Building High-Quality K-12 Computer Science Education Research Across an Outcome Framework of Equitable Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience

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This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).This project seeks to address the critical need for high-quality, equity-focused K-12 computing education research (CER) across the U.S. to meet the needs of finding promising practices for teaching computing to all students. The research will analyze existing and ongoing research and develop guidelines for conducting high-quality, equity-focused research. One goal is to identify barriers and gaps in equity-focused research across K-12 computing education using the Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience (CAPE) framework as a lens for analysis. Those results will be used to develop workshops to build the capacity of researchers to include and focus on equity. The research questions ask:1) How comprehensive is K-12 CER in explicitly addressing broadening participation in computing or equity goals?2) What are the barriers that prevent K-12 computing education researchers from conducting research?3) How effective are new resources, materials and workshops specifically created to address the gaps in and barriers to producing high-quality, equity-focused K-12 CER?The project will first frame prior research against the CAPE framework to identify barriers researchers face when conducting high-quality research inequitable K-12 computing education. Using results from that effort and input from experts, the researchers will develop recommendations and resources for expanding coverage of equitable, high-quality K-12 computing education research. Finally, the research team will design and test workshops to train researchers in equitable K-12 CER methods and practices. The project will directly impact the quality of computer science education research conducted. In turn, this will lead to better analysis and identification of programs, curricula, training, and interventions that improve participation and experiences of populations historically underserved and underrepresented in K-12 computing education.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.