A Multi-District Collaboration to Develop Justice-Focused Computational Thinking Pathways for Middle School English Language Arts

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

Often computational thinking (CT) and computer science (CS) instruction is approached as an isolated or extracurricular activity, limiting exposure for many students. In many cases, these activities focus on specific STEM-related domains such as robotics, where girls and students of color are underrepresented and marginalized. As a result, school-based CS classes and programs often continue to marginalize girls and students of color.

Teaching CT/CS as part of literacy instruction offers one solution to engage historically underrepresented students in both subjects. The project instructional materials will be developed to build on and value students' diverse literacies, cultural resources, interests, and identities. The project will explore the impact of this instruction on historically underrepresented groups in CS (specifically, female and Black students) and advances knowledge on transforming CS education and practices in building diverse partnerships.

The project's long-term goal includes creating innovative justice-focused curricula and related teacher professional development (PD) materials for integrating CT/CS into middle school literacy instruction. The outcomes from this grant will support STEM and literacy educators and curriculum developers to rethink methods of integrating CT/CS across disciplines.

Additionally, the project will develop strategies to help build CS identities among those who feel least connected to it, such as girls and students of color.

This Research to Practice Partnership (RPP) project establishes a network that includes four school districts in Pennsylvania, middle school educators, University of Pittsburgh faculty, and a regional educational support center (Allegheny Intermediate Unit) collaborating to develop a justice-focused CT/CS curriculum for Middle School English Language Arts (ELA). The project goals include the design and development of justice-focused CT/CS curricular materials for middle school ELA classes focused on increasing computational identity, CT/CS knowledge, and digital empowerment among students historically underrepresented in CS, specifically, female and Black students.

Additionally, the curricular materials will be iteratively revised and tested in a subset of classrooms, assessing students' responses to the materials and sense of belonging in CS through surveys, assessments of learning goals, and STEM career identity instruments. Finally, the project will strive to equip underrepresented middle school students with the knowledge, skills, identities, and agency to succeed in high school computer science courses and beyond.

In this project, the partner school districts all face the "problem of practice" of ensuring culturally relevant CS instruction that is meaningful to students and can be embedded into the existing curriculum to ensure equitable CS access. The first stage of the project will focus on partnership-building, knowledge-building, and co-designing preliminary research questions.

The second stage will focus on rapid co-designing CS/ELA curriculum materials and PD for teachers, testing the materials in classrooms, and assessing students' responses to the materials. An external evaluation of the RPP will be conducted at the end of phase 2. This project is supported by the CS for All: Research and RPPs program.

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.