Our projects enable us to create, identify, and promote high-quality computer science education resources that are culturally-relevant and evidence-driven.
We conduct this research with several established and new partners.
Meta-Synthesis of K-12 CS Education Reports in the US using the CAPE Equity Framework
Our objective for this project is to use the CAPE (Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience) framework to compare, contrast and synthesize national reports that are specifically focused on equity from the last few years (2019-22) on K-12 CS education and share this widely throughout the wider CS Education community, including with stakeholders and decision makers.
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CSTA Teacher PD Evaluation
We are working closely with the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) to develop measure the impact of teacher CS professional development across the CSTA teacher competency standards 1-5. This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
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Engineering PLUS Alliance
Engineering PLUS is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a part of the NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion Across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science) Program. NSF INCLUDES is a national initiative that enhances U.S. leadership with the major focus on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Engineering PLUS aims to build a system and a network to increase engineering degrees among women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color) nationally.
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Building High-Quality K-12 Computer Science Education Research Across an Outcome Framework of Equitable Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience
Working with Leigh Ann DeLyser (CSforALL), Jennifer Rosato (National Center for CS Education) and Sarah Heckman (NCSU), this project seeks to address the critical need for high-quality, equity-focused K-12 computing education research (CER) across the U.S. to meet the needs of finding promising practices for teaching computing to all students. The research will analyze existing and ongoing research and develop guidelines for conducting high-quality, equity-focused research. One goal is to identify barriers and gaps in equity-focused research across K-12 computing education using the Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience (CAPE) framework as a lens for analysis. Those results will be used to develop workshops to build the capacity of researchers to include and focus on equity.
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JROTC-CS Impact Study
We are conducting research into the impact of the CSforALL JROTC-CS intervention, which is designed to bring computer science and cybersecurity education to students at high schools across the United States that have JROTC programs. This includes evaluating the first year of the grant across capacity, access, participation and experience, with a particular focus on JROTC cadets' experiences.
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SCRIPT Crew TN: Impacts of State-Wide SCRIPT on CS Education Pathways in TN
This project will leverage the Strategic CSforALL Resource and Implementation Planning Tool (SCRIPT) to create opportunities for local facilitator training; provide ongoing support; and added capacity to almost half of the school districts for the state.As evaluators on this Research Practice Partnership between CSforAll and CodeCrew, we are measuring the effectiveness of this RPP that will connect the Tennessee state level actions with school and district level plans and data, focusing explicitly on the pathways designed and experienced by students as they move through K-12 programs. The team will also design teacher pathways with a focus on initial teacher preparation as well as the development of advanced teacher knowledge.
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Hindsight 2020
The purpose of this NSF-funded project (#2039175) is to analyze and to learn from the unique experience of 2020 professional development (PD) programs for computer science (CS) teachers.
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Teacher Practice Briefs
Funded by a Google CS-ER grant and conducted in collaboration with the Computer Science Teachers Association, this pilot project includes K-12 CS teachers and researchers working together to develop Teacher Practice Briefs. Defined as a condensed document designed to support teachers with research-based information, practice briefs are often focused on teachers’ problems of practice, particularly as they relate to equity (Bell and Rhinehart, 2016).
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RPPForCS
The hallmark of the RPP program is to “strengthen the capacity of an organization to reliably produce valued CS and CT educational outcomes for diverse groups of students, educated by different teachers from varied contexts” and the studies have “less prescriptive research designs and methods, with research occurring in rapid, iterative and context-expanding cycles.”
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2020 and 2021 Air Force JROTC Cyber Academy
We served as evaluators for two years (including the pilot year) on this summer program that brought high school students together to learn cybersecurity. Funded by the National Science Foundation, this project provided formative feedback to curriculum designers and implementors to strengthen the Academy using the equity-centric CAPE framework.
Reimagining CS Pathways: High School and Beyond
The Reimagining CS Pathways: High School and Beyond project has the long-term goal of articulating a shared vision for introductory high school CS instruction that could be used to fill a high school graduation requirement as well as the alignment between that content and the two AP CS courses and college-level CS courses.
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