In January 2016, US President Barack Obama started an initiative to provide CS for All – with the goal that all school students should have access to computing education. Computing departments in higher education have a particularly important role to play in this initiative. It’s in our best interest to get involved, since the effort can potentially improve the quality of our incoming students. CS Departments have unique insights as subject-matter experts to inform the development of standards. We can provide leadership to inform and influence education policy. In this session, we will present a variety of ways in which departments and faculty can support CS for All and will answer audience questions about the initiative. Our goal is to provide concrete positive actions for faculty. Barbara Ericson spoke on influencing our incoming students and using outreach to improve the number and diversity of students and to improve the number and quality of teachers. Rick Adrion spoke on CS faculty providing subject-matter expertise to standards efforts. A key role for CS faculty is to help teachers, administrators, and public policy makers to understand what CS is. Megean Garvin spoke on how CS faculty can provide a leadership role. Faculty have a particular privileged position to draw together diverse stakeholders to advance CS Education.

1. The Role of CS Departments in
The US President’s “CS for All”
Initiative
Mark Guzdial (moderator),
Barbara Ericson,
W. Richards (Rick) Adrion,
Megean Garvin

2. First a word from the former US Chief
Technology Officer, Megan Smith

3. What role can Computer Science
departments play in meeting the
challenge of CS for All?

4. Barbara Ericson
Influencing future students

5. CSforAll
Barbara Ericson
Georgia Tech
ericson@cc.gatech.edu

6. Overview
› Teacher Professional Development
› Lending Library
› Advocate for K-12 CS
› Ebooks
› Competitions
› Alice, Scratch, AP Bowl
› PSAT Letters
› Rise Up 4 CS
› Summer Camps

7. Teacher Professional Dev
› Started in 2004
› Increase the
quantity and quality
of computing
teachers
› Increase the
quantity and
diversity of students
› Funding
› Toyota Foundation
› NSF Grants
› Lending Library

8. Advocate for K-12 CS
› Standards
Committee
› CS Endorsement
› CS Counts as a
4th Science
› 2012
› CS Task Force
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
# Students Taking the AP CSA
Exam in Georgia
http://tinyurl.com/ICE-APData

9. Free Interactive Ebooks
› Teacher and student
ebook for AP CSP
› http://tinyurl.com/Te
acherCSP
› http://tinyurl.com/St
udentCSP
› Student ebook for AP
CSA
› http://tinyurl.com/Ja
vaReview

10. Competitions
› Alice
› Scratch
› AP Bowl
› Practice multiple-
choice questions
› Graded with
gradecam
› > 250 people
› Prizes to top scorers
and raffle off the rest

11. PSAT Letters
› Send letters to the
parents of
underrepresented
students who do well
on the PSAT
› Encourage them to
take Advanced
Placement CSP or
CSA
› Virtual High School
› Advocate for CS at
their school
http://tinyurl.com/ICE-PSAT

12. Rise Up 4 CS
› Helps underrepresented
students succeed in AP
CSA and CSP
› Undergraduate near peer
role models
› Remote 1 hour sessions
using Google Hangouts on
Air
› 3 hour in-person help
sessions
› Funding
› Google Rise Awards and
Oracle
› Sisters Rise Up 4 CS – female
only

13. Rise Up 4 CS Outcome
› Record number of
Black students pass the
AP CSA exam in
Georgia each year
› Spring 2013
› Record number of
female students pass
the AP CSA exam in
Georgia each year
› Fall 2014-2015
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
# Black
# Black
Passed
0
100
200
300
400
500
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
# Female
# Female
Passed

14. One Student’s Story - 2013
Project Rise UP 4 CS gave me
the direction I wanted to take in
life. I had no interest in CS, but
taking the program I desired to
take a computer related field.
The program helped me out
because I learned the basic
concepts of coding that
allowed me to succeed in my
coding class.

