Press Enter to search or select a section to narrow results

Black Computer Scientists in Academe: An Endangered Species?

Black Computer Scientists in Academe: An Endangered Species?

Adam Fate · Saturday, September 25th 2010 at 9:23AM · 1194 views
Chronicle of Higher Education (09/19/10) M. Brian Blake ; Juan E. Gilbert

African-Americans account for just 1.3 percent of computer science faculty at U.S. colleges and universities, according to the Computing Research Association's Taulbee Survey Report. In addition, only 1.6 percent of computer science doctorate degrees went to blacks in 2008-2009, while federal data estimates that 3.7 percent of nearly 700 doctorate recipients in computer and information sciences in 2008 were black U.S. citizens or permanent residents. One argument for this shortfall is that black students are not being inspired to study computer science because there are few black computer scientists to engage them, note University of Notre Dame professor M. Brian Blake and Clemson University professor Juan E. Gilbert. Among their recommendations for boosting the number of black computer scientists is giving students greater access to information about computing careers and more exposure to role models. They say interventions to grow the black computer scientist population must span the entire educational spectrum, from elementary school to graduate school. For example, Blake leads a project that has created several computing technique introduction modules for 12- to 16-year-olds. Blake and Gilbert also recommend including undergraduates in efforts to raise the number of computer scientists, and to act as mentors and providers of balanced advice.

View Full Article: http://chronicle.com/article/Black-Compute...

About the Author

Adam Fate Elk Grove, CA

Share This Article

Comments (1)

Adam Fate Saturday, September 25th 2010 at 9:54AM

Well the full article requires paid subscription. Sorry about that.

Post a Comment

Please log in to post comments.