CS10K: CS1C@OC
Building a Local Area Network of Computer Science Teachers
| Principal Investigator: | Debra J. Richardson (Information and Computer Sciences, UCI) |
| Co-Investigators: | Rebecca Black (Information and Computer Sciences, UCI) |
| Elizabeth A. Simon (Education Studies, UCSD) | |
| Elizabeth A. van Es (Education, UCI) | |
| Mark Warschauer (Education, UCI) | |
| Funder: | National Science Foundation |
| Duration: | October 2016 – September 2020 |
Project Description
The University of California Irvine (UCI) undertook a project, called CS1C@OC, to provide in-service teachers in Orange County with a program of study intended to satisfy California’s only teacher certification pathway in CS. This certification pathway is the Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science (established in April 2016), which requires college credit in computer science covering specific topics. CS1C@OC started in October 2016, with funding from the National Science Foundation’s CS10K program, in collaboration with the Orange County Department of Education. Over the duration of the NSF funding, the CS1C@OC project prepared over 100 Orange County school teachers to teach Computer Science; all teachers who completed the program and applied for their Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science were awarded the authorization.
The Need. Despite the demonstrated need for students to learn foundational computer science skills, few K-12 students have access to rigorous CS courses. CS remains privileged knowledge, and improving access to this knowledge is one of the major economic security and social justice issues of the 21st century. The CS community has struggled to overcome issues of access and equity, and some enormous strides have come in teaching tools, pedagogies, and standards. But none of these accomplishments can be broadly implemented or sustainable without teaching certification pathways for CS teachers and teacher preparation programs focused on computing, especially for those teaching in underserved communities. CS1C@OC is developing such a teacher preparation program.
Outcomes. CS1C@OC increased in-service teachers’ CS content knowledge and their competence and confidence in evidence-based pedagogical practices for teaching computer science to diverse learners; increased diverse students’ knowledge and skills in computational thinking and computer science principles and their interest in taking more CS courses; and increased the capacity of Orange County schools to provide CS courses.
CS1C@OC prepared over 100 secondary school teachers, mostly teaching in low-income, primarily minority-serving communities in Orange County. These teachers were then qualified to teach Exploring Computer Science (ECS) and/or Computer Science Principles (CSP) in their schools. UCIrvine provided hybrid (on-line and face-to-face) and fully on-line (during the Covid-19 pandemic) courses in CS content and pedagogy intended to satisfy the requirements for the CS Supplementary Authorization while emphasizing CS instructional approaches that have proven successful with females and students from low-income, underrepresented communities. These course met in-service teachers’ time requirements. A hybrid professional learning community was active among participating teachers supporting them in sharing information and experiences, continuing to learn from each other, and providing further opportunities to develop themselves both personally and professionally throughout the school year.