Jesus Delgado
Pronouns: him/his
Research Mentor(s): Barbara Ericson, Assistant Professor
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Computing, School of Information
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 3 (1pm-1:50pm)
Breakout Room: Room 16
Presenter: 3
Abstract
The Advanced Placement Computer Science A (AP CSA) course is a college-level class that high school students can take, and by passing the AP exam, students can receive college credit and/or placement. Rise Up is a project that helps underrepresented students in Michigan pass the AP exam. It studies the effect on both student and mentor attitudes, knowledge, and interest in computing careers. Rise Up prepares mentors to be role models, to understand in depth the AP Computer Science A material through the use of interactive ebooks, and to guide the students to have a clear understanding of AP Computer Science A and Java in general. In the first cohort of Rise Up in Georgia (2013), 9 out of 13, 69%, students passed the exam compared to 22 out of 137 Black students passed in 2012, 22%, in Georgia . This shows that students in Rise Up did better than all students in Georgia, but that could also be due to self-selection. However, students do show statistically significant gains from pretest to post-test and several students have credited Rise Up with helping them pass the exam. Rise Up also conducted an alumni survey which indicated that 63% of the alumni in college reported majoring in computer science, 62% of high school students reported intending to major in Computer Science, 24% percent of the alumni indicated that “they changed their career plans to computing”. This data shows that mentoring can increase student interest in a career in computing.
Authors: Jesus Delgado, Barbara Ericson, Enoch Ameyaw
Research Method: Computer Programming
https://csawesome.runestone.academy/runestone/books/published/csawesome/index.html
https://runestone.academy/runestone/books/published/py4e-int/index.html
