ECEP and White House Symposium on State Implementation of CS for All

I was thrilled when I got this message two weeks ago:

We have been working for months now on a big meeting organized by ECEP with the Research+Practice Collaboratory and Ruthe Farmer of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The goal is to organize state and federal leaders in growing CS for All in the states.  Here’s my written-for-ECEP description of the agenda (not official, not vetted by OSTP, etc.):

CS for All: State-Level Research and Action Summit

Friday

The first part of the Friday sessions at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is aimed at strengthening connections between research and practice. The NSF’s CS10K efforts and the President’s CS for All Initiative have created an unprecedented rise in the implementation of CS education efforts across the United States. Making education reform systematic and sustainable requires cross-sector efforts with shared goals and meaningful data collection that can inform practice. We need to make sure that we are building and using evidence-based knowledge about what’s happening in our CS for All efforts.

CS for all is a rare education research opportunity. The American education canon does not change often. We need to create research-practice partnerships to improve our understanding of what works and why.  The Research+Practice Collaboratory (Bronwyn Bevan, Phil Bell, Bill Penuel) will be bringing in a group of learning sciences researchers (including Shuchi Grover, Nichole Pinkard, and Kylie Peppler) and practitioners to work with the ECEP state teams. The goal is to learn how research-practice partnerships can help the field identify key questions and areas for building and sustaining evidence-based practice.

The afternoon session is focused on understanding where the state’s are today. ECEP Evaluators, Sagefox, will share with state groups benchmark data. We will review data on the evaluation of the efforts to make Exploring CS, CS Principles, Bootstrap, and Code.org curricula and professional development available across the country. As a group, we will review state efforts in computer science education implementation and reform. States identify their greatest successes and identify their most pressing needs.

The evening session at OSTP is focused on making the President’s CS for All initiative work at the state level. In the United States, K-12 curriculum and policies are decided at the state-level.  Obama Administration officials will help the state teams to understand the goals of the CS for All initiative. Four state teams will share their successes and efforts, which differ considerably from one another as they meet the unique challenges and objectives of their state’s education system.

Saturday

The CS for All initiative means that we all students in all schools in all districts get access to CS education. Each of our 16 states and Puerto Rico will summarize their successes and lessons learned in 3 minute madness talks. We’ll have two panels — one on negotiating state structures and processes when implementing CS for All, and one on how to make sure that we broaden participation while we aim for CS for All (to avoid being CS Just For Rich Kids). We will have a luncheon keynote from Cameron Wilson of Code.org on how they are aiming to create CS education that reaches all students.

The CS for All initiative requires us to reach all students in a system and sustainable way.

1. Reaching Broader: We can see from the benchmark data where CS initiatives are focused and where there are gaps. Not all districts are implementing CS education yet. We need to develop strategies for filling in the gaps.
2. Reaching Deeper: The data also show us where CS initiatives are starting but shallow. In most districts, a handful of teachers are getting short professional learning opportunities with little follow-up. Teachers need effective learning opportunities that give them the knowledge and self-confidence to make CS a sustainable topic. We need to develop strategies to make CS change deep, systemic, and sustainable.

State teams develop and share their strategies to reach broader and deeper.