BPC-AE: Into the Loop: A University K-12 Alliance to Increase and Enhance the Computer Science Learning Opportunities for African American, Latino/a, and Female Students

这个不断扩大的参与计算奖为Into the Loop联盟的扩展提供了资金。Into the Loop联盟的主要目标是帮助加强洛杉矶联合学区的能力，该学区是美国第二大和最多样化的学区之一，提供和支持高质量的大学预科计算机课程，特别是在拥有大量非裔美国人和拉美裔学生的高中。目标还在于推行一项战略，在学校和学区一级创造文化和做法的可持续变化；并开发一个最佳做法的模式和储存库，以帮助在其他学区传播和宣传类似的努力。所采用的战略方法从课堂和学校层面到政策层面都有。联盟的这一扩展提供了在地方和全国范围内扩大和维持原有联盟工作的机会。利用其初始资金，Into the Loop Alliance创建了一个创新的高级预修课程(AP)计算机科学课程，探索计算机科学(ECS)；在大约16所洛杉矶学校试行ECS，招收了900多名学生，主要是拉丁裔/a学生和非裔美国学生；设计了ECS专业发展计划；并与K-12学校和教育工作者发展了真正的高等教育计算机科学参与。除了深化和扩展上述所有内容外，联盟的扩展还包括对三项新战略倡议的承诺：为学生学习计算思维设计评估措施；发起全州范围的政策活动--加州计算倡议(CCI)；以及领导各州和全国扩展这些倡议。到目前为止，所有这些目标都是为了联盟进展的制度化和可持续性。智力上的优点：改善STEM教育并保证所有学生平等地获得优质教育是我国最紧迫的挑战之一。Into the Loop是这场全国性挑战的关键所在。关于在学校增加计算机科学机会的严格学习，关于评估学生对计算思维的学习，关于计算机科学教师的专业发展的基本项目研究，特别是在有色人种学生人数众多的学校，将揭示其他STEM学科中类似的挑战。广泛的影响：进入循环将提供一个在学校、地区、州和国家层面上必须做的工作的模型，以提高所有学生的高质量计算机科学教育。将在美国第二大和最多样化的学区之一设计和实施的专业发展模式，将有助于正在进行的努力，以扩大对计算机的参与：具体地说，招聘和培训能够向学生传授计算机科学的魔力和计算思维的高中教师，将计算机科学重新定位为高中水平的一门学术学科，并重新设计高中课程，使其严谨，适合我国广泛的学生群体。创建全州范围的政策变化，以加强所有这些举措，对于使这些改革制度化和持续下去至关重要，也将成为其他州的榜样。

This Broadening Participation in Computing award funds the extension of the Into the Loop Alliance. The Into the Loop Alliance has a primary goal of helping to strengthen the capacity of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest and one of the most diverse school districts in the country, to offer and support high-quality, college preparatory computer science classes, especially in high schools with high numbers of African-American and Latino students. The goal is also to pursue a strategy that creates sustainable changes in the culture and practices at the school and district level; and to develop a model and repository of best practices that can help spread and inform similar efforts in other school districts. The strategic approaches utilized range from the classroom and school level to the policy level. This Alliance Extension provides the opportunity to expand and sustain the original alliance work locally and nationally. With its initial funding, the Into the Loop Alliance has created an innovative pre-Advanced Placement (AP) computer science curriculum, Exploring Computer Science (ECS); piloted ECS in approximately 16 LA schools with over 900 students enrolled, predominately Latino/a and African American students; designed an ECS Professional Development program; and developed authentic higher education computer science involvement with K-12 schools and educators . In addition to deepening and extending all of the above, the alliance extension includes a commitment to three new strategic initiatives: designing assessment measures for student learning of computational thinking; launching a statewide policy campaign, the California Computing Initiative (CCI); and providing leadership for state and national expansion of these initiatives. All of these goals are aimed at institutionalization and sustainability of the alliance progress to date.Intellectual Merit: Improving STEM education and guaranteeing equal access to quality education for all students is one of our country's most pressing challenges. Into the Loop sits at the crux of this national challenge. The underlying project research about increasing rigorous learning of computer science opportunities in schools, about assessing student learning of computational thinking, about professional development for computer science teachers, especially in schools with high numbers of students of color, will shed light on similar challenges in other STEM disciplines.Broader Impact: Into the Loop will provide a model of what has to be done both on the school, district, state, and national levels to improve quality computer science education for all students. The models of professional development that will be designed and implemented in the second largest and one of the most diverse school district in the country will contribute to efforts underway to broaden participation in computing: specifically, to recruit and train a high school teachers who can impart to students the magic and computational thinking of computer science, to re-position Computer Science at the high school level as an academic subject, and to redesign the high school curriculum so that it is rigorous and engaging for a broad segment of our student population. Creating statewide policy change that can reinforce all of these initiatives will be critical for institutionalizing and sustaining these reforms and will be a model for other states as well.