Reaching Across the Hallway: An interdisciplinary approach to teaching computer science in rural schools - This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's Discovery Research PreK-12 Continuing Grant with the award number of #2010256
Rebecca Dovi
Chief Advocacy Officer
CodeVA
Rebecca Dovi is a master teacher with more than 15 years of classroom experience and a decade of experience doing professional development and curriculum development at the state and national level. Rebecca serves on the Education Advisory Council for Code.org and is a Google Fellow Trailblazer. Rebecca was a recipient of the Aspirations in Computing award from the National Council of Women in Information Technology.
Valerie Fawley (she/her)
Integrated Curriculum Lead
CodeVA
Valerie Fawley is the Integrated Curriculum Lead at CodeVA, designing professional development sessions and classroom-facing materials to help teachers learn how to integrate computer science into core content areas. She taught elementary school and was an Instructional Technology Coach in public schools for over 15 years, integrating both technology skills and computer science into K-12 classrooms.
Kristen Franklin (she/her)
Faculty Administrator
CodeVA
Kristen Franklin oversees a statewide group of teacher facilitators leading computer science professional development sessions for educators across Virginia and beyond. Kristen taught elementary school for 16 years, served as an instructional coach, and was the Integrated Curriculum Lead for CodeVA. Kristen has collaborated on the development and writing of many CodeVA professional learning trainings and resources as well as the NEA's computer science microcredentials.
Dr. Perry Shank (he/him)
Deputy Director of Curriculum
CodeVA
Perry Shank designs learning experiences for educators in computer science integration and building CS content knowledge. Perry has over 20 years of experience as a preK-12 teacher in public education in music, art, and computer science. He is a co-PI on two competitive NSF grants and has co-authored multiple Virginia computer science resources and documents used by practicing teachers through the state as well as the NEA's computer science microcredentials.
Rebecca Dovi, (lead PI) Chief Advocacy Officer at CodeVA
Dr. Debra Bernstein, Senior Researcher at TERC
Dr. Michael Berson, Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Learning at the University of South Florida and a Senior Fellow in The Florida Joint Center for Citizenship
Kristen Franklin, Faculty Administrator at CodeVA
Dr. Perry Shank, Deputy Director of Curriculum at CodeVA
David Reider, Principal Partner at Education Design
Valerie Fawley, Integrated Curriculum Lead at CodeVA
Santiago Gasca, Researcher at TERC
Dr. Eric Hochberg, Senior Researcher at TERC
Abstract, NSF Grant #2010256
Strengthening computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) education is a national priority with particular attention to increasing the number of teachers prepared to deliver computer science courses. For rural schools, that collectively serve more than 10 million students, it is especially challenging. Rural schools find it difficult to recruit and retain STEM teachers that are prepared to teach computer science and computational thinking.
This project will develop, test, and refine a "peer coaching" professional development model for rural teacher-leaders. The project will build teachers' self-efficacy to deliver computer science concepts and practices into middle school Social Studies classrooms.
The project goal is to design and develop a professional development model that supports Teachers integrating culturally relevant computer science skills and practices into their middle school social studies classrooms, thereby broadening rural students' participation in computer science. The professional development model will be designed and developed around meeting rural teachers, where they are, geographically, economically, and culturally. The model will also be sustainable and will work within the resource constraints of the rural school district. The model will also be built on strategies that will broadly spread CS education while building rural capacity.
Computer Science in Rural Virginia
Virginia, USA, is a highly diverse state in terms of student populations and educational needs. The state ranges from highly affluent regions such as those found in the northern portion of the state near Washington, D.C., to very rural (low-population, mountainous region, farmland), low-income areas with little to no access to the internet and newer technologies. In many cases, a single rural school will serve a large geographical area, and these schools often share a single teacher across multiple schools in the region.
Teachers in Rural Virginia
This project targets teachers of middle school (ages 11-15) Social Studies Teachers and Technology Integration Specialists in rural areas of Virginia. Since these teachers are often shared across the region, we have experienced difficulty recruiting large numbers of these teachers. Each region typically only has two to four teachers for all of the schools.
