BPC-AE: Equity in Computing Education Policies, Pathways, and Practices (ECEP 3)

我们生活在一个越来越依赖技术的世界里，计算素养和对计算对个人和社会的影响的理解对于个人的成功，健康和参与的社区以及我们国家的经济竞争力和安全至关重要。K-12计算机科学教育缺乏多样性，限制了我们国家利用教室和社区中所有专业知识和创造力的能力。计算教育政策、途径和实践公平（ECEP 3）联盟将解决K-12计算机科学教育和计算途径缺乏多样性的长期问题。由于ECEP的支持，国家领导人将解开复杂的网络的因素，产生不公平的结果，边缘化的学生，询问自己的国家数据，以确定特定的学生群体已被排除在计算途径，调查他们的国家的教育生态系统和政策，以确定在访问和参与计算机科学教育的差距的根本原因，并促进明确的公平政策变革，以解决扩大参与计算的系统性障碍。ECEP将帮助我们的国家改变导致K-12学生CS教育差异的排斥性系统，从而导致更多样化的计算劳动力和具有计算能力的公民。ECEP团队由德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校、马萨诸塞州绿色高性能计算中心、印第安纳州大学布卢明顿和加州欧文大学领导。ECEP建立了国家一级的系统性变革能力，从而为那些被排除在计算机科学教育（CSEd）途径之外的学生提供公平的计算机科学教育能力，获取，参与和体验（CAPE）奠定了基础。ECEP的使命以集体影响模型为基础，旨在改变根深蒂固的政策、途径和做法，这些政策、途径和做法使整个K-12 CSEd生态系统中的不公平结果永久化。ECEP有四个主要目标：1）ECEP将作为国家领导人的国家中心，致力于合作增加K-12学生的数量和多样性，以获得计算和计算密集型学位; 2）国家领导人将利用ECEP来开发，倡导，实施和分享公平明确的，国家发起的政策，途径和实践，促进扩大参与计算（BPC）; 3）利用CAPE框架，州团队将制定目标，通用指标和数据系统，以跟踪公平K-12 CSEd的进展情况; 4）州团队将实施战略，以提高学生获得K-12 CSEd的能力和多样性，参与和体验。为了实现这些目标，ECEP将通过每月的虚拟会议，向种子基金BPC干预措施和研究项目的国家提供合作，指导国家团队，以及为创建CS景观报告提供技术援助，国家CSEd峰会，以及其他帮助国家推进其BPC目标的公平明确的干预措施，促进和培养国家领导人之间的强大学习社区。ECEP还通过其扩展包容性教学法项目及其与计算机科学教师协会的伙伴关系，支持在全国范围内传播K-12教师的明确公平的专业发展。ECEP的一个显著特点是共同的可持续发展项目，该项目将产生用于一致测量CAPE结果的工具和协议。ECEP的研究和指导将支持州领导团队为BPC制定目标，评估其BPC计划的有效性，并纵向跟踪其进展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

We live in an increasingly technology-dependent world where computational literacy and an understanding of computing’s implications on individuals and society are vital to personal success, healthy and engaged communities, and to our nation’s economic competitiveness and security. The lack of diversity in K-12 computer science education, limits our nation’s ability to leverage the full range of expertise and creativity present in our classrooms and communities. The Equity in Computing Education Policies, Pathways, and Practices (ECEP 3) Alliance will address the persistent problem of the lack of diversity in K-12 computer science education and computing pathways. As a result of ECEP support, state leaders will untangle the complex web of factors that produce inequitable outcomes for marginalized students, interrogate their own state data to identify specific student populations that have been excluded from computing pathways, investigate their state’s educational ecosystems and policies to determine the root causes of disparities in access and participation in computer science education, and promote equity-explicit policy changes to address systemic barriers to broadening participation in computing. ECEP will help our nation to transform the exclusionary systems that lead to disparities in CS education for K-12 students, thus leading to a more diverse computing workforce and computationally literate citizenry. The ECEP team is led by the University of Texas at Austin, the Massachusetts Green high Performance Computing Center, Indiana University Bloomington, and University of California Irvine. ECEP builds state-level capacity for systemic change, thus laying the foundation for improvements in equitable Capacity for, Access to, Participation in and Experiences (CAPE) of computer science education for students who have been excluded from computer science education (CSEd) pathways. ECEP’s mission, grounded in the collective impact model, is to change the deeply ingrained policies, pathways, and practices that perpetuate inequitable outcomes throughout the K-12 CSEd ecosystem. ECEP has four primary goals: 1) ECEP will serve as a national hub for state leaders dedicated to collaboratively increasing the number and diversity of K-12 students in the pipeline to computing and computing-intensive degrees; 2) State leaders will leverage ECEP to develop, advocate for, implement, and share equity-explicit, state-initiated policies, pathways, and practices that promote broadening participation in computing (BPC); 3) Utilizing the CAPE framework, state teams will develop goals, common metrics, and data systems to track progress toward equitable K-12 CSEd; 4) State teams will implement strategies to increase capacity for and diverse student access to, participation in, and experiences of K-12 CSEd. In order to accomplish these goals ECEP will facilitate and nurture a robust learning community among state leaders through monthly virtual meetings, co-sponsorships to states that seed fund BPC interventions and research projects, coaching of state teams, and technical assistance for the creation of CS landscape reports, state CSEd summits, and other equity-explicit interventions that help states to advance their BPC goals. ECEP also supports the national dissemination of equity-explicit professional development for K-12 teachers through its Scaling Inclusive Pedagogy project and its partnership with the Computer Science Teachers Association. A defining feature of ECEP is the Common Metrics Project, which will result in tools and protocols for consistent measurement CAPE outcomes. ECEP’s research and coaching will support state leadership teams as they establish goals for BPC, evaluate the efficacy of their BPC initiatives, and track their progress longitudinally.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.