The National Science Foundation (NSF) supports ECEP through its Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance (BPC-A) program. The ECEP Alliance seeks to increase the number and diversity of students in the pipeline to computing and computing-intensive degrees by supporting state-level computing education reforms. Through interventions, pathways, partnerships and models that drive state-level computing education change, ECEP supports states as they work to align their state efforts with the national vision of computer science for all.
The ECEP Alliance includes 30 states – Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin – and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
ECEP is a collective impact alliance dedicated to increasing equitable capacity for, access to, participation in, and experiences of computing education. ECEP state leaders focus on building and sustaining K-12 CS education ecosystems that systematically identify and address disparities in opportunities, outcomes and representation in computing education. To achieve sustained, systems-level change in a state, ECEP leaders focus on implementing policies, pathways, and practices that advance equity at scale.
Funded by NSF since 2012, ECEP is a nationally recognized leader in equity-focused computer science education research and policy. ECEP is headquartered within The University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center’s (TACC) Expanding Pathways in Computing (EPIC) unit. TACC, in partnership with Co-PIs from UT Austin’s College of Education, Indiana University Bloomington, The University of California at Irvine, and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center serves as the backbone organization for ECEP, facilitating communications and services.
Highlights from the 2023 ECEP Summit in Oakland, California
The ECEP Alliance successfully launched its latest stage of growth on May 2-3 at the 2023 ECEP Summit in Oakland, CA. Attendees included 144 representatives from 30 U.S. states and territories, including seven new states who joined ECEP this spring, making this the largest ECEP Summit yet.
ECEP Welcomes Seven New States
The Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance is pleased to announce the acceptance of seven new member states, increasing our membership to 29 states and the territory of Puerto Rico. ECEP welcomes Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to our most recent cohort of states broadening participation in K-16 computing.
The latest version of the State of Computer Science Education report is now available! This multi-year partnership continues to drive advocacy and policy work of every ECEP state. The 2022 State of Computer Science Report highlights the collaborative efforts of national organizations and state level change makers through national trends, and maps identifying gaps and opportunities.
Download the report now to learn more about the current state of computer science education across our country.
