Code.org: More Money For CS Instructors Who Teach More Girls

theodp writes "The same cast of billionaire characters — Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Eric Schmidt — is backing FWD.us, which is lobbying Congress for more visas to 'meet our workforce needs,' as well as Code.org, which aims to popularize Computer Science education in the U.S. to address a projected CS job shortfall. In laying out the two-pronged strategy for the Senate, Microsoft General Counsel and Code.org Board member Brad Smith argued that providing more kids with a STEM education — particularly CS — was 'an issue of critical importance to our country.' But with its K-8 learn-to-code program which calls for teachers to receive 25% less money if fewer than 40% of their CS students are girls, Smith's Code.org is sending the message that training too many boys isn't an acceptable solution to the nation's CS crisis. 'When 10 or more students complete the course,' explains Code.org, "you will receive a $750 DonorsChoose.org gift code. If 40% or more of your participating students are female, you'll receive an additional $250, for a total gift of $1,000 in DonorsChoose.org funding!" The $1+ million Code.org-DonorsChoose CS education partnership appears to draw inspiration from a $5 million Google-DoonorsChoose STEM education partnership which includes nebulous conditions that disqualify schools from AP STEM funding if projected participation by female students in AP STEM programs is deemed insufficient. So, are Zuckerberg, Gates, Ballmer, and Schmidt walking-the-gender-diversity-talk at their own companies? Not according to the NY Times, which just reported that women still account for only about 25% of all employees at Code.org supporters Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. By the way, while not mentioning these specific programs, CNET reports that Slashdot owner Dice supports the STEM efforts of Code.org and Donors Choose."

Comments

Re:Vocabulary exists for a reason

[CronoCloud]

Now you're sounding like one of those near-aspies who "just has to be technically right" all the time and has to have everything be "logical"

Look when you say "the females" it makes you sound like some aspie ferengi who doesn't leave the basement. You might as well say something like:

"I do not under-stand why the hew-mon females don't become programmers"

female isn't a creepy word, but when you use it where normal non-geek non-near-aspie people would use "women", that's when it makes you sound weird.

Re:How can those incentives help?

[Velex]

I know, right? Of course, for some reason, making paternity leave available to men and changing our attitudes that the Mother must necessarily attend all needs of the newbord, for some reason, is utterly unacceptable to feminism.

There are numerous reasons for that, most that it undermines womyn-born-womyn privilege. Striving for equality necessarily means that we must re-examine our attitudes that womyn-born-womyn are "sugar, spice, and everything nice," and that any individual with a womb is equipped with all the necessary skills she'll need to raise a child by virtue of being a womyn-born-womyn.

No, the parent comment is a short-sighted troll. There are other, bigger questions that feminism needs to start answering about why womyn-born-womyn take absolutely no interest in computer careers but yet why we need to push them into computer careers. Imo, feminism can start by answering the question of how long womyn-born-womyn can have the privilege of being unaware of their womyn-born-womyn privileges that prevent them from needing to seek jobs such as IT, construction, plumbing, etc.

From there, feminism can answer why womyn-born-womyn have the privilege of not being accountable for their individual choices. If womyn-born-womyn choose not to get into computer careers, why do we suspect trans women and men have some kind of collective responsibility for that choice? No, only the individual womyn-born-womyn can be indivudally responsible for her choice to pursue, for example, motherhood or accounting over computer careers.