the stars alliance: a southeastern partnership for broadening participation in computing teresa...

The STARS Alliance: A Southeastern Partnership for

Broadening Participation in Computing

Teresa Dahlberg and Tiffany Barnes, UNC Charlotte Magdy Attia, Johnson C. Smith University

Mladen Vouk, Kristy Boyer, Laurie Williams, NC State University Kristin Watkins, Meredith College

Maureen Biggers, Georgia Institute of Technology Cheryl Seals, Juan Gilbert, Auburn University

Andrea Lawrence, Spelman CollegeMia Lustria, Lois Hawkes, Ebe Randeree, Florida State University

Jason Black, Florida A&M University Nate Thomas, Carlos Fossi, University of South Florida- Lakeland

Steve Fadden, Julie Strothman, Landmark College Anthony Chow, UNC Greensboro

Agenda

• STARS Alliance Overview: Year 1, Extension• STARS Leadership Corps Panel• Pair Programming Demonstration Project• AARCS Demonstration Project• Successes and Challenges• NSF Review Panel Confer Over Lunch• STARS Alliance Evaluation• Open Discussion

Printed Materials

• Site Visit Agenda – includes some of the specific questions to be answered

• Year 1 Annual Report – additional detail on activities

• STARS Celebration 2007 program booklet – details on program sessions

Foster a computing community among diverse academic institutions….extend the computing community into K-12, corporate and the community at large.

Students & Technology in Academia, Research and Service(STARS)

The STARS Alliance

A Southeastern Partnership for Broadening Participation in Computing

Goals

• Recruitment• Bridging• Retention• Sustainability• Dissemination• Advancement of BPC Faculty Role Models– Extension

Target

• 7th grade through doctoral programs• Women, under-represented minorities• Persons with disabilities• K-6– Extension• BPC Role Model Assistant Professors– Extension

Community Partners

Minority Institutions

ProfessionalOrganizations

K-12Partners

CommunityColleges

STUDENTS

Women’sInstitutions

IndustryPartners

Research Universities

The Initial Southeastern Constellation

Meredith College

NC State

Georgia Tech

USF Lakeland

Landmark College(Vermont)

UNC Charlotte

Spelman College

Auburn

Florida State

Florida A & M

Johnson C. Smith

> 50 Partners

Collaborate to strengthen regional programs for BPC

Consistent, cohesive evaluation across multiple programs, nationwide

STARS Members and PartnersPart I

Stars University & College MembersUniversity, College, K-12, Industry, and Community

Partners

WesternNorth

Carolina

UNC Charlotte (Research)College of Computing and Informatics (Software & Information Systems, CS, Bioinformatics); Johnson C. Smith University (private HBCU)Dept of CS & Engineering

UNC Charlotte Diversity in IT Institute, Winthrop University, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools; ACM-W, TIAA-CREF, Girl Scouts Hornets Nest Council, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Black Data Processor Association, NC Technology Association Women in Science and Engineering;, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County;

EasternNorth

Carolina

N.C. State University (Research)Department of Computer ScienceMeredith College (Women’s College)Dept of Mathematics & CS

Women and Math Mentoring; Wake County School System; SAS, IBM, ACM NCSU Chapter, SWE, WISE, Friday Institute, WICS, WMM, MCNC

Alabama/Georgia

Auburn University (Research)College of Computer Science & Software Engineering Spelman College (private Women’s HBCU)Computer Science

Alabama A&M University, South Carolina State University, Atlanta City Schools, Auburn University Engineering Administration, Auburn University Office of Outreach, Auburn City School System, University of Alabama

STARS Members and PartnersPart II


Partners

Georgia

Georgia Institute of Technology (Research)College of Computing; Institute of Computing Education

Morehouse College Department of Computer Science, Girl Scouts of Atlanta, North Atlanta High School, Georgia Board of Education, Atlanta Women’s Foundation;