15. Computing Summer Camps
› Run computing summer
camps
› Rising 3rd and up
› Led by K-12 teachers
› Financially self-sustaining
› Majority Minority
› Minority students are less
likely to have
computing at school

16. W. Richards (Rick) Adrion
Providing subject matter expertise

17. Providing Subject-Ma4er Exper8se
• CS faculty can provide valuable input to:
– Higher educa8on admission requirements
– K12 learning and CS educa8on research
– State ac8ons on educa8on
– Standards
– Engaging your local or regional schools/districts
– Licensure/Cer8fica8on
– Pre-service teacher educa8on programs

18. How can I contribute?
• Higher educa8on admission requirements
– Typically AP CS-A counts for credit/placement, but not as an
admission factor (as part of minimum academic record)
– While AP CSP may count for credit - What about towards a
degree? As an admission factor? To sa8sfy a GenEd requirement?
– College credit increases student (and parent) interest in K-12 CS
• K12 learning and CS educa8on research
– Look at real problems of interest to schools and districts, e.g., NSF
CS for All RPP
• Offer opinions on state ac8ons
– As an example, make sure CS is in the state Every Student
Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan
Get your college to report
to the College Board

19. Why should you care about K-12 CS standards?
• Standards affect all schools, not just highly resourced
districts -> can contribute to broadening par8cipa8on,
inclusion, and the school to college/career pipeline
• Can help bring more CS-ready students and students
with CS knowledge across all disciplines to college
• SEA/LEA staff, schools struggle with understanding
computer science and computa8onal thinking
• Standards are not frequently revised, so CS standards
must be forward looking
• Standards help define licensure, in turn highly qualified
teachers -> more engaged students

20. Na8onal Standards
• Par8cipate/Write
– Lori Pollock Professor University of Delaware
– Julia Bell (Walters State CC), Caitlin McMunn
Dooley (Georgia State), Diana Franklin
(UChicago), Dan Frost (UC Irvine), Maya Israel
(UIUC), Irene Lee (MIT)
• Review/Advise/Comment
– Maryland CS Ma^ers Steering Commi^ee,
University of Washington CS Faculty
– Owen Astrachan (Duke), Karen Brennan
(Harvard), Brian Dorn, (Nebraska-Omaha),
Phillip Eaglin, Kathi Fisler (WPI), Jeff Forbes
(Duke), Joanna Goode (Oregon), Mark Guzdial
(Georgia Tech), Helen Hu (Westminster),
Yasmin Kafai (Penn), Fred Mar8n (UMass
Lowell), Meg Ray (Cornell Tech), Dave Reed
(Creighton), Ben Shapiro (Colorado) (Boulder) ,
Uri Wilensky (Northwestern), Aman Yadav
(Michigan State)
• Promote in your state

21. State level standards
In Progress: California, Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia
Source: code.org

22. State Standards
Varia8on: Grade Spans, included in Science, with Literacy, Teacher Expecta8ons

23. Massachuse4s DLCS Framework
knowledge, reasoning, and skills are
essen8al to prepare students for
personal and civic efficacy in the
twenty-first century
Prac8ces to apply in reasoning, crea8on, and problem solving
4 Strands, 4 grade spans
Framework will include crosswalks to ELA, Math, ST/E, Health

24. The MA DESE DLCS standards
• Why Digital Literacy and Computer Science?
– Replace exis8ng Technology Literacy Standard
• The DESE DLCS Panel
– Formed by Dept. Elementary and Secondary Educa8on in
coopera8on with MassCAN, MassCUE
– Teachers, Administrators, School Board Members (Falmouth, Boston,
Williamsburg, Montachuse^, Concord, Cambridge Rindge & La8n, Dracut,
Mashpee, Ashland, Winchester, Somerville STEAM Academy, Salem,
Andover, Codman Academy Charter, Newton, Millis, Newton South)
– Faculty, Researchers, Program Managers (MIT, UMass Lowell, MassBay
CC, UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, Framingham State, Worcester
Polytechnic Ins8tute, Broad Ins8tute, Museum of Science, Concord
Consor8um, EDC)
– Technologists (Paragus Strategic IT, MITRE, Google, Ab Ini8o, PTC Inc.)

