Building Capacity in Computer Science Education and Student Near Peer Classroom Mentorship
a Young People’s Project Research Practitioner Partnership
About The Project
Building Capacity in Computer Science (CS) Education and Student Near Peer Classroom Mentorship is a 3-year medium-size research-practice partnership that aims to increase the number of high school computer science teachers by designing, evaluating, and iterating on a professional development model that uses culturally relevant pedagogy and integration into mathematics classrooms. The Research Practitioner Partnership (RPP) is a collaboration between The Young People’s Project (YPP), Boston Public Schools (BPS), Bootstrap, and Boston University. The goal of this project is to provide professional development for BPS teachers that use a classroom model of instruction developed by the Young People’s Project, the Algebra Project, and Bootstrap that integrates CS into existing 9th grade algebra 1 classrooms.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Project Contributions
The project will add to the knowledge in the field of computer science teacher education by connecting designed dimensions of the culturally relevant professional development model (e.g., near peer teaching, college students as educators) with teacher learning outcomes, including what teachers learn and their attitudes toward computer science. For example, we will contribute to knowledge in the field about what college students, majoring in fields related to computer science, learn about teaching. The project will also contribute knowledge about how teachers develop agency as computer science teacher mentors.
Project Innovation
What is novel and innovative about our approach is the use of the Model of Excellence as a structure of professional development as well as the use of near-peer mentoring through College STEM Literacy Workers (CSLWs) to be used in the classroom, who help shift ideas about who can know in computer science classrooms.
A principle of YPP is that people who are most impacted by a problem are best equipped to solve the problem (Moses, et al., 1989). To that end, employing and developing young people in underrepresented communities as high school STEM Literacy Workers (SLWs) and CSLWs to create authentic and culturally sustaining educational experiences for each other and their younger near peers is critical to our strategy and success. It changes who can know. It distributes knowing among the teacher, college students, and high school students.
Intellectual Merit
Project Reach
Broader impact from the project will include the creation of a sustainable professional development model for culturally relevant computer science education. This model will be created in partnership with the Boston Public Schools district and will create 18 mathematics teachers ready to integrate computer science into their classrooms and trained to act as teacher mentors to integrate computer science and mathematics for the rest of the district. The resulting professional development will initially create opportunities to expand participation in CS for about 1500 students from racial/ethnic groups underrepresented in computer science.
Broader Impacts
Research Practitioner Partnership
Principal Investigators (PI)
Cliff Freeman
Principal Investigator (PI)
Clifford Freeman, MS, is the Director of STEM Programming at the Young People’s Project. He will be responsible for overall management and direction of all elements of the project.
Maisha Moses
Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI)
Maisha Moses, MS, is the Executive Director of the Young People’s Project. She will lead overall management, design, implementation, and guidance for all professional development.
Eli Tucker-Raymond
Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI)
Dr. Eli Tucker-Raymond is a research associate professor at Boston University. He will lead data collection and analysis as they pertain to teacher and student learning.
Professional Development Team
Maisha Moses
Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI)
Maisha Moses, MS, is the Executive Director of the Young People’s Project. She will lead overall management, design, implementation, and guidance for all professional development.
Emmanuel Schanzer
Bootstrap PD Expert
Dr. Emmanuel Schanzer is the co-founder of Bootstrap. Emmanuel and other Bootstrap staff will co-lead and co-design the implementation of all Bootstrap PD alongside YPP staff.
Quinn SOto
PD Specialist
Quinn Soto, MS, is an experienced 7th grade algebra teacher in the BPS. He will be responsible for co-designing and implementing PD components that focus on culturally responsive classroom culture.
School District Liaisons
Elizabeth Milewski
Director of STEM Education
Boston Public Schools
Elizabeth Milewski is the Director of STEM Education for Boston Public Schools. She will collaborate with Rubens Dort as project liaison for the district, helping to refine project goals and research questions as well as help identify and recruit teachers who teach students from groups underrepresented in computer science.
Rubens Dort
STEM Education Dept.
Boston Public Schools
Rubens Dort is the Assistant Director of STEM Education for Boston Public Schools. He will collaborate with Elizabeth Milewski as project liaison for the district, helping to refine project goals and research questions as well as help identify and recruit teachers who teach students from groups underrepresented in computer science.
Teachers
College STEM Literacy Workers (CSLWs)
Sharif Abdullahi
Wentworth Institute of Technology, Computer Science
Sharif Abdullahi is a College Math Literacy Worker (CMLW) for The Young People’s Project and a first-year at Wentworth Institute of Technology located in Boston, Massachusetts. He is studying for a Masters in Computer Science.
Taylor Brown
Clark Atlanta University
Taylor Brown is a College Math Literacy Worker (CMLW) for The Young People’s Project and a second-year at Clark Atlanta University located in Atlanta, Georgia.
Shawn Bernier
Wheaton College, Business Management & Computer Science
Shawn Bernier is a College Math Literacy Worker (CMLW) for The Young People’s Project and a second-year at Wheaton College located in Norton, Massachusetts. He is studying for a Double Bachelors in Business Management and Computer Science.
School Leaders
Project Evaluation Team
Frank Davis
External Evaluation
Dr. Frank Davis will collaborate with Dr. Mary West for overall project evaluation.
Mary West
External Evaluation
Dr. Mary West will collaborate with Dr. Frank Davis for overall project evaluation.
Advisors
Nell Cobb
Professional Development Advisor
Dr. Nell Cobb, Mathematics Education Professor Emerita of DePaul University will serve as the Professional Development Advisor.
Kamau Bobb
Computer Science Education Advisor
Dr. Kamau Bobb, Senior Director, Constellations Center for Equity in Computing, will serve as the Computer Science Education Advisor.
Michael Soguero
Partnership Development Advisor
Michael Soguero, Facilitator of the Math Literacy For All Alliance, will serve as the Network Improvement/Partnership Development Advisor.