Florida-Tallahassee

Florida State University (Research) College of Information; College of Arts & Sciences (Computer Science); Career Center; Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement Florida A & M University (HBCU)Computer Information Sciences

ACM FAMU Chapter, Tallahassee Big Bend Boys & Girls Clubs, FAMU High School, Apalachee Ridge Tech. Center, Fl./Ga.-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, FAMU Trio Programs, Leon & Wakulla County School Boards, Leon Cty. Charter School of Arts & Sciences, FSU College of Business MIS Program, FSU National High Magnetic Field Lab, High School High Tech, FSU Disability Res Cntr

Florida-Polk

County

University of South Florida-Lakeland (Undergrad)Information Technology; Diversity Center

Polk Community College- Lakeland & Winter Haven IT Department, Polk Community College Collegiate High School, USF Lakeland Engineering Department, Polk County School District, Kathleen Senior High School, Family Fundamentals, Word Alive Ministries, Central Florida Business Diversity Council.

STARS Members and PartnersPart III


Partners

Alliance-wide

Landmark College (remote member - two-year college in Vermont for students with learning disabilities)

Landmark’s participation in the STARS Leadership Corps provides a unique opportunity to understand how leadership training can prepare students with LD for entry into and success in four year computing programs.

Most member schools operate essentially separate STARS.

Alliance Structure

StarUNCC

StarNCSU

StarMeredith

StarUSFL

……

Alliance Steering Committee (ASC)

Web Port. Coord. UNCG

ET Leaders

Lead IndustryLiaisonLandmark

Community Liaison

Academic Liaisons members

Project Manager(chair) UNCC

Administrative Assistant

Content Area Experts – Landmark, USFL

Demonstration Project Coord.Auburn, NCSU, USFL, UNCC

Ad hoc Committees

Evaluation Team(ET)

LE

AD

UN

CC

Web Portal & Marketing Evaluator UNCG

STARSLeadership Corps Evaluators UNCC

Pair Programming Evaluator NCSU

Teaching Math to Visually Impaired Evaluator NCSU

Refer to page 8 of the STARS Year 1 Annual Report for details on roles and responsibilities.

Dialogue Leaders-UNCC

Questions

Q6: How does the Alliance communicate what it is doing and accomplishing? Please draw a picture of the communication pattern linking the participating institutions.

• The ASC and ET hold separate monthly teleconferences• In-person meetings are held whenever possible (see alliance exchange year

1 highlights)• Papers and presentations have been given at FIE 2007, GHC 2006/2007,

Tapia 2007,…. A number of regional presentations, press releases, and other news articles have taken place.

What we still need, but do not yet have resources allocated• Website to disseminate Alliance mission and activities

– www.starsalliance.org is for K-12 careers marketing

• Tools to facilitate alliance operation, management and evaluation• Newsletter

http://www.starsalliance.org/

Questions

Q5: Please explain the division of labor practiced by the Alliance. Which institutions take the lead or specialize or participate in the main Alliance activities?

• Year 1 Annual Report, page 8, details roles and responsibilities for alliance personnel division of labor

• All alliance members implement the STARS Leadership Corps• Alliance members optionally adopt demonstration project;

– Incentives added in Extension project to encourage faculty, especially those not already working on the STARS project to participate in DP (e.g., lecturers for PP)

What we still need…• Academic Liaison at UNC Charlotte

– Teresa and Tiffany managing alliance operations, development and evaluation. Faculty focus on SLC needed

• Organizing committee for management of STARS Celebration

Year 1 Activity Highlights

• The cornerstone activity was development and implementation of The STARS Leadership Corps, a program that catalyzes regional partnerships to combine K-12 recruitment with college retention and workforce development.

