CS4All initiatives nationwide have been working to increase and diversify student participation in computer science (CS). One intentional effort to broaden participation in CS was the launch of the Advanced Placement (AP) CS Principles (CSP) course, which sought to increase the number of students enrolling in CS overall as well as from groups historically underrepresented in CS. Early AP CSP implementation results are encouraging and have identified the need to better understand essential supports for quality implementation, differential student experiences and outcomes, and students’ motivations for course enrollment. In this paper, we explore the motivations that affect student decisions to take AP CSP using survey data collected during fall 2019 in the New York City public schools, the largest school district in the U.S. This work is part of an ongoing research-practice partnership that provides teacher and school supports for AP CSP implementation and aims to improve outcomes especially for female, Black, and Latinx students in high-need schools. In particular, we examine how students’ reasons and influences for enrolling in AP CSP may differ based on self-identified gender and race/ethnicity. Our findings indicate that while most students shared an interest in learning more about CS, students from communities historically underrepresented in computing are more likely to report being placed in the course and to be influenced by guidance counselors. The implications of these results highlight the importance of understanding why students choose AP CSP in developing recruitment resources, student engagement strategies, and supports for implementation.
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Comparing Access and Participation Outcomes of Schools Engaged in a Multi-school CS and Cybersecurity Intervention (Evaluation)
In early 2020, a cohort of 30 high schools engaged in a year-long intervention designed to increase their ability to offer Computer Science (CS) and Cybersecurity education to their students. After we performed an evaluation on the intervention’s impacts, we turned our attention to whether or not the outcomes were influenced by engagement of the schools in the cohort. In this research paper, we focus on the guiding research question: How do schools’ engagement in an intervention designed to build equitable CS and Cybersecurity education capacity impact schools’ course offerings and students’ participation in these courses?
To measure equitable impact, we evaluated changes to actual CS and Cybersecurity course offerings and enrollment at the schools. We focused on the differences in participation across student gender and race/ethnicity as well as participation levels at the different schools across three years prior to the intervention and one year after the intervention.
Findings indicate that, despite the disruption to schools from the COVID-19 pandemic, schools engaged in the program had very significant increases in AP CSP, AP CS A, and Cybersecurity course offerings and enrollment, particularly at schools that serve students from low-income families.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2028426
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10386679
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ASEE annual conference proceedings
- ISSN:
- 1524-4857
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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