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Teacher isolation, where only one teacher at a school is teaching a particular subject, has been reported as one of the biggest challenges for computer science (CS) teachers in the US. However, the extent of CS teacher isolation has not been documented beyond teachers' self report. We use 14 years of middle and high school data from California to determine factors affecting the likelihood of CS being offered or a CS teacher being isolated at a school. We find that teachers in CS experience isolation at a higher rate than almost all other subjects and that larger schools are more likely to have one or more CS teachers. We extend prior work by showing that schools with a greater proportion of students underrepresented in computing are less likely to offer CS even when controlling for school size. 

Background: Code comprehension research has identified gaps between the strategies experts and novices use in comprehending code. In computer science (CS) education, code comprehension has recently received increased attention, and research has identified correlations between code comprehension and code writing. While there is a long history of identifying expert code-comprehension strategies, there has been less work to understand and support the incremental development of code comprehension expertise. Purpose: The goal of the paper is to identify potential code-comprehension strategies that educators could teach students. Methods: In this paper, I analyze and present examples from a novice programmer engaged in a code-comprehension task. Findings: I identify five code-comprehension strategies that overlap with previously identified, expert code-comprehension strategies. While an expert would use these strategies to produce correct inferences about code, I primarily examine a novice’s unsuccessful attempts to comprehend code using these strategies. Implications: My case study provides an existence proof that shows that these five strategies can be used by a novice. This is essential for identifying potential strategies to teach novices. My primary empirical contribution is identifying potential building blocks for developing code-comprehension expertise. My primary theoretical contribution is proposing to build code-comprehension pedagogy on specific, expert strategies that I show are usable by a novice. More broadly, I hope to encourage CS education researchers to focus on understanding the complex processes of learning that occur in between the end points of novice and expert. 

Computer Science (CS) courses classified as Career Technical Education (CTE) make up over half of all CS courses offered in high schools in California as of the 2018-2019 school year and are eligible for funding through CTE grants. There has been a growing focus on creating equitable access to CS as well as recommendations to use CTE funds for this purpose. This paper examines whether there is an increase in CS course offerings or CS enrollment as an effect of receiving CTE funding in California. Publicly available data from the California Department of Education (CDE) was used to conduct a two-way fixed effects analysis. Results indicate a null effect from these grants on CS course offerings and enrollment. These results raise questions as to other factors that might have played a larger role in the recent increase in CS course offerings and expansion of CS courses classified as CTE.