Changing Perspectives on Computer Science Education PART III

Providing Students a Corridor into Computing

Changing the landscape of computer science education to become more representative of the population in high schools across the nation has been the motivation for a number of national efforts concentrating on not just increasing the number of students studying computer science, but also diversifying it and ensuring that the discipline is inclusive. The creation of the new AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) course drummed up enormous excitement to broaden participation and it has shown signs of promise as the number of schools offering AP computer science courses has dramatically increased. Nonetheless, this increase doesn’t necessarily mean that students of color have access to this level of computing course. Don’t let this increase deter the focus of ensuring equity in access to the course.

AP CSP was developed with funding from the National Science Foundation and with the explicit charge to broaden participation. It is designed to elicit a creative aspect to learning computer science while also internalizing computational thinking that can transfer into multiple disciplines. It includes the study of the Internet and how computing impacts people and society as well as the study of computer programming. Of substantial importance is that there is no designated programming language which allows greater autonomy to introduce programming constructs with a variety of programming languages that are developmentally appropriate. This is a significant shift in computer science education where the entry point into rigorous learning of computer science is attainable to students whether or not they have had programming experience. There is no question in my mind what the intent of the course is, but in many high schools where leaders are hard-pressed to prioritize computer science to begin with, administrators are conflicted with how to incorporate AP CSP, and even more so AP CS A, primarily because of a lack of teachers equipped to teach computer science. Worse, with administrators who are heavily pressured to show their school offers a wide array of advanced courses, all they see is the “AP” label on the course titles and automatically initiate recruitment of students already tracked for higher learning opportunities. Too often, this occurs in schools located in economically stable communities and the students filtered into AP computer science courses are White students.

To combat these uninformed practices, the Constellations Center proposes a different approach to recruiting students into computing courses. The Center will instill a sequence of online computing courses in high schools to include AP CSP, Introduction to Computing Using Python, and AP CS A. The focus now becomes planning for a comprehensive computing educational experience rather than taking just one computing course. In Atlanta Public Schools (APS) and elsewhere, this is fundamental to not only changing student expectations but an entire academic trajectory that leads to post-secondary opportunities in computer science or STEM-related studies. Administrators, counselors and curriculum coordinators must first know that there are no barriers in terms of prerequisites for students to enroll in the AP CSP, meaning that students are not required to have any programming background and they certainly do not have to be the designated STEM students in a school.  Students will start with the AP CSP course and will have flexibility with the ensuing course they take. At the very least, they will be prompted to take two of these courses within their high school years and will obtain AP recognition on their transcripts.

Starting with AP CSP is important. In its first year of implementation in 2016-17, over 40,000 students took the AP CSP Exam and the demographics of these students exceeded the participation of females and students of color compared to the AP CS A Exam data. The AP CSP data show a promising sign of breaking racial and gender divides. There is still a long road ahead though. As we dive deeper into the data, we see that there are approximately 35,000 public and private high schools in the United States, and only 10% of them offer the AP CSP course. And even deeper into the numbers, we find that still most schools who are offering the AP CSP course are not considered low-income schools (though there may be low-income students at those schools). The pursuit to close the gap between economically disadvantaged and well-resourced schools to offer rigorous computing courses must continue.

AP Computer Science Principles – Student Participation Data At-a-Glance

AP CSP By Race/Ethnicity and Gender

The strongest divide is the disproportion of schools that are well resourced to offer high levels of computer science curriculum compared to economically disadvantaged schools who are often faced with greater challenges of acquiring qualified teachers, confronted with an uphill battle of getting students on level with mathematics and literacy skills, and left with very few, if any, options to prioritize computing opportunities for their students. Even if a low-income school offers high levels of computing courses, students in these schools are less likely to have had prior experience in computer programming. According to the Southern Education Foundation, over half of the students attending public schools in the United States are now categorized as low-income students. Any combination of these factors might dishearten efforts to expand computing education. The Constellations Center has committed to address these issues and improve on the viewpoints of providing students a corridor into computing.

1.  Recognize that students attending low-income schools merit the opportunity to enter into rigorous studies leading to post-secondary computing studies. This is a matter of equity. Since there is no hiding that low-income families are largely Black and Hispanic/Latino, the unjust distribution of access to rigorous computing courses is only part of the issue.

Initiatives to expand computing opportunities in low-income schools can be improved with comprehensive efforts at multiple levels and with community-based efforts, and these initiatives must be sustained over a long period of time. The larger issue is overcoming racial barriers. The Constellations Center pledges to change the current narrative and include students of color in computing. This is in many ways still a colossal paradigm shift in American education and an immense transformation for the tech industry. Nonetheless, our implementation of a hybrid instruction model is focused in low-resource schools where the concentration of students of color is highest.

