Preparing African American Students for Computing Careers

September 10, 2012

The U.S. produces record numbers of PhDs in computing, but the number of African Americans receiving advanced degrees in computing lags behind those of other ethnic and racial groups. Education Professor Jerlando Jackson is introducing undergraduates to research and evaluation of STEM-related projects and encouraging them to pursue graduate study in evaluation-related fields. He works with funding from a National Science Foundation program called The Alliance for the Advancement of African American Researchers in Computing. Among other things the undergraduates assist with quantitative data entry, transcribing interviews, developing survey and focus group protocols, and preparing presentations at professional conferences. More information is available here.