Administrators as the Locus of Change to Scale and Sustain Statewide Equitable Computer Science Education

• In Event: Who Has a "Seat at the Table"? Equity in Decision Making About Computer Science Education

Abstract

Many actors are responsible for implementing equity-minded computer science (CS) education in schools. However, district and county administrators are ultimately responsible for leading CS initiatives with equity, quality, and sustainability. They must decide where CS belongs in the curriculum, how to prepare teachers to teach it, and how to incentivize students to take it. Yet, they are often overlooked as key partners in broadening participation in computing. To tap into their expertise, we created a Networked Improvement Community (NIC) (Russell, Bryk, Dolle, Gomez, Lemahieu, & Grunow, 2017), bringing together researchers with practitioners and educational leaders from five districts/counties across the state to gather and analyze relevant data.

As part of a multi-stakeholder statewide coalition which advocates for change from the perspective of practitioners, policymakers and education advocates, this National Science Foundation supported project seeks to scale sustainable, equity-minded CS education. One focus of this effort is to develop resources supporting district/county administrators to implement equity-minded CS.

This paper details the NIC’s “participatory knowledge building” (Santo, Ching, Peppler, & Hoadley, 2017) in developing an equity-minded implementation guide and workshop for administrators. The main development of the guide relied on the experiences of several early-adopter administrators, who documented questions about CS implementation they fielded from administrators across the state. Informed also by interviews with administrators from four additional districts and counties, the equity focused guide served as a focal point of a one-day workshop, where administrators collaboratively brainstormed responses to common challenges of equitable implementation, using the guide as a resource.

Our NIC’s research methods involved a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle to iteratively improve on our equity guide and workshop while seeking to address the research question: “How do district administrators’ views on broadening participation in computing and the importance of equity in CS education change as a result of the administrator guide and workshop?” PDSAs examine the effect of a change by developing a plan to test the change (Plan), carry out the test (Do), observe and learn from the consequences (Study), and determine what modifications should be made to the test (Act). Data sources for this cycle included observation field notes (during the administrator workshop attended by 28 participants), surveys conducted immediately and 11 months after the workshop, interviews, and workshop artifacts.

Results indicate that administrators found value in the guide’s practitioner perspective as well as the opportunity to have targeted discussions regarding equitable CS implementation challenges with other administrators. While there was a focus on equity, administrators wanted more of an explicit call to action. There was also a need for more examples from successful districts and opportunities to network . This presentation shares these findings and how districts have begun building on the guide and workshop from researcher and district leadership perspectives, as we seek to elevate community voices and efforts in support of AERA 2020’s theme, and because their expertise and perspectives are much needed in the CS for All movement.

Authors

• Julie Flapan, University of California - Los Angeles

• Roxana Hadad, University of California - Los Angeles

• Jean J. Ryoo, University of California - Los Angeles

• Jared Amalong, Sacramento County of Education

• Sophia Mendoza, Los Angeles Unified School District

• Steven Kong, Riverside Unified School District

• Bryan Twarek, Computer Science Teachers Association