CSforAll: RPP: Programming the Acceleration of Computing and Equity in Massachusetts 2 (PACE2)

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) proposes Pathways for Advancing Computing Education (PACE2), a researcher-practitioner partnership (RPP) facilitated by the MIT Teaching Systems Lab (TSL), CSforMA, and consortium of 12 diverse school districts across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. PACE2 participants share the common goal of broadening participation in computing for underserved groups in computer science (CS) in Massachusetts: females, Black and Hispanic/Latinx, low-income students, English learner students and students with disabilities. The long-term objectives of PACE2 districts are to address the four dimensions of the CAPE framework for equitable CS education: improving Capacity for CS education, expanding Access to CS courses, broadening Participation of underrepresented groups, and ensuring equitable experiences in CS courses. The ongoing community of practice brings together multi-stakeholder teams within each district including CS teachers, department heads, guidance counselors, and school and district leaders to ensure coherent, district-wide approaches to broadening participation and improving experiences in computer science. Strengthening CS education across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will require creating a diverse set of pathways for different districts—with different curriculum structures, demographic compositions, and per pupil expenditures—to make progress towards helping all students meet and exceed the Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science standards and close the many opportunity gaps related to CS education that exist throughout the state. PACE members will participate in a yearlong sequence of workshops, including best-in-class programs developed by prior NSF-funded work like the Strategic CSforALL Research and Implementation Planning Tool (SCRIPT) and Counselors for Computing (C4C), along with new programming. These newly developed professional learning experiences focus on improving equity teaching practices through digital clinical simulations and developing monitoring tools and programs for tracking progress towards equity of opportunity and outcomes in CS education across the district. The project will iteratively improve on these initial learning experiences for a second year and map out pathways for expanding the number of districts with PACE fellows. The project will set the stage for a larger RPP that engages other stakeholders engaged in CS education in Massachusetts. 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.