Integrating Computer Science into the Elementary Curriculum in Culturally Relevant Ways: A Researcher-Practitioner-Partnership in Native-American Serving Districts in Wyoming

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Native American communities are underrepresented in computer science professions, and there is a need educationally to make this domain relevant to Native cultures. The American Institutes for Research--in collaboration with the Wyoming Department of Education, three Wyoming school districts on the Wind River Reservation, and BootUp Professional Development--will write, pilot, and refine a curriculum for grades 3-5 that integrates computer science and Wyoming Indian Education for All social studies standards in culturally relevant ways. In 2022, this curriculum is being published by Wyoming Department of Education for all districts in the state to use as they implement newly mandated Wyoming computer science and Indian Education for All social studies standards. The project is also making the curriculum available to other districts and states nationwide that serve Native students with suggestions about how to adapt the curricular materials to make them locally relevant to the populations they are serving. The team is providing a report for local and state education agencies with "lessons learned" on how to integrate computer science education with other elementary school content in Grades 3-5. In this way, the project not only is broadening participation in computer science for historically underserved Native American students living on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming but also is reaching Native American students throughout Wyoming and the nation. Computer science education has been focused largely on policies and curricula for secondary students. Elementary school teachers often express concern that they do not have time to teach computer science, given competing pressures to teach other subjects. The proposed study will generate curricular resources that integrate computer science with social studies standards, thus providing a solution to this challenge. BootUp Professional Development is authoring the curriculum, and the American Institutes for Research is leading a networked improvement community focused on refining the curriculum to ensure that it is usable, useful, and culturally relevant. Participants in the networked improvement community include the Wyoming Department of Education, 25 classroom teachers from three Wyoming districts, staff from BootUp Professional Development and American Institutes for Research researchers. In 2022, the project is disseminating curricular resources that other districts nationwide can adapt and use and will also produce a model for how to design an integrated curriculum in a way that is culturally relevant. In addition, the project is demonstrating how participating in both professional development and a networked improvement community that focuses on formative feedback can result in higher levels of teacher self-efficacy, teacher content and pedagogical knowledge, and, ultimately, student mastery of computer science content standards. This project is funded by CS for All.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.