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CS4NC

About CS4NC

Ensuring all students in North Carolina have equitable access to quality computer science education.

ACROSS ALL OF NORTH CAROLINA

Launched in 2016, CS4NC is the North Carolina chapter of the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance – a consortium of states dedicated to increasing equitable capacity for, access to, participation in, and experiences of computing education for students across K-12 and higher education. Founding members of CS4NC included representatives from the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at NC State’s College of Education, the NC Department of Public Instruction, the UNC-Charlotte College of Computing and Informatics, the NC State Department of Computer Science, and the Computer Science Teachers Association. Since its inception, new members from the state’s community college system, local school districts, and industry have joined the alliance to help increase awareness of computer science education and coordinate activities and initiatives that will help us grow our networks of educators and computing industry professionals alike.

CS4NC GOALS

  • Ensure all students in North Carolina have equitable access to quality computer science education.
  • Amplify and expand the scope of computer science education to address the needs of communities and to adapt to the ever-changing field of study.
  • Promote professional learning opportunities in computer science to meet the needs of diverse stakeholders in K-12 CS education.
  • Convene cross-sector stakeholders in public education, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and the business community who promote CS education.
  • Provide an annual State of Computer Science report documenting where computer science is offered and how many students are engaging in computer science.

FROM ECEP ALLIANCE

The National ECEP alliance has created a five-step process for state-level computer science education reform:

ECEP AHS A FIVE STEP PROCESS: Find your leader(s): Computing education reform doesn’t just happen. Someone (or a small group of someones) has to take the initiative. Figure out where you are and where you’re going: The hardest part is seeing the big picture (of how schools, higher education, businesses, and state politics have to work together) and figuring out how to make change within a state. Ten years into ECEP, and we're still surprised at the state differences. For instance, Hawaii makes all education decisions at the district level (like California and Massachusetts), but all of Hawaii is one school district. All those islands, one school board. Gather your allies: Find all the high school teachers, university faculty, business leaders, and state Department of Education leaders who want to work together. We find that efforts that speak with multiple voices from different sectors to promote computing education tend to get more influence in state government. Get initial funding: There are big ticket items for computing education, like professional learning opportunities for all your high school teachers. But there are smaller ticket items that need to happen early on in the process. One of these is a landscape report. Landscape reports are helpful in addressing the 'Where are we now?' question and with identifying gaps in CS education across a state. There are several of these available under resources on our website. Another is a summit, a face-to-face meeting of all your allies, along with the people that you’d like to influence (the ones who will come), to develop a set of shared goals and a shared strategy for getting there. Focus on data: Setting measurable goals and agreeing on BPC-focused metrics is a new stage in ECEP’s model of state change that has emerged as our states have matured in their BPC efforts. Data allows state teams to identify specific high need underserved populations, establish measurable goals to serve these populations, and clearly track the impact of BPC efforts for policy-makers, funders and other stakeholders.
How to Change a State. (2022). ECEP’s five-step process towards state-level computer science education reform. https://ecepalliance.org/resources/models/how-change-state/.