The NSF Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) alliance is providing workshop and “seed” funds to expand computing summer camps at colleges, universities, and high schools across the United States. On December 13, 2014  ECEP co-PI Barbara Ericson hosted a workshop in Santa Clara, CA on how to start and run financially self-sustaining computing summer camps. Thirty-eight professionals from 35 different institutions and 9 states attended the workshop, either in-person or remotely.  Participants learned how to start or expand a computing summer camp for 4th-12+ grade students, saw the equipment and tools that can be used in camps, and learned how …

ECEP has awarded funding to support efforts in South Carolina, Maryland, Texas, and Puerto Rico that will improve educational efforts in computer science in those states. As part of its mission, ECEP Alliance invited members to apply for mini-grants to support statewide and systemic change, expansion of computing education pathways, and broadened participation.

Two new reports on issues of diversity in STEM credit ECEP and co-PI Barbara Ericson with contributions.

In February 2015, Advancing Equity through More and Better STEM Learning was released by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. The 32-page report includes chapters on computer science education, women in STEM, and gaps in educational opportunities for students of color. The creators of the report interviewed Barbara Ericson, ECEP co-PI, and quote her in several places. Among its recommendations for national, state, and local policymakers, the report includes “States should also work collaboratively with …

In April, ECEP and CAITE sponsored a pilot series of free virtual professional development webinars to “train the trainers” for computer science PD providers in Massachusetts.  Webinars were one-hour in length and led by Barbara Ericson, ECEP Co-PI and Director of Computing Outreach and Senior Research Scientist at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing. Twelve educators from 8 districts in Massachusetts (Framingham, Holyoke, Groton, Reading, Waltham, Winchester, Worcester, and Wellesley Hills) participated in the live webinars. Each webinar was recorded and available for viewing later.

Twenty-eight students and faculty from 12 states braved Boston’s February weather to attend a panel session organized by ECEP at the Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing 2015, titled “State-level Computing Education Reform for Diversity.” The panel featured leaders from California (Debra Richardson), Massachusetts (Rick Adrion), and Georgia (Mark Guzdial) sharing what has worked, what has not worked, and how different state systems require different strategies. Moderated by Renee Fall, the session asked participants to gather in regional and state groups to meet others from their own state and share information about reforming computing education at home.

ECEP will be represented through a number of panels and workshops during the 2015 SIGCSE conference.  The conference runs March 4-7, 2015 in Kansas City, Missouri. Please see their website for more details. Below, a preview of ECEP’s contributions to the event.

On Thursday, December 18, ECEP PI Mark Guzdial hosted a Transfer Summit at Georgia Tech. In attendance were 15 professionals from 11 different institutions in the University System of Georgia, representing both two-year and four-year degree institutions.

Tech entrepreneur Chris Klaus (for more on his efforts go here) has gathered stakeholders in a “Georgia Coding” group to push on improving computing in Georgia. That effort bore fruit during CSedWeek.

This year, Computer Science Education Week is more popular and ambitious in scope than ever before. December 8-14, students across the country, and internationally, will be introduced to the basic concepts of computer science. Many will be using Hour of Code tutorials, including a lesson inspired by the movie Frozen. ECEP states are planning big and are yielding impressive results. Please read on for details and links.

ECEP partner the Alliance for California Computing Education for Students and Schools (ACCESS) is proudly contributing to the growing interest in expanding computer science education in California. In a major landmark, on September 30, 2014 Governor Jerry Brown signed bills AB 1765, SB 1200 and AB 1539 in support of making computer science count. ACCESS gathered over 10,000 signatures on a petition to develop computing education, and continues to work with Code.org, Technet, the Computer Science Teachers Association and others to ensure computer science opportunities are available to all California students. ACCESS Chair and UC Irvine Professor Debra Richardson notes, …