Integration of Computer Science and Social Studies
This project is groundbreaking by bringing two unlikely teacher partners together - middle school Social Studies Teachers and Technology Integration Specialists. As a team, the Social Studies Teachers and Technology Integration Specialists work together to provide students with more opportunities for regular access to computer science instruction. This partnership increases the number of teachers with computer science knowledge in rural areas of Virginia, allowing Social Studies Teachers to elevate their lessons by integrating CS into lessons throughout the school year. Creating these teaching pairs across rural regions in Virginia increases the computational literacy of the students in those regions, bringing us one step closer to all Virginia students having equitable access to CS.
In 2017, the state of Virginia, USA, mandated that all K-8th grade classrooms implement computer science content into daily instruction; the first in the nation to require the adoption of computer science standards. These standards are designed around six computer science strands or themes, with a focus on integrating them with core content. This approach will prepare students for the increasingly digital world where computers, data, and the use of programming drive innovation in all areas of industry.
Links to Resources: Virginia Computer Science Standards - Virginia CS Standards Curriculum Framework
The Need for Computer Science Knowledge
Recent studies have found that public school educators have a significant learning gap in computer science content, knowledge, and skills. One contribution to this deficiency is the lack of pre-service requirements for computer science proficiencies in many university-leveled teacher education programs. Even though teachers may have an understanding of technology use in classrooms, they may lack deeper computer science content, knowledge, and skills. This lack of knowledge also exists, in part, because school administration and instructional leadership do not have the content understanding to lead regional workshops and seminars to train their staff. This gap presents a challenge for educators who want to incorporate computer science into their classrooms to leverage its practices to guide a deeper understanding of other content areas. The studies linked below are evidence that teachers feel acutely aware of their inability to provide in-depth computer science content knowledge or skills-based (programming) instruction in their daily coursework.
Links to Resources: 2021 Virginia CS Landscape Report - National Survey from Code, ECEP, and CSTA
The Need for Methods of Content Integration
The Virginia Computer Science Standards were created with a demand for integration with other content areas. However, understanding how to write lesson plans that reach the correct depth and breadth of computer science topics can be challenging for "new-to-CS" teachers. Also, there are many different ways that computer science can be integrated with core content. While one of the approaches when designing the Computer Science Standards was to focus on this type of integration, it was unexpected that this task would be difficult for teachers to achieve. Many teachers find it burdensome to accurately understand computer science content to the necessary depth in order to create lessons that partner with the content they regularly teach. This barrier leads to teachers avoiding integrating the content as designed by the creators of the standards and leads to a persistent computer science knowledge gap for both teachers and students.
Link to Resource: 2021 Virginia CS Landscape Report
The Project Focus
The Reaching Across the Hallway grant focuses on leveraging unique local partnerships between a rural school's Social Studies Teacher and Technology Integration Specialist to design computer science-focused lessons that bring value to social studies lessons. Both of the needs listed above are purposefully designed into the professional development offered. Participants in this study are receiving training in computer science content, knowledge, and skills as well as curriculum instruction on developing lesson plans with a focus on integration (pairing social studies content with computer science content). Participants who participate in this current year's professional development will learn these skills and coach other Social Studies Teachers and Technology Integration Specialists in their regions on similar content. This approach is meant to build capacity and ecosystems that will support continued local professional development in computer science integration.
Beyond computer science content and its integration, this study seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the following adjacent opportunities: US History (1, 2, Civics) content, sharing experiences about teaching CS in rural Virginia, broadening participation of minoritized students, peer coaching, equity in STEM education, telling stories using primary sources as data, and storytelling using computational thinking and programming with Twine.
2020-2021 Year 1: Planning - During the first year working on this project, the CodeVA curriculum team developed the project's curriculum and selected participants.
Surveyed rural Virginia districts about current CS practices
Developed CS-HSS skeleton lesson "sparks" based on Advisory Board's suggested integration areas
Recruited and onboarded teacher participants
Defined professional development goals
Developed a 5-day professional development for the summer
2021-2022 Year 2: Initial Pilot Year (COVID) - CodeVA facilitators implemented the curriculum during the pilot year (2nd year) of the project. However, COVID restrictions led to many obstacles for piloting teachers. This unavoidable barrier changed many of the expected behaviors and roles of the participants. The PI team and researchers had difficulty being able to access classrooms due to closed schools.
