Broadening participation in computing has been a national priority for over a decade due to the importance of computer science (CS) and computational problem solving to our nation's security and economic leadership. The rise of related fields such as AI, data science, and cybersecurity, have only increased the importance of computational literacy for every American. While some progress has been made to broaden participation in CS education, CS remains one of the least representative STEM fields in the country, limiting opportunities for all students to build the computational literacy they need to thrive both personally and professionally in the 21st century.
One potential reason for the remarkable persistence of these gaps in participation in comptuer science education may be that interventions have focused most heavily on bootstrapping individuals rather than addressing the broken systems through which individuals matriculate. Recognizing the complexity of the CS education ecosystem, Fletcher and Warner developed a framework for examining the multi-tiered components of CS education. The CAPE Framework (2021) provides researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with a lens through which they can examine multiple, interdependent components of CS education, asking questions about how each level might impact opportunities and outcomes at subsequent levels.
The framework addresses four key components of CS education: Capacity for, Access to, Participation in, and Experiences of CS education (CAPE). The pyramid depicted here illustrates how the four components of the framework work progressively, buidling and relying on the previous component. If all students are to have positive experiences learning CS, they must first participate in CS courses and programs. If all students are to participate in CS, they must first have access to CS courses and programs. If all schools are to provide students access to CS, they must first have the capacity to offer CS courses and programs. By interrogating where opportunities and access limitations manifest across multiple levels of the CS education ecosystem, we can move beyond a focus on lagging indicators of the health of the CS education pipeline such as participation and experiences and explore the root causes of disparities in leading indicators such as access to or capacity for CS education.
Fletcher, C.L., Warner, J.R. (2021, February). CAPE: A Framework for Assessing Equity throughout the Computer Science Education Ecosystem. Communications of the ACM, 64(2), 23-25. doi:10.1145/3442373
Warner, J. R., Fletcher, C. L., Martin, N. D., Baker, S. N. (2022). Applying the CAPE framework to measure equity and inform policy in computer science education. Policy Futures in Education. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14782103221074467
CAPE Framework Summary Whitepaper
Fletcher, C. (2021). Equity in Computing, Texascale Magazine.
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