Sisters Rise Up 4 CS

Abstract

Female students are underrepresented in computing careers and in computing majors at the college or university level. This underrepresentation starts in high school. Only 20% of Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science (CS) A exam takers in 2014 nationally were female. In addition to being underrepresented, female students tend to have a lower pass rate on the exam than male students. Failing the exam could reduce interest in computing as a career. Sisters Rise Up 4 CS was created at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) to help more female high school students pass the AP CS A exam. It offers help sessions, near-peer role models, exposure to a college campus, and a community of learners. Sisters Rise Up 4 CS is based on Project Rise Up 4 CS, which was also created at Georgia Tech to help increase the number of African-American students that pass the AP CS A exam. However, Sisters Rise Up 4 CS does not include the financial incentives offered by Project Rise Up 4 CS. Project Rise Up 4 CS has resulted in statistically significant positive changes in attitudes for participants and a large increase in the participants' perception of their ability to pass the exam. Even students who did not pass the exam have reported positive benefits from being in Project Rise Up 4 CS. This paper summarizes the findings from Project Rise Up 4 CS from 2013-2015 and presents the findings from the pilot of Sisters Rise Up 4 CS from 2014-2015. We used a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the project and to judge the effectiveness of the project elements.

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