BPC-AE: Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education Extension

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Massachusetts proposes an expansion of the Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education (CAITE). CAITE ? an alliance of three campuses of the University of Massachusetts and six community colleges, that aims to increase participation and retention along the high-school-to-community-college-to-four-year-to-graduate-school pipeline. Much of the focus is on community colleges because of the central role they play in reaching out to underserved populations and in serving as a gateway to careers and further higher education. CAITE aims to make academic IT pathways attractive and nurturing, and to ensure that students -- particularly women and underrepresented minorities -- are adequately prepared to enter them. This extension brings in a fourth region and new regional partners. In addition, it strengthens and re-focuses the work of the existing CAITE Alliance, forging stronger direct ties to other BPC projects, modifying outreach and pathway strategies based on lessons learned from the original grant, and developing new interventions designed to increase participation and retention. The extension of CAITE will be data-driven, informed by best practices developed locally and nationally, and focused on replication and dissemination.