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Flash Talk for the ECEP Alliance from the NSF BPC Community Meeting
The document outlines a strategic approach for establishing a computer science education framework in various states, focusing on leadership and organization. It emphasizes the importance of finding allies, identifying funding sources, and creating pathways for teacher certification. Additionally, it highlights the need for a steering committee and a clear vision to foster growth in computer science education.
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Flash Talk for the ECEP Alliance from the NSF BPC Community Meeting
- 1. National picture fromCode.Org
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- 6. STEP 2 Where areyou now? How do you get anywhere?
- 7. WHO DECIDES WHO TEACHES? Inthe Southeast: Department of Education decides curriculum. Teacher Certification? SC: Commission on Higher Education GA: Professional Standards Committee
- 8. DO YOU HAVEA CHAPTER? You want a Computer Science Teachers Association chapter for your state. Maybe two or three.
- 9. DO YOU HAVEA PATHWAY? You want a Perkins pathway. Georgia’s 2013 Pathways
- 10. STEP 3 Organize. FindYour Allies.
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- 13. ECEP SEED GRANTPROGRAM Small amounts of money to do these kinds of things…
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- 18. STATE OF THESTATES IN AP CS 2012 % female exam-takers (2012)
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- 20. LOOKING FOR ASSOCIATE STATES Youneed a leader(s), You need a cross-sector steering committee, And you need a vision.
Editor's Notes
- #2 You may have seen this info graphic from the Code.org website. It depicts the state of CS education in the United States. Nationally, only one out of 10 high schools offers computer science. But that's the national picture.
- #3 In the United States, K-12 education is decided at the individual state level. The variance at the individual state level in CS education is enormous. Half the high schools in Maryland have CS education. Only 2 schools in Mississippi have a CS teacher, and both of those are on-line only. There is no physical school in Mississippi with an AP CS teacher.
- #4 I'm part the NSF alliance ECEP -- Expanding Computing Education Pathways. We work with our partners to help individual states make change to their computing education.
- #5 We have national reach, through our partnerships with other alliances. We work most closely with Massachusetts, Georgia, California, and South Carolina, and are now inviting in Indiana, Alabama, and Puerto Rico as associate states.
- #6 Based on our experience, we have a model to start improving computing education in your state. Step 1: Find your leaders. Making computing education better doesn't just happen. It happens because somebody or somebodies champions the cause and is willing to work across sectors.
- #7 Step 2: Figure out the state of CS education in your state, and how it's changed. One of the biggest surprises in ECEP for me has been how many different ways the states organize their K12 education. In many states like California and Nebraska, individual districts have enormous control, with almost no state requirements.
- #8 Map from nationalatlas.gov. In many southeast states, like Georgia and South Carolina, the Department of Education defines the curriculum for the whole state. But who decides certification, who can teach? In Georgia, it's the Professional Standards Committee, separate from the Department of Education. In South Carolina, it's the Higher Education committee. You might be surprised who makes what decisions in your state.
- #9 You want a CSTA chapter in your state, and for larger states, you want 2 or 3. Supporting your CS teachers as professionals is critical for their development and their retention.
- #10 Do you have a Perkins pathway in your state? You probably want a pathway. There is federal funding to support three course sequences in career and technical education. So you want more than one class in high school to get at that federal funding, but watch out for the state education leaders who don't want their pathway money going to any AP courses.
- #11 Step 3: Organize. Get your whole motley crew behind your cause. Find your allies wherever they are. We have found that you can be more convincing with more voices from different sectors: Private industry, K12, community college, University and college.
- #12 ECEP is working in South Carolina, in part, because IT-oLogy was there before we got there. IT-oLogy is an organization to promote IT education that was started by businesses in South Carolina , like BCBS and Loew's, that were worried about who they were going to hire in the future. We would love to see more IT-oLogy's in more states.
- #13 You're going to need funding, from organizations like these, or from other sources, like the private companies that fund IT-oLogy. You need funding for the small early stuff, not just the big expensive stuff.
- #14 One of those source of funding can be ECEP. We have Summer Camp seed grants to start summer camp programs. We have small seed grants to offer to our Associate States to do just these kinds of things.
- #15 One of the things you want funding for right away are summits. In Massachusetts, Georgia, and South Carolina, we have seen the power of summits. Bring all your allies (and those you want to be allies) into one room and talk about the importance of computing education. Seeing one another, talking about the problems, and brainstorming solutions is significant at energizing the effort and making progress. ECEP can provide speakers (with funding for travel and honorarium) through Experts Bureau.
- #16 We're finding it really useful to put together a Landscape Report, the state of a state in CS education. A landscape report tells us where we are today. Who teaches CS? Who takes CS? What are our biggest needs? It's a document that can help inform the policy makers that there's a problem. You hope that it looks beautiful with lots of good computing education every out there.
- #17 But you'll probably find that there's not much out there. Most landscape reports look like this. CS education is definitely not everywhere you want it to be. How bad is it out there?
- #18 Here's an information visualization of AP CS exam test-takers from Brian Danielak. Dots more to the right mean more female test-takers on an exam, and dots to the left mean more male test-takers. You'll see that most AP exams are actually majority female. Way down here, by far the leftmost AP exam, is computer science. CS is the most gender-skewed of all AP's. But that's at a national level.
- #19 What about the state levle? Here is a histogram of the states by percent of AP CS exam-takers that are female. There are ten equally-sized bins here. I draw your attention to the one bin to the far right, with no state in the bin to its left. That leader state is Tennessee with 31% female exam-takers. How did they get so far ahead of the pack? Highest % exam-takers is Tennessee with 29%. 73 women. 30 from one teacher, Jill Pala. Black: Rightmost bin is Maryland, Texas, and Georgia. Largest Black population is Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia. Hispanic: Rightmost is Texas, then California, then Florida (order of population).
- #20 It's due to one extraordinary teacher, Jill Pala. Jill sent 30 girls to the AP CS exam last year, of the 73 female AP CS exam takers in Tennessee. Without Jill, Tennessee drops into the middle of the pack. Individuals can make a difference in that landscape. Highest % exam-takers is Tennessee with 31%. 73 women. 30 from one teacher, Jill Pala.
- #21 We are looking for more Associate States. Come see us if you have a leader (or leaders), a cross-sector steering committee that can inform that leader, and a vision for how your state can improve and broaden access to computing education. Thank you.