Collaborative Research: Districts Helping Districts: Scaling Inclusive CT Pathways

School Board Of Broward County Florida, Fort Lauderdale FL

Investigators

Abstract

While all 50 U.S. states have adopted computer science education policies and standards, consistency remains a persistently common challenge. This partnership between Digital Promise Global and the Broward County School Board will address research questions and activities that advance knowledge on how school districts across the nation design, implement, and sustain cumulative and competency-based K-12 computational thinking (CT) pathways. This project will study how CT pathways can reach all U.S. students among the participating school districts, ensuring that every learner has access to the necessary skills needed to participate in the country’s scientific, technological, and economic future. This approach recognizes the crucial role of districts in designing and implementing computing pathways that coherently connect core computing competencies to the district’s adoption of state standards, available resources, and teacher professional development opportunities. The partnership builds on prior work and will engage eight school districts across the country that serve a variety of geographies, district sizes and student populations. Key to this research-practitioner partnership (RPP) scale-up is the crucial role of school districts in advancing knowledge and addressing student achievement gaps in K-12 computing. The project team includes eightschool districts, who collectively explore practices for sustainably scaling the CT pathways model that partnering districts have individually designed and implemented over the past three years. The RPP will leverage the CT Pathways Toolkit designed from prior work and implement a teacher-led model of professional learning at scale for district administrators and instructors. The goal is for district leaders and teachers to develop skills and support systems to effectively implement cumulative, consistent, and competency-based learning opportunities in each grade, K-12. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.