CAHSI’s Framework for Collective Impact
As an INCLUDES alliance CAHSI transitioned to collective impact in its efforts to accelerate change in broadening participation, particularly of Hispanics, in computing fields through extended engagement of organizations in higher education, K-11, public and private sectors, and non-profits. CAHSI’s collective impact framework aligns with the NSF’s five elements of collaborative infrastructure: shared vision, partnerships, goals and metrics, leadership and communication, and expansion, sustainability, and scale.
CAHSI Common Agenda
CAHSI’s vision, mission, goals, and strategic actions drive the agenda for change.
Vision
Mission
By 2030, Hispanics will represent 20% or more of those who earn credentials* in computing. *Credentials are defined as degrees and certifications that lead to gainful employment and advancement in the field.
Grow and sustain a Networked Community committed to recruiting, retaining and accelerating the progress of Hispanics in computing.
CAHSI Goals:
- Challenge students’ knowledge, skills, and abilities so that they are positioned to thrive in the workforce.
- Support pedagogical and professional growth for those who can impact Hispanics.
- Expand meaningful partnerships that align with strategic regional and national efforts.
- Inform policy through evidence.
CAHSI INCLUDES Goals
- Alliance Expansion: Support scale-up of the CAHSI INCLUDES Alliance.
- Reinforcing Activities on Hispanic Student Success: Improve efforts to recruit, retain,
and advance Hispanics who are competitive in the computing workforce and academia. - Data Management and Analytics: Establish shared data management practices to measure progress of collective efforts.
- Knowledge Creation and Dissemination: Create and disseminate knowledge on Hispanic student success and expertise in computer science.
Backbone Coordinating Organization
The Backbone Coordinating Organization guides CAHSI, builds capacity at HSIs, and serves as a National Resource for all Hispanics in computing. The Backbone consists of the Director, Deputy Director, Data Management team, and leads for strategic initiatives and operational planning, capacity building, and management of communications & resources. The Backbone personnel coordinate Alliance actions; ensure that the Backbone and Alliance partners learn from their efforts and improve how they function using data and analytics; inform institutional, state, and national policy; and provide and manage resources needed to accelerate and sustain change as guided by CAHSI experiences.
Because of the importance of a common agenda in collective impact, the Backbone developed a visioning document for the regions called the Regional Visioning Document. The document’s goals and objectives are in alignment with those of the Backbone Visioning Document, the Alliance’s vision, mission, goals, and values, yet are tailored for the regional level work. Both documents operationalize collective impact and serve as guides for the strategic plans of the regions.
Mutually Reinforcing Activities
Mutually reinforcing activities serve to build partnerships and collaborations on impactful actions. CAHSI partners with industry, government, non-profits, and other institutions to initiate efforts with the aim to accelerate Positive Change. Activities are guided by strategic actions.
Please visit the Our Network and the Our Efforts pages to learn more about our partnerships and activities.
Open and Continuous Communication
In order to better support current CAHSI institutions and sustain impact as it grows, CAHSI operates as a network of networks, linking Regional Networks. It is within these Regional Networks where stakeholders within a defined locality connect with each other. The current Regional Networks include: West (California), Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas), Southeast (Florida, Puerto Rico), and North (Illinois, New Jersey, and in the future New York). These regions have high concentrations of Hispanics. Each region has a Lead and co-Leads.
Regional interactions contribute to establishing a cultural environment of mutual trust and respect, which has potential for membership to be more confident to confer with others, seek feedback, and have open discussions to contribute ideas and coordinate efforts toward meaningful outcomes. To support this, each region has a Regional Connector to support fruitful through ongoing face-to-face interactions, phone calls, and online communication.
The Executive Committee (composed of the leads from each region) works with the Backbone to make decisions that impact the Alliance and to identify opportunities. The Deputy Director oversees communication flow with Connectors and Coordinators (C&C) and interactions with partners. Each month the Deputy Director leads virtual meetings with C&C and provides professional development for CAHSI staff members and hosts office hours for C&Cs.
Common Measures
The data management team and evaluation team collect and share three levels of evaluative data as shown below. The Data Management (DM) team focuses on student-level data, acquired through established data sharing agreements with the offices of institutional research and IPEDS data. These two data sources allow the DM team to track trends in students’ initial enrollment and progression through undergraduate and graduate coursework. The complementary nature of institutional and IPEDS data allows the DM team to conduct rigorous analyses and provide key stakeholders with useful information that contributes to continuous programmatic improvement. The DM team also manages the climate survey.
The focus of the Evaluation Team is to examine partnerships, leadership and communication, and expansion, sustainability, and scale of CAHSI. The primary purpose is to examine continuous improvement at the network and programmatic levels, and distilling best practices from observational, interview, and survey data.
