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Policy efforts in mathematics have focused on increasing teachers' mathematics content knowledge (MCK), with the goal of increasing teacher quality and in turn increasing student mathematics learning. An alternative approach to increasing student mathematics achievement is to investigate curricula that can be effectively used by teachers with a range of MCK. Drawing from a large-scale study of kindergarten students (n = 2,598) and their teachers (n = 130), the current study investigated the interaction between teacher MCK and curriculum (Early Learning in Mathematics core kindergarten curriculum vs. business-as-usual curricula) on (a) instructional behaviors and (b) student mathematics achievement gains. Results indicated differential significant interactions across instructional behaviors and a small but negative effect of teacher MCK on student mathematics achievement gains. Implications for future research, policy, and practice are discussed.

The Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (APCSP) course was introduced in 2016 to address long-standing gender and racial/ethnic disparities in the United States among students taking Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS) in high school, as well as among those who pursued computing majors in college. Although APCSP has drawn a more diverse population of course takers than the traditional Advanced Placement Computer Science A (APCSA) course, questions remain about whether the new course portends students' longer-term interest in computing and technology. This study used data from more than 120,000 first-year college students in the United States to understand the relationship between taking APCSA, APCSP, or both APCS courses and students' aspirations to major in computing or to pursue a computing or technology career. Our results indicated that taking APCSA or taking both APCS courses positively predicted students' major or career aspirations in computing and technology, but that taking only APCSP did not predict long-term computing interest (although positive associations were identified for women). The findings identify a possible tension in the function of APCSP, as it appears to broaden access to computing knowledge, but may not necessarily encourage longer-term computing aspirations for all groups of underrepresented students.

Background and Context: Though computer science education is marked by a pronounced racial participation gap, there is little research about effective ways that teachers can be supported in creating racially-just and equitable computer science learning opportunities for students. Objectives: This paper examines how teachers engage in learning about race and equity in computer science education during professional development. Method: Drawing from data collected from 94 participants attending a summer week-long Exploring Computer Science workshop, this mixed-methods study revealed how key curricular and instructional features of professional development foster race-conscious discussions and shifts in beliefs and agency around broadening participation in computing. Findings: Given the importance of developing teacher capacity to increase opportunities for students of color in computing classrooms, the findings of this study highlight how intentionally integrating race education in the center of professional development for teachers can support teachers' equity-based beliefs and practices. Implications: Professional development for teachers that seeks to broaden participation in computing is supported by long-term professional learning that explicitly center issues of race and equity in the curriculum.

As new efforts seek to expand computer science education across the globe, there has been a widespread effort to prepare school teachers for teaching computer science to culturally and racially diverse students. This effort to center diversity and equity is notable as computer science courses are typically homogenous in terms of race and gender, making the need to center diversity in teacher education spaces. This paper reports on an ethnographic study in the United States that describes how teachers dialogue around issues of race and computer science education in a residential week-long professional development workshop. Drawing from the dialogue of a geographically, racially, and culturally diverse group of teachers, this article describes how teachers evade, deflect, center, and reflect on racially explicit discourse around teaching computer science. Grounded in vignettes from two teacher classrooms, this research study considers how culturally responsive computing and critical race theory can illuminate the ways in which teachers discuss race and culture in computer science professional learning environments. The study's findings demonstrate features of long-term professional preparation that can surface colorblind ideologies and help teachers move toward a culturally responsive pedagogy to teaching computer science.

Recent discussions of making have focused on developing out-of-school makerspaces and activities to provide more equitable and enriching learning opportunities for youth. Yet school classrooms present a unique opportunity to help broaden access, diversify representation, and deepen participation in making. In turning to classrooms, we want to understand the crucial practices that teachers employ in broadening and deepening access to making. In this article, we investigate two high school teachers' approaches in implementing a novel eight-week, electronic textiles unit within the "Exploring Computer Science" curriculum, where students designed wearable electronic textile projects with microcontrollers, sensors, and LEDs. We share teachers' emergent practices in transforming their classrooms into makerspaces, including valuing student expertise and promoting connections in personalized work. We discuss the ways these practices succeeded in broadening access to making while deepening participation in computing and establishing home-school connections.

