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Title: Power surge: How a multistakeholder coalition promotes equity in computer science education policy
The Computer Science (CS) for All national movement is increasingly relying on state-level change to broaden participation in computing. To foster an environment in which all students have opportunities to thrive in CS education, policy action is necessary to help create the learning conditions for success. CS education in California has grown substantially in the last decade, yet opportunity gaps remain for young women and Black, Latinx, and Native American students. Early grassroots efforts to advance equity in computing evolved into the Computer Science for California coalition of K–16 educators, industry leaders, and other equity advocates to promote the growth of equity-minded teaching and learning opportunities in K–12 CS education. New policies at the state level reflect an increasing commitment among Sacramento policymakers to expand CS education. Yet troubling disparities in CS access and success continue to exist between traditionally advantaged students and their historically underserved peers. By drawing on interviews with 20 individuals involved in CS education policy, this study illuminates the contributing factors to recent policy successes and considerations for achieving further progress. Interviewees described the importance of tapping into the values of influential decision makers, educating policymakers about the benefits of CS education, and identifying the problems and solutions that require policy attention. To build the capacity of key policy actors in making informed decisions, this research demonstrates the continued value of providing useful information, developing relationships with policymakers, and creating resources that are easy to consume and understand. The interviews also suggest that attention to funding, disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, equity, and ongoing stakeholder support will shape prospects for CS education policy success moving forward.
Hadad, R.; Ryoo, J.J.; Flapan, J.; Kong, S.(
, Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT))
null
(Ed.)
Computer science (CS) has the potential to positively impact the economic well-being of those who pursue it, and the lives of those who benefit from its innovations. Yet, large CS learning opportunity gaps exist for students from historically underrepresented populations. The Computer Science for All (CS for All) movement has brought nationwide attention to these inequities in CS education. More recently, financial support for research-practice partnerships (RPPs) has increased to address these disparities because such collaborations can yield more relevant research for immediate educational/practical application. However, for initiatives to effectively engage in equity-focused initiatives toward making computing inclusive, partnership members need to begin with a shared definition of equity to which all are accountable. This poster takes a critical look at the development of a collaboratively developed definition of equity and its application in a CS for All RPP of university researchers and administrators from local education agencies across the state of California. Details are shared about how the RPP collectively defined equity and how that definition evolved and informed the larger project’s work with school administrators/educators.
Warner, Jayce R; Fletcher, Carol L; Martin, Nicole D; Baker, Stephanie N(
, Policy Futures in Education)
The push to make computer science (CS) education available to all students has been closely followed by increased efforts to collect and report better data on where CS is offered, who is teaching CS, and which students have access to, enroll in, and ultimately benefit from learning CS. These efforts can be highly influential on the evolution of CS education policy, as education leaders and policymakers often rely heavily on data to make decisions. Because of this, it is critical that CS education researchers understand how to collect, analyze, and report data in ways that reflect reality without masking disparities between subpopulations. Similarly, it is important that CS education leaders and policymakers understand how to judiciously interpret the data and translate information into action to scale CS education in ways designed to eliminate inequities. To that end, this article expands on recent research regarding the use of data to assess and inform progress in scaling and broadening participation in CS education. We describe the CAPE framework for assessing equity with respect to the capacity for, access to, participation in, and experience of CS education and explicate how it can be applied to analyze and interpret data to inform policy decisions at multiple levels of educational systems. We provide examples using large, statewide datasets containing educational and demographic information for K-12 students and schools, thereby giving leaders and policymakers a roadmap to assess and address issues of equity in their own schools, districts, or states. We compare and contrast different approaches to measuring and reporting inequities and discuss how data can influence the future of CS education through its impact on policy.
Broneak, Cassandra; Rosato, Jennifer(
, ICER 2021: Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research)
null
(Ed.)
To meet the rising demand for computer science (CS) courses, K-12 educators need to
be prepared to teach introductory concepts and skills in courses such as Computer
Science Principles (CSP), which takes a breadth-first approach to CS and includes
topics beyond programming such as data, impacts of computing, and networks. Educators
are now also being asked to teach more advanced concepts in courses such as the College
Board's Advanced Placement Computer Science A (CSA) course, which focuses on advanced programming using Java and includes topics such as objects, inheritance, arrays, and recursion. Traditional CSA curricula have not used content or pedagogy designed to
engage a broad range of learners and support their success. Unlike CSP, which is attracting
more underrepresented students to computing as it was designed, CSA continues to enroll
mostly male, white, and Asian students [College Board 2019, Ericson 2020, Sax 2020].
