establish a unified voice and consolidate their collective strengths and resources, while bringing in others committed to increasing the number of Hispanics in all computing areas.

Abstract: For years, the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) have lacked diverse representation of students. In some disciplines, like computer science, diversity has remained especially stagnant. However, there are growing initiatives to promote the success of minoritized students in STEM. The Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) is a network of computer science departments at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) across the nation that aims to increase the number of Latinx students graduating with credentials in computer science. Bianca Alvarez, a current doctoral student in computer science at the University of Texas at El Paso, described how CAHSI has played a role in motivating her to dream beyond what she thought was possible

Abstract: The technology field today, with continually emerging social media and communication platforms, is highly impacted by controversy and ethical considerations. It is imperative for computer science undergraduates to be prepared to face these issues as they enter the workforce. This paper describes how the design and pedagogical tools applied in a leadership course led to growth in the ability of these students to effectively confront ethical issues and handle controversial topics. With U.S. Department of Education funding, an interdisciplinary, multicultural team of faculty, researchers, and evaluators implemented an equity-oriented pilot course in leadership for undergraduate computer science students. The site of course implementation was The University of Texas at El Paso, a Hispanic-Serving Institution with over 85% Hispanics enrolled in undergraduate studies, including computer science. Some 90% of the students in this project were Hispanic. The course was piloted over four semesters, which allowed the instructional team to perfect the approaches that were most successful for student success. The leadership course integrated two primary approaches: 1) a relational model of leadership used to examine complexities that arise when technology professionals encounter multiple perspectives and diverse ideas; and 2) cooperative learning approaches, including constructive academic controversy model, used to develop leadership skills while contextualizing the role of ethics in computing. The course culminated in an academic controversy exercise where student teams examined the Facebook /Whistleblower controversy. The teams gathered research-based arguments, debated with each other, changed sides, and debated again. Eventually, they developed and presented an informed consensus of positions. Throughout the process, students practiced critical professional skills such as effective team communication, active listening, and perspective-taking—effective tools for team communication and diversity appreciation. This approach to leadership education has significant implications for equity with a focus on student thinking, perspectives, and values.

Abstract: In our prior work, a cluster analysis (n = 2,339) identified four groups of engineering undergraduates’ non-cognitive and affective (NCA) factors from a list of 28 dimensions such as belongingness, engineering identity, self-control, and perceptions of faculty caring. We found clusters of students that generally contained favorable student success characteristics (high belonging, high engineering identity, high motivation, and others), as well as those that were characterized by less favorable characteristics for student success (low belonging, low perception of faculty caring, and others). Higher education institutions have varying missions and profiles, and they serve different student populations. We hypothesize that as institutional characteristics are related to specific NCA (institutional characteristics may affect belongingness, stress support, perceptions of faculty caring, or other constructs from our NCA-based clusters), they may also be related to cluster membership. To test our hypothesis, we merged our dataset with institutional data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), engineering program enrollment data from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Engineering Data Management System (EDMS), and financial data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The final data for this analysis consisted of n = 1,252 responses across 14 U.S. institutions. We used multinomial logistic regression to predict cluster membership as a function of both individual and institutional characteristics. We found that institutional characteristics correlate to cluster membership in important ways: students at large and/or and doctoral granting institutions have decreased odds of being in a generally positive cluster containing favorable student success characteristics, while enrollment at guaranteed tuition institutions increases these odds. These results elevate the role of institutional culture and its alignment to student characteristics as a key component of successful student outcomes. These results, when considered as a question of student-institution alignment, offer opportunities to rethink student academic and social support structures that encourage growth in specific NCA factors. In turn, this growth may support expanded engineering student success.

Abstract: Involving diverse individuals who bring different perspectives, experiences, and disciplinary knowledge in solving problems is critical in our nation’s ability to innovate and compete in a global economy. Unfortunately, the trends in the number of graduates with advanced degrees, in particular ethnically and racially diverse citizens and permanent residents, are insufficient to meet current and future national needs. This is exacerbated in computing, which is one of the least diverse fields. Despite the growth in numbers of Hispanics nationally and their representation in undergraduate studies, the number of Hispanic citizens and permanent residents who enter and complete graduate computing studies is disturbingly low. Studies report that Hispanic graduate students across all fields of study feel isolated and alienated, face lack of support, experience low expectations from faculty, and a negative racial/ethnic climate. Students often encounter a STEM culture centered on competition and selectivity, and this must be addressed to increase pathways to the doctorate to support our nation’s economic and national security goals. This paper describes a collective effort of institutions with high enrollments of Hispanic students that have built partnerships among non-doctoral-granting and doctoral-granting institutions to increase representation of Hispanics in graduate studies. Led by NSF’s Eddie Bernice Johnson Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI), the collective employs evidence-based practices grounded in the Hispanic-servingness literature to address the root causes.

Abstract: Within computer science education, a growth mindset is encouraged. However, faculty development on the use of growth mindset in the classroom is rare and resources to support the use of a growth mindset are limited. A framework for a computer science growth mindset classroom, which includes faculty development, lesson plans, and vocabulary for use with students, has been developed. The objective is to determine if faculty development in growth mindset and active use of the growth mindset cues in the CS0 and CS1 classroom result in superior academic outcomes. Comparative study results are presented for two semesters of virtual classroom environments: one semester without Growth Mindset, and one semester with Growth Mindset. Female students demonstrated the most growth, as measured by academic grades, in CS0, and maintained that growth in CS1. Males demonstrated growth as well, with both males and females converging at the same high point of accomplishment at the end of CS1. Race and ethnicity gaps between students were reduced, improving academic equity.