This article describes the impact of in-classroom coaching for computer science (CS) educators. Coaching is a way to support teachers in their classroom while teachers master new curricula or educational approaches and is not evaluative in purpose. Using qualitative methods to analyze computer science classroom observations, teacher surveys, teacher interviews, coaching logs, and coach interviews, this research answers the following question: "How does in-classroom coaching support inquiry and equity-based teaching practices?" This study of Exploring Computer Science classrooms illustrates the importance of having in-classroom coaches who can collaborate and reflect with teachers about current practices and who can help support new inquiry and equity-based instructional skills. Teachers note that in-classroom coaching helped (1) positively impact changes in pedagogy, (2) enrich teachers' CS content knowledge, and (3) break CS teacher isolation at schools. Three case studies from computer science classrooms served by different coaches are shared to illustrate the ways teacher instructional practice can be strengthened over time through coaching.

Computer science programs are too often identified with a narrow stratum of the student population, often white or Asian boys who have access to computers at home. But because computers play such a huge role in our world today, all students can benefit from the study of computer science and the opportunity to build skills related to computing. The Exploring Computer Science course, originally developed for the Los Angeles Unified School District, enables students from all backgrounds to study the fundamentals of computer science. The course engages students by having the work in groups on projects that are meaningful to them. They might design web pages on topics of interest, collect and analyze data about their snacking habits, or build and program robots to dance to their favorite songs. Instead of sitting at a computer and working independently engage in inquiry learning together. Teachers of the course receive ongoing professional development that that use instructional practices similar to those in the course. Course demographics mirror those of the often low-income and diverse schools where the course is offered. The authors encourage school and policy makers to continue broadening participation in computer science by making more courses available and recruiting more computer science teachers.

This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers' professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, this article describes how participating in professional development activities purposefully aimed at fostering a teachers' professional learning community helps ECS teachers make the transition to an inquiry-based classroom culture and break professional isolation. This professional learning community also provides experiences that challenge prevalent deficit notions and stereotypes about which students can or cannot excel in computer science.

Despite the fact that computer science (CS) is the driver of technological innovations across all disciplines and aspects of our lives, including participatory media, high school CS too commonly fails to incorporate the perspectives and concerns of low-income students of color. This article describes a partnership program -- Exploring Computer Science (ECS) -- that directly counters this problem in our nation's second largest school district. With a mission of democratizing CS learning, we argue that despite the constraints of working within public schools, it is imperative to do so. We discuss the ECS program based on inquiry, culturally relevant curriculum, and equity-oriented pedagogy. We describe two ECS-affiliated projects that highlight the importance of authorship, purpose, and agency for student learning and engagement: DietSens using mobile technology to study community health, and a project in which students create video games about social issues. Our work offers a counter-narrative to those who have written off the possibilities of working within public schools and a debunking of the too widespread myth within our educational system that females and students of color are inherently uninterested in rigorous CS learning. (Contains 11 notes and 3 tables.)

This article will detail efforts to broaden participation in computing in urban schools through a comprehensive reform effort of curricular development, teacher professional development, and policy changes. Beginning with an account of the curricular development of "Exploring Computer Science", we will describe the inquiry-based research that underlies these learning materials. Next, we argue that accompanying professional development that supports the curriculum is essential for supporting this inquiry-based approach to computer science instruction. We then explain the policy strategies used to designate this course as a college-preparatory elective and place it in 17 Los Angeles high schools. Finally, we share the initial results of how students experience this course and ongoing challenges encountered when working in the public school system. The article concludes with a discussion of how longitudinal reform effort requires a strong foundation and deep roots to successfully democratize computer science education. (Contains 1 table.)

Broadening computer science learning to include more students is a crucial item on the United States' education agenda, these authors say. Although policymakers advocate more computer science expertise, computer science offerings in high schools are few--and actually shrinking. In addition, poorly resourced schools with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students are even less likely to offer computer science, and few minorities and females sign up for such courses, adding an equity dimension to the problem. Margolis and her colleagues, authors of Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing, describe a partnership they developed between the University of California at Los Angeles and officials in the Los Angeles School District. This partnership has increased the number of computer science courses in the district's schools and dramatically upped the number of Latino, black, and female learners taking AP Computer Science. They describe a yearlong introductory computer science course they developed, using pedagogy designed to attract diverse learners, and a professional development program they offer teachers in L.A. schools. (Contains 1 endnote.)