STARS Central Values:Effective Practices for BPC

Technical Excellence - Work experience, research experience, advanced training

•Competence leads to confidence leads to interest

Civic engagement & Service - Using computing in service to society

•Change the image; show social relevance, emphasize applications

Community – Mentoring, community-building •Develop an inclusive “computing identity”

Leadership – Professional development, team work •Develop soft skills; move IT professional from tech support to business leader

STARS Leadership Corps

• Hypothesis: students who engage in K-12 outreach, using computing for community good, engage in a research or internship experience, or mentor other students are more likely to be retained.

• Bonus: using students as human capital to do outreach will increase the impact of recruiting and marketing efforts

STARS Leadership Corps Model


• A repeatable one-year program • 75% Undergrad and 25% Grad

• Begins & Ends with the STARS Celebration• Alliance-wide workshop in August• Centered around STARS values• Inform of National Need• Call to action to “recruit, develop and become the next

generation of computing professionals”• Reach your full potential while pulling up others• Students respond by committing to Leadership Project

• Monthly seminar series• Peer mentoring

STARS Celebrations

The STARS Celebration emphasizes STARS core values of excellence, leadership, civic engagement, service, and community – values intended to foster student success.

•2007 at UNC Charlotte– 113 students– Over 40 faculty– Over 50 partners and community

•2006 at Georgia Tech– 105 students– 23 faculty/staff

•2008 at Auburn U.–Possible collaboration-

–HBCU alliance– EL Alliance •2009 at Florida State U.

STARS Celebrations

Student Sessions – STARS Central Values• Technical excellence• Service & Civic Engagement• Computing Community• Leadership development

Workshops• Pair Programming• Mentor Training• Assistive Technology• Culturally Situated Design Tools• Facilitator Training• Evaluator Training

Alliance Exchange • ASC and ET meetings• Various topics: SLC, institutionalization

STARS Celebrations

BPC Effective Practices• Faculty, staff, students, community – share effective practices for BPC, both related to STARS and otherwise• Faculty development and mentoring

Partnership Development• STARS new members• Public Forum

Evaluation• Taped one-on-one interviews• Online survey

SLC Induction• Poster Session• Home Team planning

STARS Leadership Projects

• Leadership Projects strengthen regional programs

• Outreach Ambassadors• Community Service• Research Experiences for

Undergraduates • Internship Experiences • Peer Mentors

For example: • BDPA Computer

Academy• Girl Scouts IT Patch• Websites to address

social problems• Hope Junction

Robotics for kids

STARS Tiered Mentoring and Role Models

High school student

Middle school student

Professional or Grad student

Undergrad student

Regional Partnerships -A computing

community from Kindergarten to the Workforce

2006-2007 SLC

107 students participated in 2006-2007 STARS Leadership Corps

K-12 Outreach18%

Peer Ambassadors

13%

Campus Organization

17%Community

Service7%

Research25%

Internships3%

Peer Mentors17%

North Carolina

State University

STARS Leadership

Corps

Meredith STARS Leadership Corps

Auburn


Spelman


University of South Florida Lakeland STARS Leadership Corps

Florida State University STARS Leadership Corps

Florida A & M University STARS Leadership Corps

Landmark STARS Leadership Corps

Georgia Tech STARS Leadership Corps

UNC Charlotte & Johnson C. Smith STARS Leadership Corps

Year 1 HighlightsDemonstration Project – Part I

The STARS Alliance serves as an incubator

for new demonstration

projects and the scaling and replicating of best practices

among the diverse alliance

institutions.

Alliance-wide dissemination of Pair Programming was implemented to increase student retention and

success in gate-keeper computing courses.Training – Aug 2006 (STARS Celebration); Jan 2006

(Florida); Aug 2007 (STARS Celebration)

A tiered mentoring model, based on the Thomas principles, was developed for implementation into

the STARS Leadership Corps program.Training – Aug 2006 (STARS Celebration); Jan 2006

(Florida); Aug 2007 (STARS Celebration)No funding from STARS Initiation Project; Added as a

demonstration project in STARS Extension Project;

Year 1 HighlightsDemonstration Project – Part II

The STARS Alliance serves as an incubator

for new demonstration

projects and the scaling and replicating of best practices

among the diverse alliance

institutions.

