Kathy Gore

Margolis, et al. (2008) provides intensive analyses of education, race and computing in a Los Angeles, California context. Her observations point to a combination of plentiful material resources combined with social networks to create out-of-school and home advantage among elite high school students. These distinctions offer preparatory privilege and play a critical role in student success in advanced placement (AP) CS. This proposed research seeks to examine how preparatory privilege combined with CS course availability does not necessarily lead to accessibility among students of color and females. The cumulative effect of barriers to entry along the educational trajectory (e.g., grade point average, mathematic course sequence) AND existing school policies as implemented via teacher practices and counselor influence (e.g., teacher recommendation, counselor recommendation) stand to de-track students of color (Lareau and Horvat, 1999). Hence, the research question is: in the presence of CS curricula availability at two well-sourced magnet schools, what are the barriers precluding female, African-American, Hispanic or Latino, and Native American students from gaining access to and participation in current CS curricula along with successful completion of the CS AP examination?

The intent of this research is to develop an intervention that utilizes social media networks to disseminate tailored content on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention for Black female college students. More specifically, this intervention is to broaden access to and utilization of HIV prevention information, thereby strengthening Black organization and individual capacity to address the epidemic in these communities. To improve scientific knowledge of this social phenomenon, our strategy is to design a social network-based intervention that can provide empirical evidence on the design and implementation of HIV/AIDS preventive education, as well as the culturallyspecific challenges related to the use of ICT for HIV/AIDS preventive education.