Technology is central to the daily routine of university life. Yet, without any formal technology prerequisites, students come to college with differing technological skills, stratified by gender, socioeconomic status, and racial backgrounds. Beyond skills, students' varied computing histories can result in a range of technology identities that impact their relationship with technology in their academic, social, and career aspirations. This paper draws from the results of a mixed methods study of undergraduates at a major research university to explore the development and impact of students' technological proficiency on their academic life. The study began with the supposition that schools serving low-income students and students of color provide inferior academic technology experiences for students, inhibiting the development of students' technology identities. The results reveal that university students have deeply integrated the role of technology into their social and academic lives. The data reveals how unequal school computing experiences vary along lines of class, race, and gender. The results from this study point to the urgency in developing K-16 policies that make explicit the academic technology knowledge and attitudes expected of university students, the role of high schools in preparing these students, and the responsibility of the university in supporting the technology needs of its students. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)

Despite the digital saturation of today's youth across demographic groups, students of color and females remain severely underrepresented in computer science. Reporting on a sequential mixed methods study, this article explores the ways that high school computer science teachers can act as change agents to broaden the participation in computing for historically underrepresented students. Three high school case studies reveal a critical need for professional development and support to do this work. The subsequent part of the study focuses on the impact of a district-university intervention which trained 25 urban teachers to teach Advanced Placement computer science in their schools. The swift success of this intervention was evident from the following years' dramatic increase in course offerings and enrollment of females, Latinos, and African Americans. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

Understanding how to prepare and support teachers as social justice educators committed to working in high-poverty, urban schools is a growing area of inquiry--one that is crucial if we are to stem the tide of high attrition from these hard-to-staff schools. Teacher educators struggle to create conditions within formal preservice programs that will prepare educators for the many challenges unique to urban schools. This article informs this struggle by looking at the early career trajectories of educators prepared specifically as social justice educators. Specifically, we are interested in capturing the multiple professional roles that urban educators assume in their quest to change the world and further social justice. Do these roles help keep educators engaged in their challenging work? We explore this question based on survey data from 417 urban educators in their 2nd through 6th years of their careers and conclude by suggesting a new policy framework for thinking about urban teacher retention--a frame that extends beyond the classroom and into a variety of multiple professional roles.

Background and Context: Though computer science education is marked by a pronounced racial participation gap, there is little research about effective ways that teachers can be supported in creating racially-just and equitable computer science learning opportunities for students. Objectives: This paper examines how teachers engage in learning about race and equity in computer science education during professional development. Method: Drawing from data collected from 94 participants attending a summer week-long Exploring Computer Science workshop, this mixed-methods study revealed how key curricular and instructional features of professional development foster race-conscious discussions and shifts in beliefs and agency around broadening participation in computing. Findings: Given the importance of developing teacher capacity to increase opportunities for students of color in computing classrooms, the findings of this study highlight how intentionally integrating race education in the center of professional development for teachers can support teachers' equity-based beliefs and practices. Implications: Professional development for teachers that seeks to broaden participation in computing is supported by long-term professional learning that explicitly center issues of race and equity in the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractWe report findings from qualitatively analyzing audio recordings and teacher-generated products from a two-day in-person collaborative design (co-design) workshop where nine experienced high school CS teachers revised parts of an existing introductory high school program toward justice. In response to our research question of how teachers demonstrated agency as co-designers, our analysis revealed that they collaboratively questioned the purpose, the “why,” and the approach, the “how,” and captured ideas in lesson templates and unit descriptions to transform future practice. We discuss co-design with teachers as openings to explore nuances of teachers’ visions for equitable CS education. We highlight the foundational longstanding relationships and politicized trust, and enabling features of the co-design space for equitable participation and joint creation of boundary objects to sustain ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]