Black students are less likely than White students to have computer science courses in middle or high school — 47 versus 58 percent — and female students are less likely than male students to be told that they would be good at computer science, a new study released Tuesday shows.
The study also found that Hispanic students are the least likely to use a computer at home most days of the week — 50 percent versus 58 percent and 68 percent for Blacks and Whites, respectively.
The findings — the latest installment of a multiyear Gallup study commissioned by Google — help explain why certain groups are underrepresented in the field of computer science, also known as “CS.”
“These complex and interrelated structural and social barriers have far-reaching implications for underrepresented groups in CS,” states the report, titled “Diversity Gaps in Computer Science: Exploring the Underrepresentation of Girls, Blacks and Hispanics.”
“Not only do females, Blacks and Hispanics lack some of the access and exposure to CS that their counterparts have, but the persistence of long-standing social barriers that foster narrow views of who does CS can also halt interest and advancement.”
Valerie Taylor, senior associate dean for academic affairs and Royce E. Wisenbaker Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, said the report struck a chord with her as a Black woman in the field of computer science.
Taylor said she never would have gotten into the field of computer science were it not for the fact that she attended an all-girls parochial school where, once a week, she and her fellow students were able to run programs on a mainframe computer owned by a local hospital for billing purposes.
