Students growing up in the rain shadow of Microsoft (and Amazon, Expedia, etc.) are in daily contact with the wealth and knowledge that technology brings.  When my oldest son was 9, he went to visit his father at Starwave and me at Microsoft.  Surrounded by some of the most innovative minds and products in the world, he noticed how nice the cars were in the parking lot and decided he’d like to work in technology when he grew up.

Students in the schools near Microsoft may or may not get good technology integration and specific computer science/advanced technology courses in their school rooms.  However, their informal access to technology and learning opportunities cannot be beat anywhere except for the other high tech centers worldwide.  Students at Interlake High School are a good example. A few of them got frustrated that they didn’t get more hands on access to play with tech tools and solve tech problems. Highly confident and aspirational, what did they do?  They started their own tech club, and call on their parents and other resources as needed.

http://studentrnd.org/

In contrast are the students of my family home town of Butte, Montana. Butte has been struggling to hang on with its high altitude, harsh climate, and depleted mines since its early peak in the 1900’s.  Once my father earned his law degree, my parents realized that we couldn’t thrive in Butte, as the 3^rd generation there, without jobs for “educated folk.”  They had aspirations for their children.  When my 9 year old son went to Butte, the first thing he noticed was how old and poor the cars were.

When I go back to visit, one of my projects has been to help Frank Ackerman and his colleagues from CS Department at Montana Tech teach classes to middle school children on Career Day. They used ALICE and the students were completely engaged – so much so that they refused to quit after 40 minutes to go to the next session.  But when Frank got a grant to provide middle school teachers in Montana with training on tech courses, no one signed up.  When Chuck Uggetti, retired superintendent of the public school district, added more rigorous curriculum and Advanced Placement courses, parents and students complained that the curriculum was too hard and they couldn’t get good grades.

The disparities in the educational experiences in my two home towns points to something bigger and probably more profound than a digital divide.  I call it the aspirational divide after some of the recent anthropological/sociological studies that use attitudes, not income, race or so-called “class,” to divide groups.  The studies measure students’ and their parents’ aspirations for their future: the kinds of education and careers they are hoping to acquire. The differences can be as wide as the Continental Divide or as high as the Olympic Mountains.

The question is: how do we bridge them? I think the answer can, in part, be found in the tech club I described earlier. Those sorts of initiatives aren’t exclusive to the world’s high-tech centers. In fact, Microsoft Partners in Learning currently is funding Student Tech Clubs in Africa that are easy to replicate. But can we replicate the students’ aspiration and confidence in their own abilities?

In urban settings where technology is an important industry, for example, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle, there are many organizations that do outreach around STEM and tech to underprivileged and minority students, both in formal and informal settings. There are many successful examples of these, such as Technology Access Foundation, created by a past Microsoft employee, M.E.S.A, which has many branches and programs in California, MIT outreach programs, and others.  These work – they each have studies that show success for their program.  And all the programs report that any effort works – it’s about providing a resource students can turn to but, just as importantly, it’s about believing in students and their potential.  Once students realize they have potential, they develop aspirations.  I’m not saying that there are enough of these programs to reach every child – we need to do better, but we have plenty of models that work.

Fear and anxiety are less present in the CS and Engineering departments of most universities than in the past few years.  Why?  Their enrollment is not shrinking anymore, and even growing slightly at the top universities.  It remains to be seen if retention of those students already enrolled will be good.  It’s good news overall  – the large research institutes will continue to get research funding, and will have the students available to do the work. The small schools won’t lose their faculty because their departments are under-enrolled.  So why is there still an issue about the pipeline?

Enrollment has increased 6.2% in some places.  What hasn’t increased is the amount of women and underprivileged minorities getting the necessary qualifications, finding the field appealing, enrolling and sticking through to graduation.  Why does it matter?

Until we create an educational and cultural environment that places value on computer science and engineering as worthwhile, engaging and accessible careers to all, we are dooming our own future by the lack of innovation that a diverse group of well educated, creative professionals could bring to solving our current and future problems.

There’s some great actions being taken to examine the issues.  This summer, my company had the privilege of producing the minutes and final report of the Future of Computing Education Summit, organized and hosted by some very effective and dynamic educators and industry people.   The Summit was funded by a grant by NSF, with principal investigators Mark Guzdial, Jane Prey, Heikki Topi, and Joe Urban.  These Fab Four are well known and respected for their ability to get things done, and attracted a broad coalition of organizations involved in k-20 STEM efforts.

The report stressed that perception of computer science is a key issue in the low numbers of women and minority students choosing it as a career.  The ACM education board will be meeting next weekend, and I’m waiting to see what they decide to do.  Changing perception means changing culture – that takes a big commitment.

If you know anything that works to change perception, let me know.