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Girls Take All In $50 Million Google Learn-to-Code Initiative

Posted by Soulskill on from the more-good-coders-more-good-software dept.

theodp writes: On Thursday, Google announced a $50 million initiative to inspire girls to code called Made with Code. As part of the initiative, Google said it will also be "rewarding teachers who support girls who take CS courses on Codecademy or Khan Academy." The rewards are similar to earlier coding and STEM programs run by Code.org and Google that offered lower funding or no funding at all to teachers if participation by female students was deemed unacceptable to the sponsoring organizations. The announcement is all the more intriguing in light of a Google job posting seeking a K-12 Computer Science Education Outreach Program Manager to "work closely with external leaders and company executives to influence activities that drive toward collaborative efforts to achieve major 'moonshots' in education on a global scale." Perhaps towards that end, Google recently hired the Executive Director of the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), who was coincidentally also a Code.org Advisory Board member. And Code.org — itself a Made With Code grantee — recently managed to lure away the ACM's Director of Public Policy to be its COO. So, are these kinds of private-public K-12 CS education initiatives (and associated NSF studies) a good idea? Some of the nation's leading CS educators sure seem to think so (video).

5 of 548 comments (clear)

  1. Sexism by Karmashock · · Score: 5, Informative

    End of story.

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  2. Re:Before you start complaining... by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you're in the world, since the beginning of time, a lot of you are not worth what you're paid.

    FTFY

  3. Re:Want to code? by jc42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, it's more like "why is ~50% of the country not pursuing IT?"

    Nah; it's more like 99%. The majority of young men are also not very interested in becoming computer geeks.

    The problem is that young women are being systematically discouraged from even trying to be part of the 1%. This is, of course, not restricted to just CS/IT topics.

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  4. Reminds me of this Rails bootcamp in Boston. by taxman_10m · · Score: 4, Informative

    Asian males and white males get screwed.
    http://www.thisismetis.com/rub...

    Total Cost: $12,500 for 12 weeks.
    We offer a $2,000 scholarship for women, underrepresented minority groups, and veterans or members of the U.S. military. We also provide a $2,000 refund when you accept a position through our placement program.

  5. Re:So women are less than men... again? by TangoMargarine · · Score: 3, Informative

    They aren't paying the female students, they're paying the school administrators, who may or may not be women.

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