Jennifer Rosato

CSAwesome is a new approved curriculum and professional development (PD) provider for the Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science (CS) A high school course. AP courses are taken by secondary (typically ages 14-19) students for college placement and/or credit. CSAwesome's free curriculum and teacher resources were developed in 2019 by adapting the CSA Java Review ebook on the open-source Runestone platform. The goals of CSAwesome are to broaden participation in the AP CSA course and to support new-to-CS students and teachers as they transition from the AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) course to the AP CSA course by using inclusive teaching practices and curriculum design. The AP CSP course is equivalent to a first course for non-majors at the college level, while the AP CSA course is equivalent to a first course for majors. Currently, AP CSA attracts a much less diverse student body than AP CSP. This new curriculum supports student engagement and scaffolded learning through an interactive ebook with embedded executable and modifiable code (Active Code), a variety of practice types with immediate feedback, and adaptable mixed-up code (Parsons) problems. Collaborative learning is encouraged through pair programming and groupwork. Our pilot Professional Development (PD) incorporates inclusive teaching strategies and active recruitment with the goal of broadening participation in CSA. This paper presents the design of the CSAwesome curriculum and teacher professional development and initial results from the curriculum use and pilot PD during the first year of CSAwesome.

Computing has, for many years, been one of the least demographically diverse STEM fields, particularly in terms of women's participation [2] and those from minoritized racial and ethnic groups. In the case of higher education, one of the most powerful sites of intervention is the classroom. The last decade has seen a proliferation of research exploring new teaching techniques and course sequencing and their effect on the retention of students who have historically been excluded from computing. This research suggests interventions and practices that can affect the inclusiveness of the computer science classroom and potentially improve learning outcomes for all students. But research needs to be translated into practice, and practices need to be taken up in real classrooms. The goal of this working group (WG) is to conduct a systemic "state-of-the-art" review of recent empirical studies of teaching practices that have some explicit test of the impact on women (or other under-represented groups) in computing. The WG will produce an annotated bibliography and a report that distills the research into specific, actionable practices.

Bringing computer science to rural schools is a persistent CS education challenge. Over 9 million students attend rural schools, nearly 1 in 5 of all public school students [1]. While rural schools have some advantages, they face significant challenges including recruiting and retaining qualified STEM teachers, school funding, and access to broadband Internet. To better understand how and why rural schools are teaching CS courses, researchers conducted focus groups during summer 2020. Participants included high school teachers who had completed the Mobile Computer Science Principles (CSP) professional development and were teaching in rural or town schools. Results indicate that in varied rural contexts, teachers play a key role in establishing and sustaining CS courses at their school while facing challenges such as how to navigate teaching, course capacity, and access to resources necessary to teach CSP. The experiences, strengths, and challenges of rural teachers can inform state policy leaders, curriculum and professional development providers, researchers, and other stakeholders as they work to expand access to meaningful CS learning for all students, including those in rural areas.

CS Principles (AP-CSP) is giving more girls and under-represented students access to CS education, but CSP has not reached all students. Concurrent enrollment (CE), in which students take CE courses in their high school for college credit, is offered in places and to students who may not have access to Advanced Placement. The CS-through-CE project, an NSF-sponsored Research Practice Partnership, aims to broaden participation in computing by piloting and studying CE implementations of Mobile CSP, an effective CSP curriculum that has now been adapted as a college course. Initial research has identified barriers and supports to implementing Mobile CSP as CE in two contexts (rural, low-SES and urban, diverse, low-SES). This poster will present factors that support or impede implementation of CS-through-CE at the external level (e.g., policy, systems, context), the post-secondary CE program level (e.g., instructor qualifications, student eligibility, school outreach), and school/classroom level (e.g., teacher availability, student recruitment, administrator support). We aim to gather feedback on these results, as well as engage with others with experience with or interest in offering CS-through-CE.

A unique partnership between an education faculty member and computer science faculty member provided an opportunity to secure grant funding from Google to implement a massive open online course (MOOC) to provide professional development in computer science education to K-12 teachers from the United States and several other countries. The faculty members were especially concerned about creating a MOOC in which participants felt engaged and developed a sense of community. The idea of “social presence” provided the conceptual framework for course design. Several pedagogical design decisions were made, including the use of Google Hangout, to facilitate a sense of community. The study is still in progress. A preliminary review of the data point to several course design features which appeared to support the goal of building community with online adult learners. In this session, attendees will have an opportunity to review course design features that appear to have had a positive impact on developing community and engaging learners in this massive open online course. Attendees will also be invited to share their own experiences and insights in building community in the online environment with adult learners

Higher education institutions and their computer science departments have been strong supporters of K12 CS. One area that has not been explored in-depth is the use of concurrent enrollment (CE) programs to expand access to high school CS courses such as CS Principles or CS1. CE courses are those that are taught by an approved teacher in a high school. Unlike other programs that offer credit by exams (e.g., College Board's Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate), the context for concurrent enrollment varies with state and insitutional policies. However, CE programs also hold potential for broadening participation in computing with flexibility in timelines and assessments in alignment with local school contexts. We will facilitate discussion around what it takes to develop a CS CE program including teacher qualifications, aligning courses to majors or other college requirements, partnering with high schools, assessment standards, etc. CE programs also have the potential to support departmental Broadening Participation in Computing plans. Computer with webcam and microphone recommended; handout on starting CS CE programs provided.

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.

The CS-through-CE project studies the promise of Concurrent Enrollment (CE) programs, in which students take CE courses in their high school for college credit, as a vehicle for broadening participation in high school to college pathways in computer science (CS). The Mobile Computer Science Principles (Mobile CSP) project at the College of St. Scholastica, an established curriculum endorsed by the College Board for its alignment with the Advanced Placement (AP) CSP framework, has formed a Research-Practitioner Partnership (RPP) with CE programs at Capital Community College in CT and Southwest Minnesota State University and with partner schools in each state. The RPP explores whether CS through CE can broaden the high school to college pathway in computing disciplines for those traditionally underrepresented in these fields—female, underrepresented minority, and low-SES students. By implementing and studying CS through CE in two contexts (rural and low-SES in Minnesota and urban, diverse, and low-SES in Connecticut), the project contributes to transforming the educational pathways in CS in a variety of contexts and to understanding the supports and barriers to implementing CSP as CE with a broadening-participation goal.

ABSTRACT The College Board's CS Principles (CSP) Project is an effort to develop a language-neutral, breadth-first advanced placement (AP) course in computer science. MobileCSP is an NSF-funded effort to train high school teachers to teach a CSP course that engages students in building mobile apps with App Inventor. The workshop will provide an overview of MobileCSP training including a hands-on introduction to App Inventor and a representative sample of CSP-based lesson plans, assessment materials, and other resources. MobileCSP training will be available for free to all high school teachers in summer 2014 through an online course. Attendees will be provided information about getting involved in the summer 2014 training. Target audience: high school teachers. Laptop required.

ABSTRACT A recent focus in CS education has been at the K-12 level, developing CS and computational thinking skills. Oftentimes CS programs find it difficult to get into schools. At St. Scholastica a unique partnership exists between CS and Education. Together they sponsor workshops, write grants, conduct research and support a CSTA chapter. Activities have credibility with K-12 educators and involve subject matter experts. CS programs are able to reach their target audience, encouraging more teachers to include CS in their curriculum and to support their students in pursuing technical careers. Education programs have another way to partner with teachers and provide continuing education. The poster will share benefits for each program, collaborative activities, logistics and results.