A group of educators is embarking on an ambitious project to get them on track and keep them there. A new project is attempting to achieve Fisher's vision by training educators to change the way they teach in order to encourage more high school girls to enroll in AP computer science classes. Women receive less than 28 percent of computer science bachelor's degrees, down from a high of 37 percent in 1984. With fewer women programmers and designers entering the field, fewer women workers will help fill the increasing IT job shortage, advocates fear.
Researchers expect to release preliminary findings by as soon as the end of the month.
Although most teachers need to pay attention to gender issues in the classroom, by and large, most don't. So far, the results are promising. More girls are enrolling in advanced placement computer science courses across participating schools, with educators changing their teaching methods to actively recruit girls, project researchers said. As we're seeing more data, we have more confidence that this is really having an effect. Some teachers doubled or even tripled the number of girls enrolling in their AP computing courses, Sanders said.