Designing Effective and Equitable Professional Learning for Middle School Computer Science Teachers

Providing computer science (CS) education to students prior to high school is critical for catalyzing their interest in CS and closing achievement and development gaps. However, the retention rate for underrepresented group participants in middle school CS teacher preparation programs is lower than that for their peers. The resulting lack of diversity in CS teachers contributes to students’ inequitable access to quality middle school CS education. In this four-year, Design and Development, Teaching Strand project, San Francisco State University, WestEd, and 10+ school districts in California will investigate effective design and implementation strategies of CS teacher preparation programs aimed to increase the number of middle school CS teachers from underrepresented groups. By investigating and designing an effective and equitable model for preparing middle school CS teachers, this project will increase the number of middle school CS teachers, particularly those from underrepresented groups. Society as a whole will benefit from a more diverse CS workforce.

In this project, the project team will first work with participants in our CS teacher preparation program to identify factors responsible for the lower retention rate of underrepresented group participants and develop potential interventions to address these factors. The team will then integrate these interventions into three evidence-based components of a 1-year teacher preparation program: 1) a new teacher certification program to increase middle school teachers’ knowledge of CS content and culturally relevant pedagogy, 2) mentoring from experienced CS teachers from underrepresented groups, to provide CS content and pedagogical support for those teachers, and 3) professional learning communities to provide teachers in the program with a supportive community as they learn. The team will gather and analyze data throughout the program to determine which intervention components improve retention of underrepresented group teachers. This project will address the following research questions: 1) Which factors have contributed to lower retention rates for underrepresented group participants in CS teacher preparation programs? 2) What interventions can be implemented to address those factors and boost the retention rate of underrepresented group teachers in a middle school CS teacher preparation program? The project findings will contribute to the relatively scant evidence base on strategies to improve the retention rate of in-service teachers from underrepresented groups in CS teacher preparation programs, providing a foundation for creating more equitable CS learning environments for teachers and students. This project will reach 90 teachers during the grant period. The knowledge produced for retaining underrepresented group teachers in CS teacher preparation programs will be of wide interest, since school districts throughout the country are facing or will face CS teacher shortages.