This Birds of a Feather session invites Black computing educators, students, and allies to contribute towards cultivating a sustainable support system for Black students and faculty in computing. Participants will share lived experiences, strategies, and challenges in navigating academic and professional spaces, especially with the current decisive, contentious political climate and its implications for the Black computer science education community. Grounded in Social Cognitive Career Theory, this session will focus on the three main tenets of this theory: self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations and personal goals through the presented activities. One example is the celebration of the achievements, both academic and non-academic, of all attendees. This contributes to all tenets: it addresses their self-efficacy beliefs and confidence in their ability to perform; it presents actual results addressing their outcome expectations and helps shape their goals as they see 'like' individuals achieving. The authors will foster collaborative, brainstorming, affirmative, reflective and collective exchange.

Black women are significantly underrepresented in computer sci- ence, which limits the field's diversity and innovation. Existing university programs often lack cultural relevance, making interven- tions that resonate with Black women's experiences crucial. This paper details the auto-ethnographic design and implementation of a multi-modal community during the 2023-24 academic year at a predominantly white institution in the U.S. Designed by a Black woman, the community aimed to increase participation and support for Black undergraduate women in computing. The virtual commu- nity grew, with increasing engagement in in-person events. The paper explores the cultural foundations, design process, challenges, and recommendations for expanding similar interventions across other institutions

Given the underrepresentation of Black individuals in computer science education and research, this Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) session at SIGCSE aims to foster a supportive and inclusive community for members of the Black computer science education community. By bringing together members of the community, students, faculty, and allies, we seek to create a space to celebrate achievements as well as discuss issues faced by Black individuals in the field that impact diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our goals include: 1) Creating a supportive community: Foster a sense of belonging and camaraderie among Black CS educators through witnessing a larger representation of Black computer scientists; 2) Address systemic challenges: Discuss and explore strategies to address systemic barriers and biases in computer science education; 3) Share best practices: Exchange ideas and experiences related to teaching, research, and mentorship; 4) Inspire the next generation: Acknowledge present Black CS Ed trailblazers and encourage students to pursue graduate education and careers in computer science academia. 5) Gain inspiration: Learn from the personal journeys and experiences of senior students and faculty, gaining valuable insights for perseverance in computer science; 6) Promote joining supportive Black CS communities: e.g. IAAMCS, AAPHDCSR.

This BoF session invites all that are interested in discussing the relationship between mentoring and professional socialization. We will identify common barriers to accessing mentorship and the specific challenges racial and ethnic minoritized (REM) students encounter, and contrast liberatory mentoring with "traditional" forms of mentorship. Students from REM groups often seek out same-race mentors for support; however, given the limited number of REM faculty, students from marginalized groups may encounter unique challenges in obtaining mentoring support, Attention needs to be paid on mentorship practices that create inclusive program environments that allow for successful matriculation into their programs and retention in the profession. Based on the relevant scholarship, the facilitators will afford discussions for providing liberatory mentoring practices to promote students' inclusion and retention.

This full paper presents the Collaborative Active Learning and Inclusiveness (CALI) inventory, and an analytical model using the CALI inventory, demographic data, mindset surveys, and knowledge mastery assessment, to explore relationships between classroom climate and student experiences. The CALI inventory enables the investigation of the impact of the student experience in an active learning classroom by distinguishing the factors that characterize the structure, social learning, and inclusive practices. The Structure Index includes components related to course setup, organization, assessment, grading, and communications. The Sociality Index includes components related to opportunities for students to interact with each other. The Inclusiveness Index includes components related to how the instructor communicates a sense of belonging to the students through a growth mindset and inclusive policies and practices. A CS Mindset Instrument was developed based on research that measured students' self-efficacy by evaluating the extent of variation in their self-perceived ability to accomplish a task, sense of belonging in computing, and professional identity development. Demographic data is collected that allows for an analysis using an intersectional lens to acknowledge the complexity of social and cultural contexts. The knowledge and mastery assessments capture changes in competency through pre-post mastery quizzes. The combination of CALI with other instruments, including those that characterize student mindset, identity, and levels of mastery, enables investigation of how various practices of inclusive and collaborative active learning have differential effects on students with different identities in computer science.

This full paper presents CALI 1.0: an inventory to capture the various components of collaborative active learning and inclusive practices in introductory CS courses, as a basis for studying their impact on a student’s ability to engage with course material and be successful in the course. Collaborative active learning is defined as a pedagogy where learners work with one another on activities that involve actively engaging with the course material through discussions, problem-solving, case studies, role plays, and other methods. CALI consists of three separate indices: Structure, Sociality, and Inclusiveness. The Structure Index includes components related to course setup, organization, assessment, grading, and communications. The Sociality Index includes components related to opportunities for students to interact with each other. The Inclusiveness Index includes components related to how the instructor communicates a sense of belonging to the students through a growth mindset and inclusive policies and practices. In this paper, we present the inventory and results from a focus group of faculty to gauge responses to using this inventory to capture the teaching components of their courses. We present CALI as a tool that can be used to study how teaching practices, e.g. inclusive and collaborative active learning pedagogies, impact course experiences for students in different demographic groups as well as a reflective tool for use by faculty while designing their courses.

Underrepresented students and the institutions that serve these students need to recognize and address the unique challenges that impact their career pathways and successes. This special session will discuss challenges facing Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and how industry-academia partnerships can be a force in mitigating some of these challenges. We will explore how we as a community can work together to develop holistic programs to support student development and excellence. We will highlight the shortcomings, strengths and future of the Googler In Residence (GIR) program from the perspective of select participating colleges, as well as other successful initiatives in motion. It is also essential that promising interventions be shared and scaled across institutions that play an essential role in educating and preparing these students. We are still learning as we go, but this is an opportune time to come together as a community to share our challenges and solutions, to determine how we can move together and how we can all be involved as change advocates. It is meant to be interactive, create shared knowledge and help identify ways of moving forward serving MSIs.

While computer science (CS) continues to permeate every aspect of society, the number of high-school students that are adequately prepared to enroll in university computer science programs is declining. To address the nation's needs it is clear that the retention rates of underrepresented minorities in CS programs across the country must increase, including the instruction and retention of students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). At the university, a multi-phased program was developed that first partnered the department with Google to develop a unique program that incorporated Google software developers and undergraduate students, as well as course restructuring to better prepare underclassmen in their first three courses of study. First-year results indicated the program was successful in increasing student retention and interest in CS.

In order to increase the computer science pipeline, emphasis must be placed on not only who is taught, but also how they are taught. Traditional computer science pedagogy has been unsuccessful in attracting, engaging, instructing, and retaining underrepresented students. Culturally-responsive pedagogy must be leveraged to successfully instruct a diverse range of computer science students. With the onset of technologies such as Facebook, iPods, Xbox, smart phones, mobile applications, and more, underrepresented students are already actively engaged in utilizing computer technology. However, in order to transition them from consumers to creators of this technology, culturally-responsive curriculum must teach fundamental concepts such as algorithms, problem solving, and abstraction in the context of issues that affect their daily lives. This workshop is designed to help K-16 computer science educators, professionals, and others understand and identify activities and assignments that infuse culturally-responsive content throughout. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a clear understanding of culturally-responsive pedagogy, its importance in computer science, and how to begin infusing more of it into lessons and activities. Laptops are recommended.