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Abstract: It is critical that we understand the systemic issues that have led to the historic marginalization of students in K-12 computer science education (CSEd) to the degree that we can design equity-centered policy and actions. Investments in CSEd have expanded rapidly through local interventions and state policy, however the data required to understand the impact of this expansion continues to lag or be insufficient. This paper takes a retrospective look at efforts to measure broadening participation in computing (BPC) approaches and identifies equity-explicit strategies moving forward, Over the last two decades, efforts to measure BPC have evolved from ad-hoc grassroots methods to more systematic and sustainable approaches. BPC, often interpreted as access and participation, does not address the inherent inequality embedded in the K-12 American public education system. Current data efforts often focus on the student, obscuring the systems and practices that contribute to inequities in CSEd. This paper concludes with recommendations for prioritizing data utilization and the development of holistic data systems that are woven into strategic plans that lead to systems change and equitable student access, participation and experiences in computing. 

Facilitating the development of a common framework for monitoring progress in K-12 computer science (CS) education and advocacy with an emphasis on broadening participation is the key to constructing strong CS education policy. Based on a project that brought together leadership teams from six states, a framework for measuring broadening participation in computing (BPC) and setting the foundation for national scaling was developed. Built around a collaboration of leaders representing experience in data gathering, data analysis, data reporting, and data utilization, this project applied the tenets of collective impact to address the challenge of consistently measuring progress toward BPC across state contexts. By establishing a common agenda, including mutually agreed upon definitions of computer science education and broadening participation, these leaders guided the selection of metrics. This led to the development of shared measurement systems and built a deeper understanding of state data systems across the participating states. This phase resulted in common goals and a monitoring system to measure BPC efforts that could inform state policy efforts. Mutually reinforcing activities included the development and sharing of tools, allowing stakeholders to quickly and accurately analyze and disseminate data that drives BPC measurement and policy work. Guided by backbone support to coordinate the work and continuous communication, meaningful participation of all stakeholders was central to the project. Making the case for CS education policy via common metrics and measuring progress across a region stands to impact BPC policy efforts across the United States. The common framework developed in this project serves as a call to action, especially for state and local education agencies committed to increasing diversity in computer science pathways.

 

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. 

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. 

Computer Science (CS) education advocates have worked within states to change K-12 education policies in order to broaden participation in computing (BPC) and grow CS as a content discipline within K-12 classrooms. Statewide summits, which convene a variety of stakeholders across levels of education, are pivotal events that build momentum for change. Maryland has utilized annual summits to leverage statewide advocacy in order to continue CS K-12 education growth. Summit evaluations provided valuable data to strategically plan additional events and advocacy activities. Data from the past four annual summits are analyzed and discussed. State advocacy outcomes include: 1) increased statewide CS education awareness, 2) the establishment of the Maryland Center for Computing Education, 3) seven million dollars of state funds dedicated to K-12 CS education professional development and pre-service teacher preparation program reform, and 4) the enactment of Securing the Future: Computer Science for All law. This law requires all Maryland public high schools to offer CS, make efforts at the middle and elementary levels to include CS, and broaden participation in computing in K-12 classrooms. Valuable insights are provided for other states to consider as they build BPC advocacy efforts through statewide summits in their own states. 

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.