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1. Equal Outcomes 4 All: A Study of Student Learning in ECS

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3159450.3159529  

   McGee, Steven; Wilkerson, Brenda; Yanek, Don; Rasmussen, Andrew M.; Brylow, Dennis; McGee-Tekula, Randi; Duck, Jennifer; McGee, Catherine; Dettori, Lucia; Greenberg, Ronald I.; et al (February 2018, SIGCSE Technical Symposium)

   This study investigated patterns in the development of computational thinking practices in the context of the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program, a high school introductory CS course and professional development program designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around CS concepts. Past research indicates that the personal relevance of the ECS experience influences students' expectancy-value towards computer science. Expectancy-value is a construct that is predictive of career choices. We extended our research to examine whether expectancy-value influences the development of computational thinking practices. This study took place in the context of two ECS implementation projects across two states. Twenty teachers, who implemented ECS in 2016–17, participated in the research. There were 906 students who completed beginning and end of year surveys and assessments. The surveys included demographic questions, a validated expectancy-value scale, and questions about students' course experiences. The assessments were developed and validated by SRI International as a companion to the ECS course. Overall, student performance statistically increased from pretest to posttest with effect size of 0.74. There were no statistically significant differences in performance by gender or race/ethnicity. These results are consistent with earlier findings that a personally relevant course experience positively influences students' expectancy for success. These results expanded on prior research by indicating that students' expectancy-value for computer science positively influenced student learning. 

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2. A State-Wide Effort to Provide Access to Authentic Computer Science Education to Underrepresented Populations

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3328778.3366955  

   Qazi, Mohammed A.; Gray, Jeff; Shannon, David M.; Russell, Melody; Thomas, Misty (February 2020, SIGCSE '20: Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education)

   The Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum provides foundational knowledge of Computer Science (CS) to high school students as a stand-alone course. ECS began in the Los Angeles Unified School District in the late 2000s where it gained eminence for broadening participation in computing (BPC), with Latinx students representing over 70% of enrollment. This experience report describes a partnership that consists of three Universities, dozens of school districts, the ECS team, and other stakeholders to bring the ECS curriculum in mainly rural school districts in Alabama that have a majority African-American student population. Sixty in-service teachers (one teacher per school) have received professional learning opportunities to gain knowledge and skills to teach ECS. Signs of early broader impacts are emerging: 78% of our ECS enrollment are underrepresented minority (URM) students with nearly half of the cohort consisting of female students. Students reported they were engaged in working collaboratively and sharing responsibilities with others. Furthermore, students who reported being more involved in the ECS course had deeper confidence in their ability to succeed in CS, reported greater overall outcomes, had more confidence in development of 21st century skills, found the course more relevant, were more motivated to persist in CS, and exhibited increased interest in CS careers. We provide a comprehensive description of the partnership’s accomplishments and the evaluation findings on student CS experiences and on teacher self-efficacy in ECS preparation and instruction. Our findings contribute to the BPC literature, specifically for schools with predominantly African-American enrollment in rural communities. 

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3. Building CS Teacher Capacity Through Comprehensive College/High School Partnerships

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3478431.3499364  

   Flatland, Robin; Matthews, James; White, Pauline; Egan, MaryAnne; Moya, Jesse (February 2022, SIGCSE 2022: Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education)

   Expanding access to and engaging diverse groups of students in high school computer science (CS) classes depends on qualified CS teachers. In this paper, we describe how faculty at our liberal arts college built CS teacher capacity at over 20 school districts through comprehensive college/high school partnerships. The majority of these districts serve rural or high-needs students, groups underrepresented in CS classrooms. The program works primarily with in-service teachers from other disciplines, helping them develop the expertise to teach CS. It is comprehensive in that it includes curricula and professional development for a high school level CS course and a dual-enrollment college level CS course, pathways to CS certification, community events, and opportunities for teacher leadership and collaboration. These modes of engagement are structured so that novice and veteran teachers and college faculty have opportunities to interact in different capacities over several years to create a robust professional learning community. Initial survey results show increasing levels of teacher confidence and sense of belonging, and increasing student confidence in their CS abilities. 

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4. Broadening Participation and Success in AP CSA: Predictive Modeling from Three Years of Data

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3408877.3432421  

   Boda, Phillip A.; McGee, Steven (March 2021, ACM Tech. Sym. Comp. Sci. Ed. (SIGCSE’21))

   null (Ed.)

   The AP Computer Science A course and exam continually exhibit inequity among over- and under-represented populations. This paper explored three years of AP CS A data in the Chicago Public School district (CPS) from 2016-2019 (N = 561). We analyzed the impact of teacher and student-level variables to determine the extent AP CS A course taking and exam passing differences existed between over- and under-represented populations. Our analyses suggest four prominent findings: (1) CPS, in collaboration with their Research-Practice Partnership (Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science; CAFÉCS), is broadening participation for students taking the AP CS A course; (2) Over- and under- represented students took the AP CS A exam at statistically comparable rates, suggesting differential encouragement to take or not take the AP CS A exam was not prevalent among these demographics; (3) After adjusting for teacher and student-level prior experience, there were no significant differences among over- and under-represented racial categorizations in their likelihoods to pass the AP CS A exam, albeit Female students were 3.3 times less likely to pass the exam than Males overall; (4) Taking the Exploring Computer Science course before AP CS A predicted students being 3.5 times more likely to pass the AP CS A exam than students that did not take ECS before AP CS A. Implications are discussed around secondary computer science course sequencing and lines of inquiry to encourage even greater broadening of participation in the AP CS A course and passing of the AP CS A exam. 

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5. Using Formative Assessments to Examine Student Understanding of Middle School Algorithms and Programming Concepts.

   Basu, Satabdi; Yang, Hui; Rachmatullah, Arif; Tate, Carol; Rutstein, Daisy (March 2025, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Waynesville, NC USA)

   The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) K-12 Computer Science Standards identify ‘Algorithms and Programming’ as a key CS concept across all grade bands that encompasses sub-concepts such as algorithms, decomposition, variables, and control structures. Previous studies have shown that algorithms and programming concepts often pose challenges for novice programmers, and that instruction in these areas is often superficial. We developed formative assessment tasks to investigate middle school students’ understanding of four CS standards related to algorithms and programming and collected responses from over 100 students associated with five different teachers. We found that students demonstrated a limited understanding of the standards. These findings contribute to the growing literature on middle school students’ understanding of algorithms and programming, and provide insights that can inform CS teacher development, instruction, and curriculum design. 

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