What are the Barriers and Supports to Intro CS in school? BASICS – The Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education

I’m an advisor on the BASICS project at U. Chicago — the Barriers and Supports to Introductory CS in schools. I visited them in December after our semester ended. The link below goes to a page with some of the first results of the project.

Computer Science teachers in Chicago and Washington, DC completed a questionnaire in Spring 2014 that, among other things, asked them to identify the three biggest supports for and barriers to their computer science classes. All of the teachers were using Exploring Computer Science (ECS) instructional materials.

via BASICS – The Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education.

They have links on the page referenced above to the top barriers and supports that they heard from ECS teachers in those districts.  Top barrier for teachers: their own lack of self-efficacy.  Top support for teachers: professional development.