Exploring the Relationship Between Department Characteristics and Computer Science Student Diversity in the US

Background: In higher education, efforts to broaden participation in computing (BPC) are typically evaluated at a single institution, which limits our ability to isolate their impacts from those of other factors at the institution. Purpose: We aim to identify drivers of more equitable patterns of participation in computer science (CS) majors to guide BPC efforts. Methods: We use data collected by the Computing Research Association in a 2015 survey of 60 CS departments in the USA. From these data, we create measures that relate to a department’s policies, BPC actions, tracking of student demographics, BPC values, and potential strains due to increasing student enrollment. Using linear regression, we analyze the extent to which these measures predict the percentage of CS Bachelor’s degree recipients from groups underrepresented in CS (2015-2020). Findings: We find that CS departments that reported supporting (i) access to tutoring, (ii) K-12 outreach, and (iii) diversity initiatives tended to have a higher proportion of CS graduates who identify as women. The best predictor of Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous students’ representation among CS majors was their representation at the institution overall. Additionally, their representation tended to be higher when the department (i) allows students to transfer into a CS major, (ii) offers a CS course that is required for non-CS majors, and (iii) has not considered trying to reduce enrollment by making admission to the major more competitive or by making courses more difficult. Implications: Our work offers suggestions of actions to take and avoid. Ultimately, additional multi-institutional research is needed to identify departmental actions that improve students’ experiences, learning, and graduation rates.