Next Door to Silicon Valley: A Researcher-Practitioner Partnership to Address Disparities in Access and Expectations for Computer Science Education

来自低社会经济家庭的学生、拉丁裔学生和女学生在学习计算机科学（CS）或练习计算思维（CT）方面有很大的差距。该项目旨在促进如何建立研究-实践伙伴关系的知识，从而扩大K-8学生对计算机的参与。该项目是教育、培训、研究（ETR）、圣克鲁斯城市学校（SCCS）和圣克鲁斯教育基金会（SCEF）之间的合作项目。该学区处于一个独特的位置，夹在硅谷和县南部的农业社区之间，硅谷的许多学生、教师和员工的家庭成员都在高科技行业工作，而县南部的主要城镇81%是拉丁裔，39%是外国出生的，几乎一半的成年人没有高中毕业。这些发现将解决一些重要的问题，如不同的孩子需要什么样的支持来学习计算机科学，以及谁从计算机科学教学中受益，以及如何受益。研究结果将填补理解如何在学校和学区进行系统变革的空白，从而为所有学生带来CS整合。这些差距包括在地区中进行优先排序和整合的过程，以及教师所需的各种支持和资源。这些发现还将有助于理解如何减少对谁对计算机科学感兴趣并擅长计算机科学的无意识偏见。最后，这些活动将填补理解如何让所有社会经济阶层的家长参与教育改革的重要空白。该项目将根据小学和中学女生、西班牙裔/拉丁裔学生和英语学习者的兴趣和优势编写教学材料。这些活动将提供学习计算机科学和计算机科学的机会，并将培养教育工作者检验和修订将计算机科学融入课堂的策略的能力，使各类学习者充分参与其中。这些活动还旨在利用社区资源，增加公众参与，重点关注那些传统上不参与教育改革的家长，以及面向所有学生的计算机科学教育。该项目将解决一个高层次的研究问题：我们如何减少学生在获得学习计算机科学/计算机科学的优质机会和持续支持坚持计算机科学方面的差距？这些活动将包括教师专业发展、教学材料的创建和简短的干预措施，以将包容性的计算机科学融入中小学课堂、一个地区范围的计算机科学委员会，以确定需求和资源，建立一个支持网络，以提高所有学校将计算机科学融入课堂的能力、开发一个系统，利用家长和社区资源来支持和维持计算机科学教育。以及数据收集和分析，以监测学习进度和系统变化，以加强为所有学生建立CS途径的努力。研究方法将涉及在研究人员-实践者伙伴关系中工作，最终确定措施，收集定性和定量数据，解释研究结果，并在迭代过程中使用它们，为下一步提供信息。要衡量的结果包括教师的计算机科学能力和行为、学生的计算机科学知识和兴趣、教师和家长的无意识偏见、利用资源和提供支持的网络化改进社区、家长和社区参与、数据和研究驱动的决策，以及对扩大计算机科学参与领域的贡献。一名外部顾问将监督该项目的变革理论、研究设计和方法的完整性，以及研究-实践伙伴关系的发展。

There is great disparity for students from low socioeconomic households, Latino/a students, and female students to have quality opportunities to learn computer science (CS) or practice computational thinking (CT). This project seeks to advance knowledge of how to build research-practice partnerships that can broaden participation in computing in K-8. This project is a collaboration between Education, Training, Research (ETR), Santa Cruz City Schools (SCCS), and the Santa Cruz Education Foundation (SCEF). The school district is in a unique position, sandwiched between Silicon Valley where many family members of the students, teachers, and staff work in the high-tech industry, and the agricultural communities in the southern part of the county where the main town is 81% Latino/a, 39% are foreign-born, and almost half of the adults have not graduated from high school. The findings will address important questions about what kinds of supports different children need to learn CS, as well as who benefits from CS instruction, and how. The results will fill gaps in understanding how to create systems change in schools and school districts that can lead to CS integration for all students. These gaps include the process through which prioritization and integration occurs in districts and the kinds of support and resources that are needed for teachers. The findings will also contribute to an understanding of how to reduce unconscious bias about who is interested in and would be good at computer science. Finally, the activities will fill an important gap in understanding how to engage parents at all socioeconomic levels in educational reform. This project will produce instructional materials designed to build on the interests and strengths of girls, Hispanic/Latino students, and English language learners in elementary and middle school. The activities will offer opportunities to learn CS and CT, and will build the capacity of educators to test and revise strategies to integrate CS into classrooms in a way that fully engages a range of learners. The activities are also designed to leverage community resources and increase public engagement, with a focus on parents who are traditionally not involved in education reform, in CS education for all students. The project will address a high-level research question: How do we reduce the disparity in students' access to quality opportunities to learn CS/CT and ongoing support to persist in CS? The activities will include teacher professional development, the creation of instructional materials and brief interventions to integrate inclusive CS into elementary and middle school classrooms, a district wide CS committee to identify needs and resources to build a network of support to boost the capacity of all schools to integrate CS into classes, the development of a system to leverage parent and community resources to support and sustain CS education, and data collection and analysis to monitor learning progressions and systems change in order to strengthen the efforts to build a CS pathway for all students. The research methods will involve working in a researcher-practitioner partnership to finalize measures, collect qualitative and quantitative data, and interpret the findings and use them in an iterative process to inform next steps. Outcomes to be measured include teachers' CS capacity and behavior, students' CS knowledge and interest, teachers' and parents' unconscious bias, a networked improvement community to leverage resources and provide support, parent and community engagement, data- and research-driven decision making, and a contribution to the field of broadening participation in CS. An external advisor will monitor the project's Theory of Change, the integrity of the research design and methods, and the development of the research-practice partnership.