25. The MA DESE DLCS standards
• How did we define?
– Looked at 2011 CSTA K-12 Standards, 2008 MA Technology
Literacy Standards, 2007 AASL Standards, 2007 ISTE
Standards, 2013 UK Compu8ng at School Ini8a8ve,
College Board Computer Science Principles
– Met monthly for almost year, DESE/EDC/MassCAN edited
• Approved June 2016
• What now?
– Get districts to adopt, develop curricula,
– Expand in-service teacher PD
– Develop teacher licensure, pre-service teacher programs
DL CS
DL
&
CS

26. Challenges
• Engage districts to adopt, develop curricula
– MA is “local control” state
• Need models: Integrate in K-5, ? 6-8? CS track 9-12
• Curricula
– Teachers/Administrators don’t know what CS is
– Expand in-service teacher PD
• Districts, not state fund PD
• Need sustainable programs
• Help design pre-service teacher programs
Recognize faculty for K-12 educa8on and outreach!

27. Megean Garvin
Providing leadership

28. Maryland Computing Education
Megean E. Garvin, Ph.D.
UMBC
CS Matters in MD
mgarvin@umbc.edu

29. CS Matters in Maryland
Co-PI Jan Plane
(UMCP)
Co-PI Marie desJardins
(UMBC)
Dianne O’Grady-Cunniff
LaPlata H.S.,
Charles County
Joe Greenawalt
North Point H.S.,
Charles County
Jennifer Smith
Digital Harbor H.S.,
Baltimore City
Lead Teachers

30. CS Matters in Maryland
— Accomplishments:
§ Developed the Collaborative
Curriculum Creation System
(C3S) to create the CS Matters in
MD AP CSP course
§ Trained 75 CS Teachers in MD
and created state-wide
Community of Practice
§ Provided 240+ teachers
(nationally and internationally)
with access to curriculum
§ Reviewed by the College Board for
endorsement

31. CS Matters in Maryland
— Partnership networks:
§ Steering committee members
(35+ from MSDE, school
systems, universities, industry,
and nonprofits)
§ Maryland Chapter of Computer
Science Teachers Association
(hundreds)
§ Summit and other event
attendees (hundreds)
§ State CS Education Contact
Database (over 1,000)
Teachers with Access to CS Matters
in MD AP CSP Curriculum

32. CS Matters in Maryland
— Students reached across MD and beyond
(thousands)
— National visibility through Expanding Computing
Education Pathways Alliance, public presentations,
published articles, press coverage, social media...

33. Maryland Computing Education
— “CS Counts” as a technology education or 4th
mathematics credit for H.S. graduation requirements.
— MD has the highest per capita AP CS test taking and
passing rate in the country.
— Maryland representatives from MSDE and public high
school teachers participated in the national CS
framework and standards design and is moving towards
adoption of statewide standards.
— Hundreds of secondary teachers have been trained
through quality CS PD by multiple providers in MD (CS
Matters, Code.org, PLTW, etc.).

34. Maryland Center for Computing Education
Mission: Expand access to high-quality K-12
computing education in Maryland for all students
through teacher preparation, coalition building,
and advocacy
— Established in February 2017.
— USM leadership: Nancy Shapiro, Dewayne Morgan
— Carry out innovative pedagogical research and training
— Increase awareness of CS education issues among
students, parents, teachers, administrators, and the
general public
— Coordinate with CS education initiatives nationally
— Assess progress and leverage the Maryland Longitudinal
Data System Center

35. Your turn! Suggested Questions
• Do you see the "CS for All" effort changing under President Trump's
administration?
• Some Universities are starting CS teacher professional learning at the
undergraduate level ("pre-service"). What role (if any) do you see CS
departments playing in teacher development at the undergraduate
level?
• How can CS departments help in getting CS education to high school
students in rural communities?
• What role should CS departments play in developing the research
base to support the "CS for All" effort?