In March, the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance held its annual Summit in Minneapolis. The event convened ECEP state teams from 27 states and the territory of Puerto Rico and highlighted state-level strategies for overcoming issues to access in computer science education (CSEd). Action-oriented sessions provided tangible lessons on increasing CSEd access and opportunity to students of all backgrounds and navigating challenges in the education space.

“ECEP wants CSEd advocates and educators to know that they are a vital part of a valuable community,” said Director Jaci McCune. “The Alliance is here to support efforts to expand computing education opportunities for students.”

ECEP’s mission is to identify and address the policies, pathways, and practices in state education systems that are barriers to increasing student engagement and success. The Alliance works with state-level leaders and uses data to discover which students do not have access to computer science (CS) pathways and reasons why. Improving capacity for, access to, participation in, and experiences of CSEd will increase the number of students in computing and computing-intensive degree pathways, according to state leaders.

“There are not enough teachers to bring CSEd to our students, and we need to change that,” said Crystal Franklin of Cleveland State University and the Ohio ECEP team. “This Summit allowed me to network with other states and learn new ways to both recruit and retain the educators who will prepare our students for the jobs of tomorrow.”

The 2024 State of CS Report demonstrates the need for state-level plans to expand participation in computing. In ECEP member-state Arkansas, 100 percent of high schools offer at least one CS course. By comparison, only 31 percent of high schools in non-ECEP state Montana offer at least one course. The national average is 60 percent. Being an ECEP state member appears to have a positive relationship to implementing policies which support CSEd for all students. ECEP states exceed non-ECEP states in the implementation of all 10 of the State of CS Report policy recommendations.

At the Summit, state teams collaborated on a variety of projects designed to improve K-12 CS education. Ideas included creating state strategic plans, improving data collection and reporting, training more CS teachers, and building multi-sector teams to advocate for universal CS education.  A key feature of the Summit was cross*state learning and collaboration around common problems of practice.

“The beauty of this conference is that everyone’s willing to share their successes and failures,” said Sean Jackson of the Kentucky Department of Education and his state’s ECEP team. “I’ll work to ensure that we replicate the strategies which were successful in expanding CSEd in other states and avoid the pitfalls other teams warned about.”

“If we want to make broadening CSEd a reality, we must work together to build CSEd capacity so teachers have a clearer understanding how CS can be integrated into multiple content areas,” said CS Education Consultant Amy Bires of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and her state’s ECEP team. “Algorithms can be used in subjects like English Language Arts and CS can be used in various math components. Through collaboration and sharing of opportunities, every state can bring these lessons to every teacher.”

The ECEP Alliance is supported by Google.org, the Siegel Family Endowment, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant Nos. NSF-CNS-2137834, NSF-CNS-1822011, and NSF-CNS-2417664.