Session 39: Recruiting and retaining students in CS Principles
75 minutes
discussion-based
Purpose
This session is intended for participants to start considering how they will recruit students into CSP as well as expand access to CS in their context. To do this, we focus on barriers to access and inclusion in the CS classroom and actions participants can take to reduce or remove those barriers.
Objectives
- Participants have developed a plan for recruiting a diverse group of students to their CSP classrooms.
- Participants can identify concrete and reasonable strategies to address the barriers they have the power to influence.
Supplies & Prep
Room Setup:
- None
Facilitator Supplies:
- CSP Summer Workshop 2021 - Thursday - Slides
- Slide set-up: This session requires that you add information to the slides that are unique to your region. Review the slide deck prior to facilitating this session to add this information.
Participant Materials:
- Journal
Agenda
Welcome and Housekeeping (5 minutes)
Who should take CSP? (8 minutes)
Brainstorming Barriers (20 minutes)
Identifying actions to take (28 minutes)
Facilitation Guide
Welcome and Housekeeping (5 minutes)
(2 minutes) Review agenda for the day
- Review norms
- Today we will be focusing on Unit 3, which is the first unit where students get to do some programming.
- We have our last TLO (pause for applause)
- We will do one model lesson
- By the end of the day you should also have a good start on your first app in App Lab!
(3 minutes) Gots and Needs
Review any gots and needs that can be covered quickly
Who should take CSP? (8 minutes)
(8 minutes) Setting Context
(1 minute) Earlier in this week, we took a look at some of the inequities in who has access to computer science. Note: The facilitator should add slides about their local region and access to CS that match what was shown on Monday’s opening session.
(6 minutes) Pair-Share
Prompt: With this in mind, who in your school should take CS Principles?
- (3 min) Talk at tables
- (3 min) Generate a list from participant responses
- A facilitator types this into the slides or notes as participants are sharing out
Remarks
(1 minute) The College Board’s recommendation is to have an open enrollment policy for willing and academically prepared students. This means:
- We encourage the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.
- Note: The College Board recommends that students understand linear functions and plotting (x, y) coordinates before taking this course. Typically, these items are covered in a first year high school algebra course.
Brainstorming Barriers (20 minutes)
(7 minutes) Introducing the task
Remarks
Our goal is to have computer science classrooms that reflect the diversity of students in your school. To do this, we want to focus on addressing barriers groups of students face to accessing CS classes as well as barriers to inclusion in the CS Classroom.
Systemic barriers: Policies, practices, or procedures that result in some people receiving unequal access or being excluded. In CS education, examples of systemic barriers include the lack of CS offerings, scheduling conflicts, prerequisite courses, school funding and resources, lack of qualified and experienced teachers, inadequate access to technology, additional course requirements for English learners and students with disabilities, and students being pulled out from CS classes for additional services.
Facilitator Tip
Example frame for facilitator contribution:
- “In my school I noticed that _____ meant that students from (name a specific group under-represented students) weren’t able to take the course. I was able to _____ to remove that barrier for students.”
- Note: If you do not work in a school, consider other barriers you have seen in your work for accessing learning.
Together, we are going to brainstorm different barriers to access and inclusion that different groups of students may face in the classroom. Facilitator adds their own story about systemic barriers they have seen in computer science education and how they have influenced or addressed them. See example frame.
Share definitions of “access” and “inclusion”:
- Access: opportunity to learn and experience CS
- Inclusion: creating learning environments as well as using curricula and resources that are accessible,welcoming, and reflective of all students’ identities, backgrounds, differences, and perspectives.
Facilitator set-up: Below are the different groups of students we are asking participants to discuss. It is important to be specific about which students we are seeking to understand when it comes to barriers. Your region might have additional groups of students that are under-represented as well that you want to add to this list. Alternatively, you may want to reduce this list to groups of students that are most commonly in your classrooms in your region.
Student groups:
- Female students
- Black/African American students
- Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx students
- Native American/Alaskan
- Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
- English learners
- Students with disabilities
- Low-income students
Prior to the session, create two posters for each student group: one poster for “barriers to access” and a second for “barriers to inclusion”. Each poster should have a line roughly down the center with a space for questions at the bottom.
Remarks
Next we are going to brainstorm specific barriers that these groups may face to having access to computer science or inclusion in computer science. You will go to a poster that you want to brainstorm for. With other people at that poster you will list the barriers you can think of for that group of students on the left side of the papers. You will have 8 minutes to do this.
(10 minutes) Brainstorm barriers in groups
Allow participants to move to posters located around the room for the student group that they are most interested in. If no one is interested in one or more of the groups listed, that is okay. You can also verbalize where there are empty posters to see if that moves any participants to the empty spots. If you have a poster with only one participant at it, you may want to consider having your co-facilitator “buddy up” with that individual for thought partnership.
Identifying actions to take (28 minutes)
(12 minutes) Moving to a different group
Remarks
We are now going to move to a different student group that you are interested in brainstorming for. We ask that you move to a different poster that represents a different group. When you get there, read what the previous group wrote for barriers, circle the barriers you think you may be able to influence, and then on the right-hand side identify actions you might take as a teacher for CS Principles to influence, reduce, or eliminate this barrier. You will have 10 minutes to brainstorm actions with your new group.
Allow ten minutes for participants to work in groups to identify actions they can take.
(8 minutes) Gallery walk
Remarks
We are now going to do a “gallery walk” feel free to add ideas to the posters you see by adding post-it notes with your ideas as you circulate the room. When you are done reviewing the posters, you may return to your original seat.
Discussion Goal
This session will help set-up the portion of the workshop focused on “making and pursuing a commitment”. While ultimately the barrier and actions participants identify here may or may not be the actual commitment they make by the end of the workshop, this plants a seed for that commitment for later.
(8 minutes) Think-Pair-Share
Prompt: You probably have a lot of ideas from your discussions here today. In your journal, write down one barrier to access or inclusion you see yourself as able to influence or control and what steps or actions you can take to address that barrier.
(1 minute) Think: Individual Journal Time
(2 minutes) Pair: Partner share out
(4 minutes) Share: Full group share out
Remarks
Thank you for your time here. As we transition more to thinking about the course curriculum, consider what barriers might be in place once students get into your classroom.