Can Technology Education Programs in Prisons increase Computing Attitudes? Evidence from the LaunchCode Program

STEM education in prisons has recently gained the attention of policy-makers, practitioners, and researchers. Although studies on prison education programs tend to focus on distal outcomes, understanding the proximate outcomes of prison education can demonstrate some of the underlying mechanisms by which these distal outcomes occur. Nevertheless, few studies have examined the influence that STEM education programs in prisons have on these proximate outcomes. In order to begin to fill this gap in the research, we conducted a pilot study in Missouri prisons with a novel technology education program offered by LaunchCode. Leveraging a pre-post design, we find that participating in the program was associated with significant increases in computing attitudes. More specifically, computing attitudes appear to deteriorate over time in Missouri prisons for non-admitted applicants, while participating in the LaunchCode program not only appears to curb this deterioration, but also appears to increase computing attitudes. Additionally, by accounting for both entrance exam scores, as well as a host of demographic characteristics, we are able to demonstrate the robustness of our findings. Although it is difficult to disentangle the influence of the program’s content (i.e., computer science) and instructional tools (i.e., Raspberry Pi computers), our findings support the idea that developing positive computing attitudes and behaviors require intentional programmatic efforts.