September 2021

Published by the RPP for CS Organization, funded by CSforAll, as part of the RPP Spotlight Series.

The problem of practice that inspired the grant (funded in 2018) was the persistent underrepresentation and disparities in participation and performance of students from traditionally underrepresented populations in computer science education. While the project team continued hard work to better understand all facets of this issue and the central project goal remained the same, the work in 2020 shifted more towards engaging all students in remote computer science education as a response to the pandemic. The project operated on the idea that supporting the capacity of teachers through professional learning including participation in a research practice partnership (RPP) would enable them to better meet the needs of their diverse student bodies and ultimately address issues of equity, access, and rigor in computer science education.

Additionally, the project team understood that in order to enact consistent and sustainable change, school and district administrators must be at the table with teachers in order to understand and support the teachers and also to think about potential supports beyond an individual classroom.

You may download this publication here.