While Black people comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent only 7 percent of the computing workforce. Even more unsettling, of the many computational occupations, the majority of that 7 percent are “computer support specialists.†HBCUs are uniquely positioned to increase the number and percentage of Black people in the computing workforce. Of the 100 HBCUs that qualify for federal support, 11 are among the top 100 postsecondary institutions for graduating Black students in Computer Sciences and Math. Moreover, the educational outcomes for underrepresented students in college often depend on the instruction they received in high school. Therefore, the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network in partnership with L.L. Burge and Associates, LLC will leverage HBCUs to facilitate a series of professional development trainings for high school CS teachers in districts that are diverse socially, culturally, and economically. This will not only increase the number of high school teachers qualified to teach CS courses, but will also build a community of educators, HBCU CS departments, and inclusive CS curriculum developers.
The QEM Network in partnership with L.L. Burge and Associates, LLC will plan and conduct a series of culturally responsive Exploring Computer Science (ECS) PD trainings for teachers in SCED school districts. The project builds upon a previous NSF-funded project, CS 10K: The Partnership for Early Engagement in Computer Science High School (PEECS-HS) Program: Exposing Students to Computer Science in Washington, DC Public Schools project, which provided professional development to in-service teachers in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). The current project will position two HBCUs (Florida Memorial University and Kentucky State University) as central to a strategy that will provide a deeper context for the training and contribute to long-term community building with adjacent school districts. The two HBCUs have ABET accredited computer science programs and state accredited teacher education programs. The project goals are to: (1) Position HBCUs as a strategic resource for SCED school districts to receive high quality, socially conscious CS PD for their high school teachers; (2) Use ECS to increase the number of high school teachers in SCED school districts with the training and credentials necessary to teach CS courses and prepare high school students to pass CS AP exams; and (3) Build a community of practice/change whereby newly credentialed CS teachers in SCED districts can form long-term reciprocal bonds with other educators from their districts, HBCU CS departments and the ECS network.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
