Building Capacity in Computer Science Education and Student Near Peer Classroom Mentorship

Computation has become standard within professional scientific, engineering, and mathematical disciplines, even serving to connect people across fields for interdisciplinary work. Yet despite decades-long efforts to broaden participation, the underrepresentation of people from communities of color persists in computer science. The reasons for this are profoundly complex.

In addition to inequitable access to learning opportunities, computer science education often assumes assimilation to the culture and practices of the discipline, without considering students’ social, cultural, and intellectual resources. This deficit framing, as if people’s lives have nothing to offer computer science, serves to further marginalize students from groups already underrepresented in computing.

This project from the Young People’s Project, Inc. aims to address these issues through a professional development program designed on culturally relevant pedagogy and integration of computer science into mathematics classrooms. This work builds on an established near-peer model developed by YPP’s Algebra Project and the integrative curricular strategy of Bootstrap.

The project has the potential to build the computer science teaching capacity in Boston Public Schools, and to test a model of computer science teaching that is responsive to the needs of students from groups underrepresented in computing.

Building Capacity in Computer Science Education and Student Near Peer Classroom Mentorship is a Researcher-Practitioner Partnership (RPP) collaboration between The Young People’s Project (YPP), Boston Public Schools (BPS), Bootstrap, and Boston University. It aims to increase the number of high school computer science teachers by designing, evaluating, and iterating on a professional development model that uses culturally relevant pedagogy and integration into mathematics classrooms.

The goal of this project is to provide professional development for BPS teachers that uses a classroom model of instruction developed by YPP, the Algebra Project, and Bootstrap and integrates CS into existing 9th grade mathematics classrooms. The project promises to build the computer science teaching capacity in BPS, and to test a model of computer science (CS) teaching that is responsive to the needs of students from racial/ethnic groups underrepresented in CS.

Greater capacity will include providing learning opportunities for BPS teachers currently teaching Algebra or other entry level mathematics courses in high schools as well as an infusion of college students who work as learners and educators alongside classroom teachers. The infusion of college students, YPP’s Model of Excellence, and a discourse-based curriculum supports a culturally relevant approach to CS learning that can provide entry points for a target population of students not currently offered computer science education in BPS.

To develop teachers’ capacity for CS teaching and leadership, the project will build an effective research practice partnership that includes a designed based implementation research process focused on the design and impact of the professional learning opportunity for teachers.

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.