Implementing a Hybrid Instruction Model to Democratize Computing: Online Content With a Classroom Facilitator

• In Event: 47.027 - CS for All: An Intersectional Approach to Unpacking Equity in Computer Science Education

Abstract

The mission of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing is to democratize computing. The Center views equity as a structural matter and aims to build a structural solution to the deployment of computer science education, specifically in schools where resources are not allocated to prioritizing access to high level of computing courses. These schools are often dominated by enrollment of students of color and low socioeconomic communities and face all of the challenges associated with the intersection of race and class and education. In computing education that manifests itself in their having no access to capable teachers of computer science or schools that engender the composite set of skills upon which a solid computing education can be built. There are not enough computer science teachers and there is no mechanism to create enough of them in a reasonable time frame. Our firm belief is that the only structural solution to this challenge is to build a hybrid instructional model. In this model, the teacher of record is an expert facilitator, but not expected to be the sole subject matter expert.

Building on the successful deployment and infrastructure of Georgia Tech’s Online Masters in Computer Science (OMSCS), the Center will develop online courses and teacher resources. These materials will support the implementation of a sequence of credible, college readiness computing courses to include Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP), Georgia Tech’s Introduction to Computing Using Python, and AP CS A. The development of online resources will be informed directly by the contributions of Constellations Fellows who will be instructional coaches working in schools and by an assessment of the most effective online tools for teaching computing courses.

Starting in the fall of 2018, the Center will deploy a team of three Fellows to teach AP CSP in six of the ten public high schools in the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) system. APS is representative of a school system that has not been able to prioritize quality computing education, at least at the secondary level. In 2017 there were 11,887 students enrolled in grades 9-12 in APS (1% Asian, 79% Black, 7% Hispanic, 12% White) and of the ten public high schools in this school system there was only one high school with a physical teacher teaching an AP CSP course. The Constellations Fellows are tasked with initiating the sequence of high level computing courses in addition to conducting classroom-based professional development to increase capacity in facilitating the courses with teachers who are new or novices to computing. The end goal is to establish equity in access to a steady and sustainable implementation of hybrid instruction in secondary computing courses that lead to opportunities in post-secondary STEM and computing studies, especially in schools where resources are not available to offer students a rigorous academic experience in computing education. Since scalability is always a programmatic objective, this hybrid model will require careful considerations of effect integration of teacher capacity building and student motivation to continue into post-secondary STEM and computing studies.

Authors

• Lien Diaz, The College Board

• Kamau I. Bobb, National Action Council of Minorities