An exploratory project, Teaching Math to the Visually Impaired, was begun to enable middle school math teachers to prepare visually impaired students for

math-based college programs.Just getting started in Year 2; Initial lead (Art Karshmer)

moved to Univ. of San Francisco

A number of STARS students participated in the African American Researchers in Computer

Science program, a model for focused recruitment of students into computing doctoral programs

AARCS has funding from STARS Initiation grant and as a separate BPC DP. AARCS sessions given at

STARS Celebration 2006 and 2007.

Year 1 HighlightsTask Force Dialogues

Task Force Dialogues

bring together a smaller group of alliance

partners for multi-

institutional discussions

on important, hard,

problems

Institutional Change: incorporating successful interventions into the core academic mission I-BPC

– Polk County IT Corridor, Jan 2007

– NCTA WISE, Charlotte, May 2007

– Meetings stimulate interest and ideas. Challenge is moving beyond interesting meeting to action.

– Need administrator buy-in

No resources yet to address other TFD’s: Bridging: admissions criteria and building bridges between K-12 and

undergraduate computing programs and between non-computing undergrad programs to graduate computing programs;

First Generation Students: preparing our institutions for the Hispanic immigrant population whose children will reach college age in about five years;

Combining Research & Outreach: strategies for leveraging the Alliance infrastructure to engage computing researchers in broadening the impact of their research;

Year 1 Highlights

The STARS Alliance web portal was developed to disseminate information on the alliance and support a Marketing and Careers Campaign aimed towards K-12 students.

Information on careers and degree paths.

Information on careers and degree paths.

Testimonials and how to participate.

Testimonials and how to participate.

Testimonials of role models refresh each time you visit.Testimonials of role models

refresh each time you visit.

Announcements and events.Announcements

and events.

Establishing BPC as a national issue.Establishing BPC as a national issue.

Year 1 Highlights

Alliance Exchange - a variety of committees

and task forces for

the exchange of information and pooling of resources

Initial Planning Meeting, Jan. 2006, Charlotte Monthly ASC and ET Teleconferences ASC meeting, Aug. 2006, STARS Celebration,

Atlanta ASC meeting, Oct. 2006, Grace Hopper, San Diego ASC Training events, Jan 2007, Tampa – Pair

Programming, STARS Mentor Training Institutionalizing BPC Task Force Dialogue, Jan

2007, Tampa ET meeting, April 2007, Greensboro ASC meeting, May 2007, NCWIT meeting, Boulder

Questions

Address Q2: Please cite evidence of

(a) alignment with other programs nationally that share STARS goals – BPDA, CAHSI, EL Alliance, HBCU Alliance, NCWIT, GHC, Tapia

(b) effective dissemination within and beyond the Alliance– FIE, GHC, Tapia,…. Need website and tools

(c) successful interventions such as the Student Leadership Corps– Reference evaluation results

(d) curricular changes that have fostered improvements in student participation and performance in computing.

– Pair Programming discussion later

Year 1 HighlightsEvaluation Team

• STARS Initiation Proposal had commitment from five evaluators

• Two withdrew to focus on implementation activities

• New team formed, but didn’t gel as a group and lacked a leader. Two people replaced.

• New team formed again in Spring 2007 – works very well together.

Landmark College(Vermont)

Hampton Virginia Tech

NC State

Meredith College

Shaw University

St. Augustine’s College

NC A&TUT - Knoxville

UNC Charlotte

Johnson C. Smith

University of SC

Georgia Tech

Georgia Southern

SpelmanCollege

Auburn

Florida StateFlorida A&M

University of

New Orleans

USF Lakeland

Polk Community College

TwentyMembers

> 80 Partners

STARS Extended Constellation

STARS Extension ProjectPart I

Activity or Component

STARS Initiation Project STARS Extension Project

Members & Partners

The Alliance includes 11 members and over 50 regional partner organizations

The Alliance will grow to include 20 members and over 80 regional partners, along with national affiliations. Mentor institutions designated to assist new institutions.