Contesting issues of race in computing education will require both a sharp focus on understanding how an educational system functions within its community and a keen commitment to involve a robust group of stakeholders spanning from school and community leaders, post-secondary educators, local business and tech industry leaders, students, K-12 teachers, and government officials. Collectively and incrementally, diminishing racial barriers can allow rigorous computing education to become the norm, not the exception, for students of color. This is my goal with the Constellations Center’s work in APS.

1. Making decisions related to curriculum and professional development is key to sustainability. PreK-12 computer science, in general, is an emerging study in America. In other words, much of the new teaching resources for PreK-12 computer science have recently been developed and some of them are too new to understand their effectiveness in terms of how students engage with the materials and how they master computing knowledge. Though many of these resources have been piloted, educators making curriculum decisions should consider the needs of their students and their goals in providing pathways to higher levels of computing opportunities. Computing has immensely impacted the rapid advancement of the technological world we live in. Therefore, a computer science curriculum should be rigorous, relevant and it should capture the interests of students in multiple contexts. Additionally, incorporating the objective to transition students into post-secondary computing studies greatly impacts curriculum decisions. It is an essential aspect in determining the educational experiences students will have in classrooms and one that can influence decisions to continue on a computing pathway. In order to truly change computer science education in America, we must change the way we see the trajectory of students’ computing educational experiences from Prek-12 to PreK-16. This perspective forces school systems to afford all students the benefit of access to preparation leading to higher learning options. For these reasons, the Constellations Center will instill a sequence of advanced computing courses in high schools and will integrate a project-based learning approach in each course in the sequence. Students will engage with course content collaboratively and cooperatively with peers and be able to choose their own project topics.

We must also invest in the growth of teachers creating more stable school environments for both teachers and students. In the case of the Center’s hybrid instruction model, the teacher will have the opportunity to increase their efficacy over a sustained period of time and become an accomplished course facilitator. Attending face-to-face professional development is part of their growth but to support this growth more effectively teachers must be able to practice and reflect on their practice. The Center will develop a suite of teacher resources to accompany each course in the sequence that is easy to use and learn, filled with content that is relevant to their classroom teaching. These resources will provide teachers opportunities to be continual learners of the discipline itself.

1. As a community of educators, we must become excessively aware of how we guide and encourage young women in pursuing rigorous studies. There is no exaggerating how efforts in building the confidence of female students to achieve in math and science can boost their chances tremendously to pursue higher learning in those disciplines. So it can, too, for computer science. In doing so, words and actions matter. And being acutely aware of words and actions to prevent stereotype threat is extremely helpful from deterring females from pursuing studies like computer science that are significantly concentrated by men. The Center will leverage existing resources to include in professional development and develop additional modules to incorporate into course content as part of the expectations in the teaching and learning of computing.
2. We must all acknowledge that computing can lead to flourishing job opportunities in multiple fields and that it is acceptable to acknowledge this fact. Of course, computing is inextricably linked to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The job market in these disciplines where computing is required is enormous and continues to grow with beginning salaries starting at $70K on average. Additionally, computing has aided the advancement of the arts and the entertainment industry and these possibilities are quite vast as well. The Constellations Center recognizes that a rigorous educational experience in computing can lead to upward mobility, the kind that can lift an individual, a family, or a community out of poverty, and is important NOT to be dismissed. Upward mobility is linked to access to high-quality education, which is a right that belongs to all students in reaching prosperity in America, a right belonging to communities in voicing their needs in support of their children, and to educators in advocating for resources and the infrastructure needed to ensure every child’s success in school. Making computer science a part of the educational experience is imperative to the definition of high-quality education.

It is worth noting that our nation also needs construction workers, doctors, artists, and poets to understand computing so that we can all prosper and make sense of this world. Undeniably though, the computing discipline and the tech industry has negated the talent and expertise and voices of students of color for far too long. The population in the United States itself is swiftly diversifying and yet this discipline, one that arguably has the greatest impact on the economy and security of the nation, is not justifiably represented by its people. One way to combat this is to change your perspective of what studying computer science looks like so that females and students of color have a chance to be the technological citizens we need in this world, today and tomorrow.

References:

• AP Archived Data: https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/archived.
• AP Course Ledger: https://apcourseaudit.inflexion.org/ledger/?excmpid=VT-00090.
• Computing Research Association: CS Undergraduate Enrollments Surge Since 2006. The Mixed News on Diversity and the Enrollment Surge. https://cra.org/data/generation-cs/diversity/.
• Infographic: Silicon Valley’s diveristy by the numbers: https://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-tech-diversity-companies-compared-2017-8.
• Margolis, Jane. (2010) Stuck In the Shallow End. MIT Press.