High school teacher Seth Reichelson increased female enrollment in his Advanced Placement Computer Science courses from 12% to 33% female by actively recruiting girls. This case study from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) shares some key tips for targeted recruitment.
Read the full case study on the NCWIT website.
|
Source: |
Barker, L. (2010). What are the Important Components of Targeted Recruiting? Change the Gender Composition of High School Computing Courses (Case Study 2). Retrieved from The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) website: www.ncwit.org/highschoolrecruit |
This paper from the ASEE 2010 Conference shares CalWomenTech Project results, strategies, resources, and survey responses from female students in STEM programs where they are underrepresented. Two community college technology programs that implemented recruitment strategies within recommended timelines increased enrollment of female students from 18% to 30% and 35% to 50% respectively. Retention strategies implemented by CalWomenTech colleges also led to significant increases in completion rates of not only women, but also men, in several technology programs. One college that went from a female completion rate of 81% to 100% in 15 months also saw an increase of over 20% in male completion.
|
Source: |
Copyright© American Society for Engineering Education. By viewing this paper, you agree to all the copyright laws protecting it. Milgram, D., & Severs, D. (2010). CalWomenTech Project: Recruiting and Retaining Women in Technology Programs. The U.S. Conference Proceedings of the 2010 Annual ASEE Conference & Exposition. Louisville, KY: American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) |
The CalWomenTech Project: Using Surveys to Inform Retention Strategies of Female Technology Students
What retention and support strategies do women students in STEM courses find most helpful? In the third year of the CalWomenTech Project, IWITTS collected 60 survey responses from female students in technology courses in which they were underrepresented at seven California community colleges to find out. This paper from the WEPAN 2010 Conference publishes results from that survey and discusses how the colleges used those results to choose which retention strategies to implement.
|
Source: |
Milgram, D. (2010). The CalWomenTech Project: Using Surveys to Inform Retention Strategies of Female Technology Students. Conference Proceedings of 2010 NAMEPA/WEPAN 4th Joint Conference Setting Sail for the Future: Leveraging Diversity for a Stronger Crew. Austin, TX: Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). Retrieved from http://dpubs.libraries.psu.edu/DPubS?service=Repository&version=1.0&verb=Disseminate&handle=psu.wepan/1302008445&view=body&content-type=pdf_1# |
This study examined the efficacy of a female engineering outreach program called, Women Engineers at the Beach. After participating in the program, 61.5% of female high school students performing at grade level in math and 90.1% of female students performing above grade level in math said they were interested in choosing engineering as a career.
|
Source: |
Gossage, L. (2009). A Four-Year Study of a Female Engineering Outreach Program: The Influence of Math Ability on Female Students’ Career Decisions for Engineering. Conference Proceedings of WEPAN 2009 Center Stage: Effective Strategies for Recruitment and Talent Development (pp. 1-12). Austin, TX: Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). Retrieved from http://dpubs.libraries.psu.edu/DPubS?service=Repository&version=1.0&verb=Disseminate&view=body&content-type=pdf_1&handle=psu.wepan/1301340773# |
This paper written in the third year of a five year project for presentation at the 2009 WEPAN Conference includes promising early CalWomenTech Project results, sample strategies, and project resources for educators. CalWomenTech Project community colleges that implemented project recruitment strategies within the recommended timeline had an increase in enrollment of women in their targeted technology programs of 10 to 15 percentage points in just over a year. Colleges that implemented the retention strategies saw increases in both female and male retention, and one college saw their retention of women go from 81% to 100% in a little over a year.
|
Source: |
Milgram, D. (2009). CalWomenTech Project: Increasing Recruitment & Retention of Female College Students in Technology Courses. Conference Proceedings of WEPAN 2009 Center Stage: Effective Strategies for Recruitment and Talent Development. Austin, TX: Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). |