STARS Leadership Corps (SLC)

SLC participation by 250 college students, over 3 years- half participating for 2 years and half for 1 year.

SLC participation by >600 students, over 5 years- half participating for 2 years and half for 1 year; including about 125 grad students; 375 undergrads; And, about 100 from community colleges and high schools;

SLC Leadership Projects

Leadership projects include 7th–12th grade and peer outreach, community service, research exp, and internships, in Fall/Spring

Leadership projects will also include K-6th grade outreach, as well as a summer component to serve in summer camps for K-12 students, teachers, and guidance counselors.

STARS LeadersSTARS Leaders are

college students who serve in the SLC

SLC “wrapper” model to be applied to existing summer camps to develop K-12 students, teachers & counselors as STARS Leaders at their home schools.

STARS Extension ProjectPart II



REU

REU supplements support in-depth research exp. for SLC undergraduates

The Alliance will form a cohort of undergraduate SLC students undertaking research experiences within a student exchange program.

BPC Faculty Role Models

STARS women and minority junior faculty are passionate about BPC, with no support for their computing research.

Foster a community to support career advancement of BPC faculty role models, whose success is crucial for retention of under-represented students. E.g., writing circles, coaching, peer mentoring, RA support, faculty exchanges;

Broadening Participation in Research

(BPR)

For most faculty conducting BPC programs, their computing research & BPC communities are separate

Host “BPR sessions or workshops” at professional computing research conferences to inform and engage the broader computing research community in BPC efforts.

STARS Celebration

The 4-day workshop trains students to join the SLC and hosts an ASC meeting

Evolve to a conference format for: preparing SLC cohorts; training for BPC demonstration projects; supporting BPC role models; disseminating effective BPC evaluation and institutionalization;

STARS Extension ProjectPart III



Web & MarketingPortal supports K-12

Careers Marketing

Extend to disseminate Alliance activities, repository for BPC in-classroom and extracurricular activities.

Mentoring

Dr. Nate Thomas conducts training on a STARS mentoring model.

Formalize Thomas’ efforts as a demonstration project to implement and disseminate STARS mentoring model. Include stipends to encourage participation.

Pair Programming

Dr. Laurie Williams conducts training for pair programming adoption.

Additional training sessions, support, and participation stipends for faculty who implement and evaluate pair programming (PP). Form cohort of PP implementers.

Alliance Exchange

Alliance collaboration is supported by regional partnerships, committees and task forces.

Add STARS advisory boards to guide regional partnerships; Develop sponsorship model for national and regional fund raising; Visit computing departments to leverage internal resources (e.g., career centers, student support services).

STARS Extension ProjectPart IV



Sustainability

Alliance structure and activities intended to evolve to be sustainable through flexibility, but common themes for sustainability are still being discovered.

Scale by adding new regional stars and serve as a model for other STARS-like constellations; Create an ACM SIGBPC; Engage students and faculty with non-monetary benefits and rewards; Establish BPC efforts as part of day-to-day operations (e.g. through adding for-credit BPC courses, adding BPC as an integral part of courses, TA/RA duties, REUs, honors and internship programs, and service-learning requirements);

Evaluation Team

Alliance evaluation modeled on the CIPP model to ensure collection of all relevant data. Measures impact of Alliance on enrollments and SLC student retention and compares to national performance.

Extend to include SLC Evaluation Projects and REUs and recruit social scientists to mentor these projects to explore STARS impact on computing culture at each institution; Develop or purchase comprehensive tools for collaboration, communication, data collection, and dissemination that will serve as a reliable, efficient data source for reporting and examining the effects of the STARS Alliance. Extend to measure impacts of BPC on careers of STARS faculty.

