A $10,000 grant from the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas will help the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts promote increased access for female students to pursue opportunities in high school computer science.
With the grant from the WFA, ASMSA will host an Equity in Computer Science Summit for school districts across the state in 2022. The new program will intentionally focus on strategies and provide tools to teams of educators to increase female student enrollment within computer science, helping provide them a path from college to career.
Founded in 1998, the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas’ mission has focused on ensuring economic security for Arkansas women and girls through focused philanthropic investment in their education and economic well-being. Through its grant making, research, Girls of Promise and Women Empowered initiatives, it has invested in real solutions that allow women and girls to move up the economic ladder and reach their fullest potential.
“The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas is invested in intentionally and strategically increasing the number of girls in STEM courses, which puts them on the path to high-demand careers and helps them attain economic security as women,” said Anna Beth Gorman, the executive director of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas. “ASMSA is taking an innovative approach to this work through its Equity in Computer Science Summit, and we are proud to support this initiative that encourages and empowers girls across our state to participate in STEM opportunities.”
ASMSA’s Coding Arkansas’ Future initiative has provided opportunities for school districts across the state to meet Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s challenge for increased access to computer science coursework since its creation in 2015. The initiative has provided educators professional development sessions that prepare them to teach computer science in their own districts as well as seek state licensure while also conducting interactive sessions with educators and students throughout the school year. Since the creation of the governor’s initiative, nearly half of all licensed computer science teachers in the state have received some form of professional development from ASMSA.
“I’m proud of the work that ASMSA’s community of learning has done to date to meet Governor Hutchinson’s vision for expanding access to quality computer science education,” ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice said. “Through this support and our partnership with the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, I believe we have the potential to close existing equity gaps while setting the stage for a more diverse workforce in the innovation economy.”
According to enrollment data from the Arkansas Department of Education earlier this fall, only 30 percent of high school students taking a computer science course are female. Alderdice noted while these numbers are consistent with national trends, achieving greater equity is an important step in continuing to assert Arkansas’ leadership in the national conversation on computer science education.
The initial goal for the new program is to begin training 15 school districts from various regions across the state. The training will be for school administrators, counselors and computer science teachers. The program will assist them with strategies and tools for these schools to use to increase interest and enrollment in their computer science courses with a focus on the recruitment and retention of female students in middle school, junior high and high school computer science classes.
The summit will be an opportunity to address the need to educate, nurture and encourage young women in computer science. The program will help expose young women to many research areas from robotics to engineering and security issues to game development. By providing multiple exposures, the young women are more likely to find an area of interest within the field. Classroom activities must incorporate art, sports and other subjects. Educators will learn ways to engage female students to further connect them to this discipline through specific groups, clubs and events such as Girls Who Code and hackathons.
ASMSA Director of Institutional Advancement Dr. Sara Brown noted that partnerships such as the one between the school and the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas make an impact.
“The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas understands the importance of building stronger families and communities through investing in women and girls,” Brown said. “We are extremely grateful to work on this initiative to help girls across our state ignite their full potential. Together, we will create opportunities for future generations of girls to become agents of change through computer science programs.”