This Broadening Participation in Computing award funds the extension of the Into the Loop Alliance. The Into the Loop Alliance has a primary goal of helping to strengthen the capacity of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest and one of the most diverse school districts in the country, to offer and support high-quality, college preparatory computer science classes, especially in high schools with high numbers of African-American and Latino students. The goal is also to pursue a strategy that creates sustainable changes in the culture and practices at the school and district level; and to develop a model and repository of best practices that can help spread and inform similar efforts in other school districts. The strategic approaches utilized range from the classroom and school level to the policy level.
This Alliance Extension provides the opportunity to expand and sustain the original alliance work locally and nationally. With its initial funding, the Into the Loop Alliance has created an innovative pre-Advanced Placement (AP) computer science curriculum, Exploring Computer Science (ECS); piloted ECS in approximately 16 LA schools with over 900 students enrolled, predominately Latino/a and African American students; designed an ECS Professional Development program; and developed authentic higher education computer science involvement with K-12 schools and educators . In addition to deepening and extending all of the above, the alliance extension includes a commitment to three new strategic initiatives: designing assessment measures for student learning of computational thinking; launching a statewide policy campaign, the California Computing Initiative (CCI); and providing leadership for state and national expansion of these initiatives. All of these goals are aimed at institutionalization and sustainability of the alliance progress to date.
Intellectual Merit: Improving STEM education and guaranteeing equal access to quality education for all students is one of our country's most pressing challenges. Into the Loop sits at the crux of this national challenge. The underlying project research about increasing rigorous learning of computer science opportunities in schools, about assessing student learning of computational thinking, about professional development for computer science teachers, especially in schools with high numbers of students of color, will shed light on similar challenges in other STEM disciplines.
Broader Impact: Into the Loop will provide a model of what has to be done both on 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 district in the country will contribute to efforts underway to broaden participation in computing: specifically, to recruit and train a high school teachers who can impart to students the magic and computational thinking of computer science, to re-position Computer Science at the high school level as an academic subject, and to redesign the high school curriculum so that it is rigorous and engaging for a broad segment of our student population. Creating statewide policy change that can reinforce all of these initiatives will be critical for institutionalizing and sustaining these reforms and will be a model for other states as well.
INTO THE LOOP: A PARTNERSHIP WITH LARGE URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO INCREASE ACCESS TO RIGOROUS COMPUTER SCIENCE LEARNING AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL FOR ALL STUDENTS Computer science is driving innovation across all fields and changing every aspect of our world, yet educational opportunities in our nation’s high schools are lacking, especially in schools with high numbers of African-American and Latino students who have been traditionally underrepresented in this field. Our Into the Loop Alliance activities are aimed at building the capacity within major school districts to offer rigorous and engaging computer science education and to broaden the participation in computing at the secondary level. Into the Loop has worked nationwide by: 1. Creating the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum---ECS is a secondary school curriculum focused on computational thinking –-the problem-solving at the core of computer science. This curriculum is available nationwide. See: www.exploringcs.org 2. Building K-12/University partnershipinvolving the second largest and one of the most diverse districts in the country –the Los Angeles Unified School District-- to address this issue. This partnership currently enrolls approximately 2000 students per year in ECS and has become a model and the launching pad for other districts nationwide for broadening participation in computing. 3. Broadening Participation in Computing--- The LAUSD Exploring Computer Science participation rates are a remarkable contrast to the narrow demographics of AP CS. LAUSD population includes 73% Latino and 10% African American students. Comparing California and National APCS and LAUSD ECS Participation Rates (2011-12). GROUPS AP COMPUTER SCIENCE TEST TAKERS (CA) AP COMPUTER SCIENCE TEST TAKERS (NATIONAL) LAUSD ECS STUDENTS AFRICAN AMERICAN 45 OUT OF 3,920 1% OF THE TOTAL 1,266 OUT OF 24,782 5% OF THE TOTAL 200 OUT OF 2,136 9% OF THE TOTAL LATINO 314 OUT OF 3,920 8% OF THE TOTAL 2,350 OUT OF 24,782 9% OF THE TOTAL 1,649 OUT OF 2,136 77% OF THE TOTAL FEMALE 833 OUT OF 3,920 21% OF THE TOTAL 4,635 OUT OF 24,782 19% OF THE TOTAL 923 OUT OF 2,136 43% OF THE TOTAL Note: At the time of submission, the 2012-13 numbers are not available from College Board. But, numbers have remained consistently low year to year. 4. Teachers are Key: Building a Model Program for Exploring Computer Science Teacher Professional Development and Learning Community. Into the Loop has created an ECS professional development and learning community model that focuses on both content and pedagogical knowledge, including issues of inquiry, equity, broadening participation, CS content and teacher eflection. 5. Initiating Statewide Policy campaign to sustain these educational reforms---Into the Loop has helped launch ACCESS–a California network of educators working for policy changes that will help sustain the presence and quality of CS education in California schools. We are partners with other national organizations and code.org—a national non-profit educational organization dedicated to growing computer science education. 6. Statewide and National Expansion---Into the Loop has advised, provided resources, and on-going guidance to other districts nationwide interested in expanding access to computer science education. Exploring Computer Science projects are underway or being planned in Washington DC, Boston, and NYC schools. The Chicago Public Schools district has made ECS the foundation course for all 5 CTE IT strands. 7. Leadership in Student Learning Assessment---Partnering with SRI International, Into the Loop has taken a leadership role in creating authentic assessment metrics for ECS classes. These measures will be piloted this fall in several school districts. Broader Implications and Intellectual Merits By developing a new college-preparatory curriculum, a model computer science teacher PD and learning community, innovative assessment models, and policy initiatives that can help sustain this work, we are working to deepen and strengthen the national high school college preparatory infrastructure for computer science education and broadening participation in computing. The importance of our work extends beyond computer science. The issues we are working on are those at the center of our country’s STEM educational crisis: what is effective teaching in STEM, how to assess student learning, how to eliminate the achievement gap, and how to broaden participation and engagement. Into the Loop has provided a national research-based model for addressing underrepresentation in STEM. Our model includes a three-pronged approach that addresses 1) technical issues (curriculum, teacher pedagogy), 2) belief systems about who can succeed in computer science, and 3) the state and national policy needed to expand and institutionalize growing computer science learning opportunities in the schools. Submitted September 2013
