Improving and Assessing the Impact of Programs to Encourage High School Girls to Pursue Science, Engineering, and Mathematics is a two and one-half day workshop for 30 to 40 participants who are currently involved in the design and/or implementation of a program to encourage the interest and success of high school age women and minorities in pursuing higher education and careers in science, engineering, and/or mathematics. The proposed workshop has two major goals:
o to provide an opportunity for the participants to share strategies and experience (failures and successes) in order to improve the design of their programs; o to develop an assessment plan that can reasonably be applied nationwide, collecting long term follow-up data on students who apply to such programs (including non-participating applicants) that will allow combination of the results from several programs in order to determine the national impact of such programs on increasing the participating and retention of women in SEM.
The workshop will take place at Santa Clara University (SCU), where the PI, Dr. Ruth E. Davis, is a Professor of Computer Engineering. Besides hosting the workshop, SCU will host the website to be created for the workshop and for the long term evaluation of programs through longitudinal study of participants. It will take place on the campus of SCU in the first week of August 1999. The timing is chosen to avoid conflict with summer programs to encourage women in science, engineering, and mathematics and to precede the start of the academic year for both quarter and semester schools.
