Presented at the 2019 Pennsylvania Computer Science for All Summit.
This session served a discussion of practical strategies and techniques for recruiting underrepresented students into computer science while improving inclusivity and equity within CS classrooms. The session featured lessons and examples from an existing NSF CSforAll funded researcher practitioner partnership (RPP). Strategies addressed included targeted communication, outreach efforts, school community engagement, leveraging teacher-teacher collaborations, collaborative learning structures, and more. Emphasis was placed on sharing practical implementation plans and best practices.
Presented in the 2020 STEM for All Video Showcase "Learning from Research and Practice."
The goal of the Computer Science Teaching and Learning Collaboratory (CS-TLC) is to broaden the participation of historically underrepresented student populations in CS. The CS-TLC is a researcher-practitioner partnership between around 20 districts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Rutgers University’s Center for Effective School Practices, and Rutgers’ Department of Computer Science. This video highlighted some of the major activities of the CS-TLC during this past year, including a 5-day Summer Institute on rigorous and equitable practices in CS education, community outreach and engagement efforts, school events, and more!
Published in the Computer Science Newsletter, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
Persistent inequities in computer science education have long plagued the educational community. As schools struggle to recruit and retain diverse learners into computer science classes at the K-12 level, we see these disparities reflected in the computing workforce. This article explored the background and methodology of the Computer Science Teaching & Learning Collaboratory, an NSF-Funded Researcher Practitioner Partnership as well as preliminary findings and actionable advice for the computer science education community. .
You can view this publication online here.
Presented at The Big Ten Academic Alliance Summit Series on Advancing Undergraduate Women in STEM.
This presentation documented program offerings and best practices at the Big Ten Academic Alliance schools across the three themes of the Summit as found in the data from the completed surveys. This included the identification and analysis of barriers to and facilitators of broadening participation. Examining and disseminating these findings provided a road-map for the Big Ten Academic Alliance to evaluate strengths and weaknesses in program offerings and facilitate adoption of best institutional practices. The presentation was followed by a plenary talk and discussion on creating program goals and evaluation tools, which addressed the importance of skills necessary for goal setting and best practices for developing metrics for program evaluation.
You can view conference information online here, or download the full program here.
Presented in the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase "Innovations in STEM Education."
The ultimate goal of the Computer Science Teaching and Learning Collaboratory (CS-TLC) is to broaden the participation of historically underrepresented student populations in CS. The CS-TLC is a researcher-practitioner partnership between over 10 districts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Rutgers University’s Center for Effective School Practices at the Graduate School of Education, and Rutgers’ Department of Computer Science. Structured as a professional learning community, the project’s partners collaborate to design, develop, and implement resources and tools to equip educators with relevant content and pedagogical knowledge to help districts, schools, and teachers deliver equity-driven, culturally-sensitive, rigorous, and engaging CS education to all students.
Presented at the 4th International Conference on Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT).
We are all in a state of information overload and often do not know where to begin. For teachers and schools/districts new to computer science, getting started can be overwhelming. We are working within a Research Practice Partnership (RPP) to try to address some of this stress rather than add to it. We are attempting to do this by creating a curated forum so that educators (from all levels of the system) can share with each other directly while working with them to efficiently and effectively navigate existing resources and opportunities in CS with a focus on how to best structure a program, a class, or a club to encourage equity and inclusion in the CS work that they do.
Published in JSD Learning Forward as the feature article in Volume 37, Issue Number 3.
This article explored the benefits of the partnerships between educators and researchers and the potential these collaborations have to drive solutions to problems of practice. The paper explores 5 types of research partnerships, their use cases, outcomes, and evaluation.
You may download a complimentary copy of the article here.
Presented by the Regional Educational Laboratory (Mid-Atlantic) through the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
Studies find that online communities of educators can achieve the goals of professional learning communities (PLCs), but the research is methodologically limited— and too fragmented to offer clear prescriptions. The literature reflects current thinking and practice mainly for traditional PLCs, with discussions of online PLCs generally focused on how to move traditional PLC activities online. The aim is to expand opportunities for teachers to reflect and collaborate without the usual limitations of time, space, and pace.
You may download a complimentary copy of this publication here.
