Out of the Loop is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded grant that looks to examine the lack of minorities in the field of computer programing. Directed by Jane Margolis and funded by a three-year NSF grant, this project is currently conducting research on the computer science pipeline. The project seeks to shed light on a national problem -- the low rates of participation by African American and Latino/a students in high school classes that prepare them to enter computer-related fields. Specifically, the project examines the decisions of college-bound African-American and Latino/a students to take (or not take), to persist (or not persist) in computer science courses beyond the introductory level. The project aims to identify how the environment of high schools, and the psychological and cultural factors that affect college-bound teenagers' interests in computer science, promotes or constrains their participation. The sites of investigation are schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the most diverse school districts in the nation.
The overall research questions are: What are the institutional and structural aspects of high school computer science education that narrow the pipeline for different groups of underrepresented minority and women students? And what are the psychological and cultural factors linked to studying computer science that could be affecting college-bound underrepresented minority students' interest in, motivation, and decisions to study (or not study) computer science?
The project is based on perspectives from computer science and the social sciences. An advisory committee consisting of high school educators and higher education faculty will participate in the planning and assessment. The research will be conducted in collaboration with UCLA Outreach, a program devoted to increasing the numbers of underrepresented minorities who are college-bound and admitted to the University of California campuses. The principal investigators are Researcher Jane Margolis, Ed.D and Professor Jeannie Oakes, Ph.D.
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