Project Summary

The Information Technology and Society Research Group at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA contracted with The Education Alliance to evaluate its year-one implementation of the Building Information Technology Skills (bITS) program, funded by the National Science Foundation's ITEST grant. bITS shared ITEST's overall goal to increase the number of students from under-represented populations pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

BITS' primary goal was the development of a participatory community Geographic Information System (GIS) for North Philadelphia. bITS' additional goals included: to increase high school students' knowledge of the disciplines and practices of geography and geography information systems sciences; to create a youth-oriented GIS curriculum; to promote community empowerment and improvement; and, to generate and disseminate knowledge about critical GIS and the bITS program.

The Education Alliance conducted formative evaluations of select aspects of the program using a variety of secondary data on program implementation, participants, and participants' feedback. Evaluation questions for the first year were: How was the bITS program implemented?; What were its major accomplishments, challenges, and adaptations?; Who participated in the bITS program?; What were their demographic characteristics and attendance patterns?; and, How did participants view the program?