More American students are taking rigorous computer science courses in high school, at least as measured by the number of students who took the Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science A (CSA) exam, which assesses computer science knowledge and object-oriented programming ability in Java. The number of high school students taking the AP CSA exam has more than doubled in the last five years from less than 25,000 in 2012 to more than 54,000 in 2016. However, access to AP CSA is still quite limited, as only 3,206 institutions passed the College Board audit to offer AP CSA in 2016 compared …

In support of Computer Science Education Week 2016 (December 5-11), ECEP states organized various CS Ed Week activities to encourage participation in computing: Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Virginia.

Texas and New Hampshire are making strides toward broadening participation in K-16 computing in their states and recently hosted gatherings focused on closing the computer science opportunity gap. Both states brought together diverse groups of stakeholders to forward state-level educational...

Several ECEP Alliance members will be presenting at the 2017 SIGCSE (Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) annual global symposium, which addresses challenges common among educators and features demos, lightning talks, papers, panels, posters, special sessions, and workshops. Informal opportunities for networking and ‘birds of a feather’ sessions allow for further discussions of computer science education. The event provides a forum for sharing new ideas for syllabi, laboratories, and other elements of teaching and pedagogy, at all levels of instruction.

Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) held a national summit in Washington, D.C. Oct. 28-29, which was attended by computer science education-focused leaders from 16 states and Puerto Rico. Attendees included K-16 educators, researchers, and leaders from non-profit organizations, industry, and government.

In support of the President’s recent Computer Science For All announcement, the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance pledged to grow the alliance by five states. The ECEP Alliance welcomes Arkansas, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia to our third cohort of states working to broaden participation in K-16 computing.

On September 22, 2016 ECEP Alliance leaders in Puerto Rico, in collaboration with and sponsored by the Puerto Rico Information Technology Cluster, held the first Computer Science (CS) for All Puerto Rico Symposium. Building on the CS for All vision of creating opportunity and access to computing education for all students, the event organizers invited guests from K-12, higher education, government, industry and the community.

Three states received funding from the Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance (ECEP) to work toward bringing computer science (CS) education to underrepresented students through statewide activities. Mini-grants are a benefit for ECEP member states and provide resources for leaders to work toward systemic reforms in CS education.

Several ECEP members are presenting sessions at this week's 2016 CSTA conference in San Diego, California.  The conference runs July 10-12, 2016 at the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center.  Below, a preview of ECEP’s contributions to the event. Please see their website for more details.

Since joining ECEP last year, Puerto Rico has made significant progress in expanding access to computer science education. With an ECEP mini-grant, Puerto Rico provided support for a group teachers and faculty to participate in Exploring CS professional development workshops in Chicago and is translating Exploring CS into Spanish; the curriculum is being introduced to high schools in Puerto Rico this year.