Session 52: Recruiting and Retaining students in CS Principles
23 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 Module 4 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
Facilitation Guide
Who should take CSP? (5 minutes)
Facilitator Tip
You should add slides about their local region and access to CS that match what was shown on Monday’s opening session.
(1 minute) Setting Context
Remarks
Earlier in this week, we took a look at some of the inequities in who has access to computer science.
(3 minutes) Waterfall
Prompt: With this in mind, who in your school should take CS Principles?
Remarks
Come up with your answer and type it in the chat but do not hit enter yet! We will all hit enter at the same time to create a “waterfall” effect.
A facilitator types this into the slides or notes.
(1 minute) College Board Recommendation
Remarks
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 (18 minutes)
Facilitator Tip
Prior to the session, create slides for each student group: one slide for “barriers to access” and a second for “barriers to inclusion”. Each slide should have a line roughly down the center and use the Notes section at the bottom for Questions.
Producer Tip
Prepare a different breakout room for each of the student groups. Add participants to their selected room after polling them.
(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.
Remarks
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
Remarks
Next we are going to brainstorm specific barriers that these groups may face to having access to CS or inclusion in CS. We are going to put you in breakout rooms based on the different student groups. Before we do, we are going to poll you to ask which group you are most interested in. With other people in your group, you will list the barriers you can think of for that group of students on the left hand side of the papers. You will have 10 minutes to do this.
(10 minutes) Brainstorm barriers in groups 
Allow participants to work with their groups to brainstorm barriers for their groups. If no one is interested in one or more of the groups listed, that is OK. You can also verbalize where there are empty breakout rooms to see if that moves any participants to the empty spots. If you have a group with only one participant at it, you may want to consider having your co-facilitator “buddy up” with that individual for thought partnership.
(1 minutes) Wrap Up
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.
We will return to these slides in the next asynchronous activity.