IWITTS has developed and managed numerous multi-site national demonstration and research projects, working in partnership with educators, law enforcement agencies and other employers to achieve gender equity in technology classrooms and the workplace.
CalWomenTech Project
In 2006, IWITTS was awarded a $2 million NSF grant from the program on Research on Gender in Science and Engineering to fund the CalWomenTech Project. Through this five-year grant, eight California community colleges have received expert support and technical assistance to help recruit and retain women into technology programs where they are under-represented. The Project was highlighted by NSF in 2009 for demonstrating significant achievement and program effectiveness.
During the course of this Project, IWITTS developed an extensive collection of resources to help educators recruit and retain female students, including an Outreach Kit with customizable recruitment materials, the Proven Practices Collection and the CalWomenTech Learning Library.
The WomenTech Project
This project was a three-year effort funded by NSF in which IWITTS worked collaboratively with three community college demonstration sites -- the Community College of Rhode Island, North Harris Community College District in Houston, Texas, and the College of Alameda in Alameda, California -- to help them increase the number of females enrolled and retained in technology programs. The best practices from the WomenTech Projects are captured on the Best Practices CD.
School-to-Work: Women in Science, Engineering & Math Project
In a joint effort with the North Carolina School-to-Work Office and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, and funded by NSF, IWITTS produced an interactive teacher training video and has since conducted hundreds of national and statewide WomenTech Workshops and trained thousands of educators on recruiting and retaining women and girls in technology occupations. Educators can use the Educators Toolkit, which includes the School-to-Work training video, to conduct their own workshops.
