Computer Science for All: A School Reform Framework for Broadening Participation in Computing

• In Event: Digital Equity: Micro- and Macro-Level Perspectives

Abstract

In response to the “CS for All” national movement launched by President Obama and the public’s awareness of abundant academic and economic opportunities in computer science, schools are increasingly seeking to provide students with these foundational skills. Yet, how do we ensure these learning opportunities are equally accessible to underrepresented students including low-income students, students of color, girls, and students with disabilities? This is an especially important imperative for a subject that historically has the most gender and racial segregation compared to all other disciplines in the high school curriculum (Margolis, Estrella, Goode, Holme, & Nao, 2008). 
 
Research on K-12 computer science education has found that both a top-down and bottom-up education reform strategy is needed to create democratic reforms that are both sustainable and scalable. Nine years ago, we designed a new course, Exploring Computer Science (ECS), aimed at attracting a diverse group of students to computing. Though the ECS program has now been adopted by the seven largest school districts in the U.S. and scaled across multiple states, the course and the associated professional development for teachers was initially implemented and pilot-tested in Los Angeles Unified School District. Drawing from our recent research and experiences implementing ECS in Los Angeles, we learned that the challenges faced by teachers and students at the district level reverberate broadly as ECS scales up throughout California and across the country. Addressing issues that impact equity such as accessibility, teacher credentialing, CS standards, and whether computer science is vocational or academic, requires action from state and local policy makers, educators and advocates.

This paper will present a framework for broadening participation in school computing that considers these complex and interrelated elements of access and inclusion related to broadening participation in computing. Borrowing from Oakes’ (2002) scholarship on tracking, we consider the technical, normative, and political dimensions of providing historically underrepresented students access to this high-status knowledge. While attending to the technical issues required to successfully maintain computer science courses at the school level is important, reformers need to also consider how normative perspectives about who belongs in computer science shapes the status of the course, the distribution of opportunities between schools, and the experiences of students in these courses. Relatedly, state policies must support the organization of resources and procedures that ultimately supports powerful teaching and learning for all students in computer science. We also consider the pedagogical dimensions of broadening participation in computing education in this framework. Once inside computing classrooms, students need teaching that draws on their own lived, cultural experiences (Scott, Sheridan, & Clark, 2015).

To move computer science education from an enrichment subject for some privileged students in some schools, to a foundational subject that is available to all students in all schools, requires a multi-layered strategy that attends to the interrelated gatekeepers created and maintained by policies and practices. This framework will ultimately be useful as a tool for outlining strategies and measuring progress in efforts nationwide to diversify computing education and truly bring CS “to all.”

Authors

• Joanna Goode, University of Oregon

• Julie Flapan, University of California - Los Angeles

• Jane S. Margolis, University of California - Los Angeles