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About TechREACH
The mission of TechREACH is to increase middle school students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through hands-on high-quality curriculum, mentoring and teacher professional development. We create a supportive, diverse educational community focused on students’ needs through partnerships with parents, schools, communities, business, and higher education.
TechREACH is offered through after school clubs and summer programs targeting at-risk middle school students.
Background
TechREACH is a program of the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (PSCTLT), which began with start-up funding from a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant and additional funding from The Seattle Foundation. Launched in 2003, TechREACH originally targeted at-risk middle school girls, the group most likely to fall behind in the science, technology, engineering, and math areas. Over 700 Western Washington middle school girls participated in TechREACH the first four years. Grants from the National Science Foundation and Washington State University Center to Bridge the Digital Divide have enabled
TechREACH to expand to the Pasco, Sunnyside and Granger areas of Eastern Washington and offer clubs to over 200 boys and girls.
Additional funding from the Greater Everett Community Foundation enabled TechREACH to expand to additional communities and train students to refurbish computers for low-income families through the TechREACH Alliance Project.
The Research
- Women earned nearly 60 percent of all undergraduate degrees at American colleges and universities in 2006, and yet in computing and information sciences they earned only 21 percent of bachelor’s degrees. (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System)
- According to projections from the U.S. Department of Labor, 16 of the 20 fastest-growing jobs through 2014 will require computer skills. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005) Basic Internet skills are a requirement, even for non computer-related jobs, and employees who use computers at work can earn 17 percent to 22 percent more than those who do not. (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 2002)
- Women, Latinos, and other minorities are the least likely to be interested in or aware of high-tech careers (Kearney, 2002). Barriers include a lack of confidence, negative attitudes toward computers, lack of social support, and the belief that computers require solitary work with little social relevance. (American Association of University Women, 2000; Goode, Estrella, & Margolis, 2006; Zarrett, Malanchuk, Davis-Kean, & Eccles, 2006)
- Hispanics constitute nearly 20% of the nation’s K-12 student population, but only 10% of postsecondary enrollment – and just 6% of baccalaureate recipients. (Education Commission of the States, The Progress of Education Reform 2004: Hispanic Achievement, August 2004)
- “Interventions beginning early in youth’s development, focused on issues such as stressing the importance of early encouragement of children’s interest and confidence in math and the technical and physical sciences, providing a diversity of IT role models, increasing computer provisions, and teaching parents to make computers a priority and of value in the home are as important and essential as the interventions used in schools.” (Zarrett & Malanchuk, 2005)
More information about TechREACH:
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