Developing a High-Quality Academic Environment for Broadening Participation of Hispanic Students in Computing

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this Implementation and Evaluation (Track 2) project aims to broaden the participation of Hispanic students in computing by integrating cultural capital into a variety of educational activities. These include innovative curriculum development, adoption of high-impact pedagogies, supporting exemplary interactions, and fostering a diverse and inclusive culture.

The project will develop a responsive environment infused with culturally competent practices to facilitate student success in computing. It will also broaden participation in computing education by teaching essential competencies for career development. The project is designed to fundamentally change computing education and support institutional cultural change.

Significant factors and cultural capital structures that impact the broadening of the participation of Hispanic students in computing will be identified.

This project will implement four groups of asset-based initiatives. First is infusing computational thinking and professional skill development into the curriculum. Second is building an effective platform for supporting students' interactions with peers and faculty.

Third is developing active and personalized learning for teaching computing courses. Fourth, and finally, is collaborating with education experts to foster an inclusive educational culture. An adaptable plan for recruiting Hispanic high school graduates and community college students will be developed.

The project will enhance the quality of computing education to increase the enrollment, retention, and graduation rate of undergraduate Hispanic students in computing programs. Another anticipated outcome is gaining an understanding of cultural capital's impact on student academic achievement, retention, and well-being. The team will support implementing the initiatives for other programs at universities and community colleges in North Texas by sharing the experience, research results, and educational outcomes.

Findings will be broadly distributed through articles and presentations. Given the diverse nature and context of HSIs, achieving these goals requires attention to creative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation. Action research will be embedded in a mixed-methods design to identify effective strategies for instruction, communication, and retention.

The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs.

Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.