This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The PIs from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) propose a project: Teachers are Key to address a central aspect of the crisis in secondary school computer science (CS) education: the need for quality high school CS teachers. Teachers are Key builds upon a long-time collaboration between UCLA researchers and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). This collaboration has resulted in the development of a comprehensive introductory computer science curriculum and a summer professional development program to instruct teachers on the curriculum concepts and content.
For this project the PIs will build effective supports and a professional development system at a local and national level for computer science teachers. Many of these teachers are new to computer science and are the lone teacher at their schools making professional development and support networks a necessity. This comprehensive support network will offer 1) continuous in-classroom teacher professional development supported by a district-wide CS coaching / peer-to-peer mentoring system, 2) on-going professional development workshops throughout the school year and 3) an on-line learning community. The programs designed and corresponding lessons learned will be disseminated nationwide as a guide and assistance for other school districts and universities.
Teachers are Key's initiatives will build upon the expertise of the PIs (university faculty/researchers and K-12 leaders with an established partnership around these issues) and their partners: 1) UCLA Center X, a leading urban teacher professional development center with a long history of reform efforts and working with teachers within LAUSD and the 2) Computer Science Teachers Association, the national professional organization of computer science teachers. The PIs of this grant are university researchers and K-12 District leaders who are uniquely positioned to leverage and scale up successful programs and to create a model for institutional change.
Intellectual Merit: Improving STEM education and guaranteeing equal access to quality education for all students is one of our country?s most pressing challenges. Teachers are Key sits at the crux of this national challenge. This project will provide essential knowledge about two important subjects: 1) increasing rigorous learning of computer science opportunities in schools, especially in schools with high numbers of minority students, and 2) effective methods of professional development for computer science teachers. This knowledge has the potential to shed light on similar challenges in other STEM disciplines.
Broader Impacts: Teachers are Key will provide a model of what has to be done at the school, district, state, and national levels to improve quality computer science education for all students. The models of professional development that will be designed and implemented in the second largest and one of the most diverse school districts in the country will contribute to local and national efforts underway to broaden participation in computing. This project will provide insight on three important things 1) Recruiting and training a very large number of new high school teachers who can impart to students the magic and "computational thinking" of computer science, 2) re-positioning CS at the high school level as an academic subject, and 3) redesigning the high school curriculum so that it is rigorous and engaging for a broad segment of our student population. In order to develop a 21st Century economy, we must train students in 21st century skills including making rigorous computational training available to all students.
