Excellent work, Shaundra! I'm curious about the policy development. What is the recommended process for changing policies? How can we make sure we aren't unintentionally creating policies that reinforce existing inequities, as so often happens with policies aimed at marginalized students?

The current policy under development is not aimed at marginalized students. We are working with ABET/CSAB, who is making policy level changes at the postsecondary level. There are also K-12 teacher advocacy toolkits and groups that are being developed for them to use in their districts/states.

Because we are still in Y1, these are our starting points. CSAB currently has a DEI committee that has worked for 2 years on updating harmonized/non-harmonized ABET criteria to be more inclusive of identity. I serve on that committee. This is also under public review until June. The committee has already made updates based on feedback received. We're leveraging the final version to also develop training of program evaluators and department heads on what this means and how to interpret them for their specific institutions.

These advocacy toolkits are going to be incredibly useful, Nicki. Congratulations on such an exciting project! 

Thanks Anita. Yes! That's exactly our focus - moving away from "fixing" marginalized students and focusing on the environment itself. 

Thanks, Emily. Great questions.

Our alliance has 4 constellations made up of partners tackling things in different ways, and strategies may differ between k-12 and higher ed. There are many different projects, but I'll share a few below.

Training, led by Dr. Valerie Barr, will be looking at higher education (faculty, staff, grad students) through the 3C fellows program out of Duke as well as TA training through Mount Holyoke's MaGE.

Policy, led by Dr. Nicki Washington, will be working with ABET (through CSAB) to incorporate DEI into higher ed policies in higher ed and at the k-12 with CSTA's initiatives. Policies might be at the classroom level up to the institution level and will be focused on ensuring students with marginalized identities have equitable access and opportunities.

Dr. Joanna Goode is leading Curricula and Pedagogy, which will include a number of efforts at k-12 levels as well as collaboration with higher ed to bridge efforts that incorporate identity into curricula.

Dr. Allison Scott (Kapor) oversees Research. This really informs the other constellations with respect to best practices in this space.

Finally, DO-IT will be ensuring that constellations are paying attention to disability and accessibility throughout. 

We're developing shared measures now, but intend to look beyond head counts to measures such as cultural competence and climate to understand impact.

Those were great questions Emily. The answers show a really thoughtful approach and a terrific set of collaborators.

Agreed, Jan -- what a superstar team to be working on this important issue! Can't wait to see what the outcomes are as the project ramps up.   

Thanks, Stacy! I think you would be very interested in things happening with CSTA. They will have monthly webinars on identity-inclusive topics, an annual summit for high school teacher professional development, and an advocacy toolkit to support k-12 policy change. If you have activities that are focused on people, policies and practices, I'm sure there's overlap. Happy to discuss more.

Thanks Kristina. Yes, we are working together.

Re: higher ed and faculty commitment, this is the reason we have CSAB as a partner. Given the forthcoming changes to ABET program/general criteria wrt DEI,  Donna Reese (CSAB and Sr. Personnel on this project) and I are both part of the CSAB DEI committee. We will be working to ensure evaluators/departments have resources and training to help shift this.

Also, as we all know, when ABET mandates it, departments (and faculty) move.

Jan, definitely a tough question, and we are working through what this will look like in collaboration with a number of partners including the Kapor Center. We expect there will be more short term outcomes related to numbers of people interacting with alliance activities, increased knowledge and self-efficacy, and potential implementation of new policies and practices. But we also believe there will be impacts related to climate in departments/classrooms, cultural competence of educators/administrators, as well as increased participation in courses, more people entering majors, and retention. It's VERY messy, with lots of confounds; however, we're working on various strategies to better understand how this approach ultimately leads to inclusive computing environments/institutions. 

Yes. It's messy. You might want to look at what some of the NSF BPC Alliance or INCLUDES projects are doing but in general, I think they are encountering the same kinds of issues. You might also look more closely at a small group of institutions as they participate in AIICE activities.

Thanks for your comment. Yes! We are familiar with your work and very excited to have Do-IT as partners in the alliance. 

Thanks for the pointer!

Thanks for your response. Our co-presenter, Dominique, is an UG student in CS with an amazingly creative eye. We're proud of the work she does. 

With respect to the shift, it's related to focusing on institutional transformation rather than more student-focused activities. We are not saying student-focused activities are wrong (all of us create and invent them actively), we're saying we have to do what you've referred to as non-traditional as well. 

These activities focus on people, policies and practices. 

The Cultural Competence in Computing (3C) Fellows program supports grad students, faculty, and admin in their understanding of identity as they develop new modules, courses, workshops, and policies. Check out our Twitter feed (@identityincs) for examples.

By barriers do you mean enrollment caps? Entry exams? GPA requirements? Our partner, the Center for Inclusive Computing, works directly on these challenges. We're only in our first year, and working to get infrastructure in place, so we not currently collaborating with STEM PUSH; however, we are familiar with their activities and hope to do so.