Questions

Address Q9: Under the heading of “organizational change” (as opposed to individual-level impact), discuss how the Alliance has affected

(a) Collaboration (teamwork, shared faculty, cross-institutional internship opportunities)

– Faculty research collaboration: gaming, assistive technology– Faculty mentoring: assistant professors, associate professors– Mentoring collaboration among faculty– Pair programming collaboration led to CS1/CS2 discussions– UNC Charlotte faculty hires STARS network– Students applying to grad school, REU sites among alliance

(b) Institutionalization (evidence of and prospects for leveraging, continuing, sustaining)

– STARS Leadership Corps: credit-bearing seminar, service-learning course, student organization,…experimentation ongoing

– Pair programming as model for CS labs– Mentoring programs

STARS Leadership Corps Panel

Address Q8: How difficult is it to demarcate Alliance activities from other ongoing interventions on the campuses of participating institutions? What have been especially challenging measurement issues?

Address Q10: To what extent has the Alliance been supported at each of the member institutions? Does this bode well for future sustainability?

Successes and Challenges

Address Q12: How much larger can the Alliance grow. What are the constraints on its growth?

– The extension project will help us to see how we package and communicate the SLC to bring new members up to speed.

– The STARS Celebration needs to evolve to a conference format with an organizing committee. We still need to experiment with the content. Focus must remain on developing cohorts of SLC students.

• Collaboration with HBCU and EL alliances could benefit all

– UNC Charlotte infrastructure stressed by complexity of processes for making reimbursements.

– Continued growth by adding new members within Southeast is preferable. Spawn different constellations. Less frequent national conferences, with annual regional conferences.

– Continued growth requires infrastructure: communications, development, event planning, budget management


Address Q13: If we were to create another STARS Alliance for some other region of the country, how much of what you’ve done is transferable? How much would have to be recreated? How much “assistance” would you think would be needed from your team? Would there be any advantages/disadvantages to your Alliance in having others exist?

– All of what we have created should be transferable. The diversity of institutions within the alliance provide a variety of member examples

– It takes time to convey the breadth of the STARS mission and activities. Our team would serve as mentors, consultants.

– New member startup with Extension Project will illustrate challenges.– Advantages: Raising the visibility of the STARS Leadership Corps to

potential employers of computing students would help institutionalize the Corps by making Corps participation, without stipends, a resume-builder. Would also encourage computing departments to embrace the Corps and reward faculty who sponsor a Corps.

– Advantages: Additional evaluation data a plus.


Address Q14: How many more years will it take to demonstrate the full potential of the Alliance?

Address Q15: Are there unmet resource needs for the Alliance?


Address Q11: Has participation in the Alliance activities raised any issues for the faculty involved?

Address Q15: Are there unmet resource needs for the Alliance?

EvaluationSuccesses and Challenges

Address Q1: The STARS Alliance features a broad scope (middle school to graduate school) across three categories of population (gender, ethnic, disability), with a variety of outreach, research, mentoring, and career counseling components. Characterize, quantitatively if possible, what has been attempted within this scope of activity and what has been achieved to date. To what extent have each of the target groups been reached? Each of the pipeline stages?

EvaluationSuccesses and Challenges

Address Q3: What new measures of impact/outcome have been developed to capture what the Alliance is seeking to achieve, i.e., beyond traditional pre-post test measures appropriately disaggregated (by gender, ethnicity, disability, and cohort) such as GPA, year-to-year retention, and degree attainment? For example, how have the observations in students' electronic journals been used by the Alliance institutions and Advisory Boards?

Address Q4: Describe the benefits of the summer workshop to different categories of participant.

Address Q7: What data is the Alliance using for comparison purposes? Are they national sources, local institutional information on students, some combination, or other? Explain.

the stars alliance: a southeastern partnership for broadening participation in computing teresa...

Documents

computing slide

winthrop university

computing community

stars members

unc greensboro slide

service stars

nationwide slide

university nate thomas