In order to expand CS education opportunities, it is crucial that students have an
engaging experience in CSA similar to CSP. Well-designed differentiated professional
development (PD) that focuses on content and pedagogy is necessary to meet individual
teacher needs, to successfully build teacher skills and confidence to teach CSA, and
to improve engagement with students [Darling-Hammond 2017]. It is critical that as
more CS opportunities and courses are developed, teachers remain engaged with their
own learning in order to build their content knowledge and refine their teaching practice
[CSTA 2020]. CSAwesome, developed and piloted in 2019, offers a College Board endorsed
AP CSA curriculum and PD focused on supporting the transition of teachers and students
from CSP to CSA. This poster presents preliminary findings aimed at exploring the
supports and challenges new-to-CSA high school level educators face when transitioning
from teaching an introductory, breadth-first course such as CSP to teaching the more
challenging, programming-focused CSA course. Five teachers who completed the online
CSAwesome summer 2020 PD completed interviews in spring 2021. The project employed
an inductive coding scheme to analyze interview transcriptions and qualitative notes
from teachers about their experiences learning, teaching, and implementing CSP and
CSA curricula. Initial findings suggest that teachers’ experience in the CSAwesome
PD may improve their confidence in teaching CSA, ability to effectively use inclusive
teaching practices, ability to empathize with their students, problem-solving skills,
and motivation to persist when faced with challenges and difficulties. Teachers noted
how the CSAwesome PD provided them with a student perspective and increased feelings
of empathy. Participants spoke about the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on
their own learning, student learning, and teaching style. Teachers enter the PD with
many different backgrounds, CS experience levels, and strengths, however, new-to-CSA
teachers require further PD on content and pedagogy to transition between CSP and
CSA. Initial results suggest that the CSAwesome PD may have an impact on long-term
teacher development as new-to-CSA teachers who participated indicated a positive impact
on their teaching practices, ideologies, and pedagogies.
Scott, A; Flapan, J; McAlear, F; Koshy, S; Martin, A(
, Meeting of the American Education Research Association)
As efforts to broaden participation in computing and provide equitable computer science education to all students increase across the country, within states, and within cities and districts, this research aims to investigate whether existing efforts have increased equity. This research analyzes three years of computer science access, enrollment, and success data across the state of California to: (a) examine whether racial, gender, and socioeconomic equity in CS access, enrollment and success has improved; (b) identify persistent barriers to racial, gender and socioeconomic equity, and (c) inform statewide strategies to ensure equity in computer science across California. Findings indicate despite several promising trends, including an increase in CS access and participation across California, racial, gender and SES gaps remain in access to CS courses, participation, and success. Additional statewide policies and practices are needed to ensure equity in CS across California.
Hadad, Roxana; Ryoo, Jean; Flapan, Julie; Kong, Steve(
, Defining and Delivering Equity: How one RPP develops a definition and puts it into practice)
CSforALL and SageFox
(Ed.)
Computer science (CS) has the potential to positively impact the economic well-being of those who pursue it, and the lives of those who benefit from its innovations. Yet, large CS learning opportunity gaps exist for students from systemically excluded populations. Because of these disparities, the Computer Science for All (CS for All) movement has brought nationwide attention to inequity in CS education. Funding agencies and institutions are supporting the development of research-practice partnerships (RPPs) to address these disparities, recognizing that collaboration between researchers and educators yields accurate and relevant research results, while informing teaching practice. However, for initiatives to effectively make computing inclusive, partnership members need to begin with a shared and collaboratively generated definition of equity to which all are accountable. This paper takes a critical look at the development of a shared definition of equity and its application in a CS for All RPP composed of university researchers and administrators from local education agencies across a large west coast state. Details are shared about how the RPP came together across research and practice to define equity, as well as how that definition continued to evolve and inform the larger project’s work with school administrators/educators. Suggestions about how to apply key lessons from this equity exercise are offered to inform similar justice-oriented projects.
@article{osti_10423157,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {Power surge: How a multistakeholder coalition promotes equity in computer science education policy},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10423157},
DOI = {10.1177/14782103231183485},
abstractNote = {The Computer Science (CS) for All national movement is increasingly relying on state-level change to broaden participation in computing. To foster an environment in which all students have opportunities to thrive in CS education, policy action is necessary to help create the learning conditions for success. CS education in California has grown substantially in the last decade, yet opportunity gaps remain for young women and Black, Latinx, and Native American students. Early grassroots efforts to advance equity in computing evolved into the Computer Science for California coalition of K–16 educators, industry leaders, and other equity advocates to promote the growth of equity-minded teaching and learning opportunities in K–12 CS education. New policies at the state level reflect an increasing commitment among Sacramento policymakers to expand CS education. Yet troubling disparities in CS access and success continue to exist between traditionally advantaged students and their historically underserved peers. By drawing on interviews with 20 individuals involved in CS education policy, this study illuminates the contributing factors to recent policy successes and considerations for achieving further progress. Interviewees described the importance of tapping into the values of influential decision makers, educating policymakers about the benefits of CS education, and identifying the problems and solutions that require policy attention. To build the capacity of key policy actors in making informed decisions, this research demonstrates the continued value of providing useful information, developing relationships with policymakers, and creating resources that are easy to consume and understand. The interviews also suggest that attention to funding, disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, equity, and ongoing stakeholder support will shape prospects for CS education policy success moving forward.},
journal = {Policy Futures in Education},
publisher = {SAGE Publications},
author = {Flapan, Julie and Knudson, Joel and Handjojo, Candice and Sunde, Ashley and Hadad, Roxana},
}
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