In a blog post published on Monday, Sepi Hejazi Moghadam, Head of Research & Development, K-12 Education at Google announced the findings from research conducted in partnership with polling firm Gallup.

The report, which explores participation in and perceptions of CS learning by gender, race and income, included a survey of nearly 16,000 respondents, representing students, parents, teachers, principals and superintendents. 

According to Moghadam, the results of the report show that there’s high value and interest in CS among all demographics, and even more so for lower-income parents.

“Unfortunately perceptions of who CS is for and who is portrayed in CS are narrow,” said Moghadam, “White, male, smart with glasses.”

“Even though they value it, students often don’t see themselves in it,” said Moghadam, “Students who are female or Hispanic, and lower-income students all report lower confidence to learn CS.”

Here’s a summary of the findings of the report:

Parents and teachers of lower-income students view CS as critical to a student’s future, yet lower-income students are less likely to have access to CS learning in school  

  • 76% of parents in lower-income groups believe CS should be required in school.
  • These parents are also more likely to value CS over other required courses.
  • Teachers in schools with a larger percentage of students eligible for a free or reduced lunch are more likely than other teachers to think CS learning opportunities are more important to a student’s future success than other elective courses.

Image about CS is positive, but confidence to learn it is low

  • More than 90% of students & parents have a positive image of CS jobs and more than 80% of all populations studied believe CS is used in many jobs.
  • Yet only half of students are confident to learn CS, and the percentage is even lower for Hispanics and girls.
  • We found that students who are more confident in their ability to learn CS are also more likely to say they will learn it in the future.

Perceptions reflect stereotypes

  • Given the high value of CS among all populations studied, it’s disappointing to learn that many have narrow perceptions of who practices CS.
  • Students and parents perceive few portrayals of female, Hispanic or Black computer scientists on TV or in movies.
  • These groups are much more likely to see White or Asian men engaged in computer science.
  • About half of students and 57% of parents agree that “People who do computer science need to be very smart”.

Computer science is misunderstood

  • We see that CS is becoming recognized as important, but there is still confusion of how it is different from general technology skills.
  • Over half of students, parents, teachers and principals do not properly distinguish between computer science activities (e.g., programming and coding; creating new software), and general computer literacy (e.g., creating documents; searching the internet).
  • This is more pronounced among female, Black and Hispanic students and parents.

“Our hope is that these findings will inform strategies that encourage more diverse students to pursue CS and increase access to CS learning opportunities for all students,” said Moghadam.