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The K–12 broadening participation in computing (BPC) effort re- quires access to comprehensive state and national K–12 data from which stronger strategies for systems change can be developed. The Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance Com- mon Metrics Project (CMP) engages state teams that include state and local education agencies, researchers, and other BPC advocates addressing K–12 computer science (CS) inequities in access and participation at the systems level. The CMP promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing, with teams reporting how CMP enhances BPC policy, pathways, and practices to improve student access and participation in computing. This experience report shares how the CMP advances data as a key tool for driving BPC strategies in state advocacy and policy efforts. 

The recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have captivated the attention of many while raising the alarm among activists and policymakers. Although AI has its benefits, it has simultaneously contributed to increased polarization, the proliferation of mis/disinformation, online safety and privacy concerns, exacerbated mental health challenges, and questions about the ethical use of these technologies. The disproportionate influence of AI biases on Black, Latine, and Native communities and the continued exclusion of these communities from computing requires the adoption of new K-12 educational policies to ensure equitable access to AI education and equip students to be responsible and competent creators of technologies. 

State computing education policy advocates utilize legal language to build systemic change for broadening participation in computing (BPC) efforts. This study posits that state education policymaking, involving law and regulations that influence the norms and practices in K-12 classrooms, requires identifying authority structures and systems, which are accountable for delivering equitable computing education. Of the 29 states and Puerto Rico in the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance, 14 states have computing education laws, and 9 states have mandated reports. Recommendations for how states can refine existing policies or create new equity centered state computing education policies are provided. 

Research literature has documented how computer science (CS) teachers are often isolated in their schools and are less likely to collaborate as compared to other subject area teachers. This parallels an emerging body of literature around how teachers leverage professional development opportunities to engage in their practice. However, limited research has empirically studied how professional development opportunities lead to increases in teacher empowerment and spur broadening participation in CS efforts. In this study, we report on a networked improvement community (NIC) focused on connecting CS teachers to their peers, national experts, professional development providers, and researchers to impact teaching practices and guide implementation of policies that lead to increased female participation in CS courses. We report on the role of the NIC to support teachers as school and community change agents. Drawing from focus groups with participating teachers (n=20), we report on a two-year process of learning that involved identifying root causes for female underrepresentation and conducting teacher-led interventions within their classrooms and schools. We detail how a NIC offers a novel approach to facilitate collaboration and empower teachers to implement changes that can impact girls in computer science. Initial data indicate that the collaborative nature of the NIC and its teacher-directed approach to change led to a newfound sense of ownership and empowerment in NIC teachers for addressing the challenge of increasing female participation in CS. 

This experience report provides insights into the unintended consequences of five states efforts to make computer science education policy changes in an effort to broaden participation in computing (BPC). At the 2019 Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) meeting, several member-states were invited to share about the unintended consequences of computer science education policy reform in their states. Due to the nature of policy making and implementation, marginalized communities including students, practitioners, and under resourced schools are most impacted by education policy reform efforts. As computer science education gains traction as an education policy priority in states and districts, it is important to learn the lessons of past education policy failures and successes, specifically how these policies could trigger unintended consequences that will impact the broadening of participation within K-12 computer science education. The examples put forth by the states include unintended consequences of policies such as making CS count as a graduation requirement, defining computer science, developing CS standards, and teacher certification. These experienced unintended consequences may be relevant to other states seeking to make CS policy changes. This paper concludes with a reflection on the ECEP model as a tool for mitigating these unintended consequences as part of the BPC efforts. 

Collective impact is an approach for solving complex social problems at scale. The challenge of broadening participation in computing (BPC) is one such problem. The complexity of BPC is compounded by the decentralized nature of public education, where decisions are made primarily at the state level and subject to interpretation at the district level. As such, diversifying computer science (CS) pathways across the nation requires a systemic approach such as collective impact to engage all of the stakeholders who influence CS education and whose decisions can either facilitate or hinder BPC efforts. This experience report discusses how the collective impact framework has been used to advance the work of the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance, an NSF funded BPC Alliance focused on states and state policy as the unit of change. We discuss how the five essential features of collective impact (common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone support) coalesce to facilitate ECEP's theory of change. The report highlights specific policy changes that ECEP states have addressed to promote BPC, the flipped accountability that results from a non-hierarchical leadership model, and the challenges of measuring systemic changes as an intermediary to BPC. 

Successful maintenance and development of underground infrastructures depends on the ability to access underground utilities efficiently. In general, obtaining accurate positions and conditions of subterranean utilities is not trivial due to inaccurate data records and occlusions that are common in densely populated urban areas. Limited access to underground resources poses challenges to underground utilities management. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is an effective sensing tools widely used for underground sensing. Combining high accuracy GPR data and augmented reality (AR) poses enables accurate real time visualizations of the buried objects. Although GPR and AR collect and visualize high accuracy data, intensive computation is required. This work presents a novel GPR-AR system that decreases post-processing time significantly while maintaining a neutral format across GPR-AR data collection methods regardless of varying Internet or GPS connection strengths. The methods explored in this work to mitigate failures of previous systems include automated and georeferenced post processing, the classification of underground assets using artificial intelligence, and real time data collection path visualizations. This work also lays a foundation for the potential combinations of a 5G GPR-AR system in which the temporal gap between data collection and visualization can be alleviated. 

This experience report details the lessons learned while launching a Networked Improvement Community (NIC) with 23 teachers in Texas as part of the NSF-funded Accelerating Women’s Success and Mastery in Computer Science (AWSM in CS) project. Conceived to address the persistent gender inequities in computer science (CS) education, the NIC was designed to bring together researchers and practitioners to collaboratively develop and implement solutions with the goal of increasing female participation in CS courses. This experience report explores the lessons learned, such as the importance of building a sense of community, trust, and collaboration, before jumping into problem solving as a NIC. Additionally, the report addresses considerations for sustaining the NIC virtually given the logistical constraints placed on teacher collaboration during the school year.