Domain: exploringcs.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to exploringcs.org.
Comments · 2
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some stats
This Reuters article has more detailed info. Among U.S.-based tech employees the stats are 3% Hispanic and 1% black, vs. 4% and 2% respectively among Facebook's global workforce. 17% of its global tech employees are women.
As one data point of comparison, here is some demographic data for AP Computer Science test takers in California for the year 2012. Looking at students who take the AP exam may be a good proxy for identifying students who will one day be applying for top-tier positions. Among this group, 7% were Hispanic, 1% were black and 21% were women. If those stats are representative of the pool of top-tier talent in the workforce, then Facebook isn't far off in terms of its hiring of blacks and women. It seems further off with respect to Hispanics. Though, California has a higher-than-usual Hispanic population, so maybe nationally the % of Hispanic AP Exam takers is less than 7.
This article in USA Today also has some stats. They looked at the demographics of CS and CE graduates from "top" U.S. universities. Not sure what "top" means. They claim that 4.5% of such graduates are black, 6.5% are Hispanic. They didn't report on what % were women. -
How does advanced CS have any tie to culture?
From near the end of the ECS Team Member link:
The learning environment of the more advanced computer science classrooms has supported the culture of these students and often made others to feel as "outsiders," as if their concerns, perspectives, were not valued in the field.
So what exactly does that mean? I don't remember any CS classes having a "culture" of any kind. Unless they are saying that "dry and sometimes boring" is "white culture"?
The whole reason you TAKE a CS class is because you are a relative "outsider" to the concepts being presented and want in.
They talk about the solution being "vision of success" for all cultures. But in the end the only possible "success" from a CS class is a better understanding of how to build software. Not only is that not tied in to a culture, ideally it's not even tied to a language! It's totally abstract, yet they seem to want to make it more concrete somehow...
I don't understand how the deride access as "not being enough" when access is EVERYTHING. Grafting hip-hip or graffiti into a college CS class is way, way too late. You want to help people from "other cultures" - well then figure out how to get them something they can and will program on when they are five years old up until college age. Then if it takes they will happily end up at the "dull" CS classes years later to learn mastery of the thing that they love.