Originally published by Hadi Partovi on LinkedIn: Record diversity among Code.org students
We’ve reached millions of students on our Code Studio learning platform, but who are these students? To help answer that question, we run an annual survey of our participating teachers. This year, US teachers told us 48% of their students are underrepresented minorities, and 47% are on free and reduced lunch programs. And 45% of our active students are female.
We all know there is a diversity problem in computer science — whether in the workforce, or in schools. At Code.org we believe we can help address this problem in grades K-12.
The numbers above represent students studying our CS Fundamentals course, which is part of a full K-12 pathway of courses. As we look across all of Code.org’s programs, the diversity numbers look like this:
As these students grow older, we’re hoping some of them will be inspired to pursue a future in technology. A study by the College Board shows that black and Hispanic students who try AP Computer Science in high school are 7-8 times as likely to major in it in college. And women who try AP Computer Science in high school are 10 times more likely to major in it! However, only 13% of U.S. students taking AP Computer Science are black or Hispanic, and only 22% are female. This lack of diversity continues into college and the workforce.
We believe we can help reverse this trend. Code.org’s Computer Science Principles course will be an AP offering next year. As a pilot this year, the students in our course are 57% black or Hispanic, and 30% are female.
How have we achieved our diversity results? Through a mix of strategies - by incorporating computer science in K-12 curriculum starting at a young age, by focusing on schools in urban and underprivileged districts, and by a focus on diversity across all our programs - from our curriculum and videos to our professional learning workshops for teachers to our state policy efforts.
More than anything else, we owe these results to teachers - tens of thousands of amazing teachers, with no prior background in computer science, who have taken it upon themselves to help ALL their students to learn foundational computing skills in today’s high-tech world.
We still have a long way to go, but this progress is encouraging. Boys and girls, from all socioeconomic backgrounds, in urban schools, rural schools, and everywhere in between, deserve access to skills that will open doors to the highest paying and fastest growing jobs in every industry. As technology continues to shape almost every part of our lives, the opportunity to shape our future shouldn’t be available to just a privileged few.