Deploying Exploring Computer Science Statewide

Hu, Helen H.; Heiner, Cecily; McCarthy, Jay

doi:10.1145/2839509.2844622

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…In Utah, both ECS (36.7%) and CSP (22.7%) have distinctly higher female participation than other Utah CS classes, all of which had below 15% female enrollment. ECS and CSP also have racial and ethnic demographics similar to state averages, as is detailed in [8]. We are hopeful that increased enrollment in these two courses will lead to increases in gender and racial diversity in other CS courses soon.…”

Section: Utah High School Cs Coursesmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The initial growth of Utah CS teachers can be traced to the Utah Exploring Computer Science Initiative, a National Science Foundation CE21 funded project, which provided teachers with $500 stipends for attending the ECS workshop and $1000 stipends for teaching ECS and attending the ongoing professional development workshops and mentor meetings [8].…”

Section: Funding Sustainability and Partnershipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To combat this shortage, the authors of this paper created a new in-service CS teacher pipeline in 2013 by introducing an Exploring Computer Science (ECS) course that fulfilled an existing high school graduation requirement for students, while introducing a corresponding ECS endorsement for teachers. (See [6,8] for descriptions of the original full-year and Utah's half-year ECS curriculum.) The ECS endorsement created a low-stakes opportunity for existing teachers to try teaching a new subject area, while the ECS course similarly allowed students to explore a new subject area without using a high school elective.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Building a Statewide Computer Science Teacher Pipeline

Heiner

Gagne

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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From 2012 to 2015, the number of Utah secondary teachers teaching computer science courses grew from 38 to 164. This growth was made possible by introducing three new CS teacher endorsements, which reduced the effort required for existing teachers to start teaching CS. Instead of committing to completing five college-level CS courses in two years, an existing but new-to-CS Utah teacher could complete an Exploring Computer Science (ECS) endorsement in half a year. Thanks to changes to high school graduation requirements, students were able to take a CS course without using an elective credit, boosting enrollment and broadening participation. Analysis of ECS teacher surveys and student surveys found surprisingly few differences between CS-experienced teachers and new-to-CS teachers in their ability to teach CS. By the end of the ECS course, even ECS students with low confidence in their own CS abilities believed that anyone could succeed in CS, regardless of their teacher's CS background. All students' interest in taking additional CS classes significantly increased after taking ECS, although CS-experienced teachers had a stronger impact on ECS students with low confidence than new-to-CS teachers. These results suggest that school districts seeking to provide computer science education for all their students can successfully staff their CS classes by supporting existing secondary teachers with no prior CS background with quality CS professional development and mentoring.

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Section: Utah High School Cs Coursesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Funding Sustainability and Partnershipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Building a Statewide Computer Science Teacher Pipeline

Heiner

Gagne

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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“…Students without such experiences, including lowincome students, students of color, and girls, are then labeled as not being able or suitable for even introductory computer science courses (Goode et al, 2006). Since educators, including counselors and administrators, uphold these normative belief systems at school, district, and state levels, these belief systems both influence and are influenced by policy and practice within a particular state or regional context (Hu et al, 2016).…”

Section: Normativementioning

confidence: 99%

Computer Science for Equity: Teacher Education, Agency, and Statewide Reform

et al. 2020

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This paper reports on a statewide "Computer Science for All" initiative in Oregon that aims to democratize high school computer science and broaden participation in an academic subject that is one of the most segregated disciplines nationwide, in terms of both race and gender. With no statewide policies to support computing instruction, Oregon's legacy of computer science education has been marked by both low participation and by rates of underrepresented students falling well-below the already dismal national rates. The study outlined in this paper focuses on how teacher education can support educators in developing knowledge and agency, and impacting policies and practices that broaden participation in computing. In particular, this research seeks to understand two questions. First, how do teachers experience equity-focused professional development in preparation for teaching an introductory course in computer science? Second, this study queries, how do teachers understand their own agency in influencing policies and practices that broaden participation in their specific schools and classrooms? To answer these questions, this inquiry employed a mixed method approach, drawing from surveys, observations, and interview data of two cohorts of teachers who participated in the Exploring Computer Science professional development program. To show the variety of school contexts and situate computer science education in local and place-based policies and practices, three teacher case studies are presented that illustrate how individual teachers, in diverse geographic and demographic settings, are building inclusive computer science opportunities in their schools. The findings reveal that centering equity-focused teacher professional development supports teachers in formulating the confidence, knowledge and skills that lead to inclusive computer science instruction, computer science content, and equity-centered pedagogy. The findings also highlight how school reform in computer science requires not only technical and pedagogical supports and structures, but also a systemic rethinking and reworking of normative and political forces that are part of the fabric of schools. Based on these findings of teacher knowledge and agency, the paper concludes with a presentation of particular statewide policies and practices that are generative in broadening belief systems and expanding political capacity of computer science education to reach all students.

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“…With respect to access, rural schools are often unable to offer CS courses in their high school and can be the last schools in their state to do so [8], [9]. As of 2020, in the U.S. 57% of suburban schools while only 43% of rural schools offer CS in their high schools [10].…”

Section: Capementioning

confidence: 99%