Implemented 5-day professional development during the summer
Participants performed asynchronous learning on Python programming language
Developed and implemented four 1-day follow-up professional development sessions scheduled throughout the academic school year
Participants implemented, recorded, and submitted three integrated lessons
Participants implemented, recorded, and submitted one local micro-session Professional Development
Analyzed participant data submissions
Determined needed changes for Pilot Year Revision
Recruited new teacher participants for Pilot Year Revision
Developed curricular goals for Pilot Year Revision
Developed Twine asynchronous modules
2022 -2023 Year 2: Pilot Year Revision - As schools re-opened their doors, the grant PI team decided to implement the Pilot Year again with a revised curriculum geared specifically toward the participants' needs following COVID.
Onboard CodeVA Coach Facilitators with middle school computer science and Social Studies experience
Develop a set of integrated lesson exemplars
Develop a coaching cycle for participants with four iterations throughout the academic school year
Develop new coaching resources
Participants implement asynchronous Twine modules
Develop and implement synchronous professional development sessions
Recruit new teacher participants to be coached in partnering schools/regions
Participants will enact, record, and submit four integrated lessons throughout the year
Analyze participant data submissions
Determine any needs for the upcoming coaching year
2023-2024 Year 3: Local Coaching - Next year, the current participants will become coaches, training local teachers in their own and surrounding rural regions.
Onboard current participants into the new peer coaching role
Develop and implement a structure for continued coaching
Collect and analyze data about local implementation, including observations, lesson plans, surveys and reflections from teacher participants
Cohort Make-up
Current cohorts in this study are comprised of six sets of partners from participating schools. Each pair is made up of one Social Studies Teacher and one Technology Integration Specialist. Totaling twelve teachers in total, the participants attend sessions where they learn as a whole group with CodeVA Coach-Facilitators, work in teams on curriculum that they will co-lead in a live teaching setting with students, and reflect on their practice under the guidance of CodeVA's Coach-Facilitators.
Social Studies Teachers
Social Studies Teachers selected for this research study teach in a rural district at one or more middle schools (students typically aged 11-15 years) and cover content in one of the following courses: United States History 1 (pre-Columbian times - 1865), United States History II (1865 - present), and Civics (the study and science of United States citizenry)
Technology Integration Specialists
Technology Integration Specialists are selected from schools or regions that have a partnering Social Studies Teacher. A Technology Integration Specialist provides a wide array of services to a school based on local needs. Some of the specialists teach coursework to children at various schools. The content of these courses might be about cyber hygiene (online safety, passwords and security) and/or technology for learning (online research practices, creating a presentation, keyboarding). Some specialists in rural districts help support teachers' use of technology for instruction (setting up computing stations, scheduling the use of specific hardware/software like classroom robots or VR tech). Other specialists may support teachers in the building with instructional coaching and model lessons, serving in part, as instructional coaches.
The research method for analyzing the use of curriculum and other professional learning supports for this grant involves observing the enactment of participant learning sessions from year two (initial pilot) and the usage of materials and assets in the participant's field of use (planning centers, classrooms).
Preliminary data for curriculum revision was gathered from the initial pilot stage and derived from the following:
Observation of professional development sessions,
Analyzing participant-completed materials, and
Reflection on summaries containing participant feedback about professional development sessions.
Observation of Sessions
Curriculum specialists observed the enactment of professional development sessions for both the summer sessions (grouped 5-day during July 2021) and academic year sessions (individual day - 4 times through the school year) and the complementary materials. Observation notes, coaching logs from CodeVA Coach-Facilitators, and end-of-session surveys were all used to collect information about the strength of the curriculum and its facilitation.
Participant-Completed Materials
Lesson plans created by pilot participants for learning about integration in training sessions were used to analyze participants' depth of understanding of integration concepts. Participants also created lessons for implementation throughout the school year in a social studies classroom. The implemented lesson plans were reviewed and analyzed for depth of knowledge of computer science concepts as well as participants' approaches to integration. Participants also shared recordings of their lesson implementation, which were reviewed and scored for depth of integration and computer science content knowledge depth.
Reflection on Summaries
The summaries were based on pre/post surveys capturing the efficacy and familiarity with integration concepts and recognition of integration opportunities within social studies content. Interviews were also held with each participant to discuss their level of ability and efficacy in designing their computer science-integrated lessons. These summaries were given to the curriculum team by the grant's research team and discussed with the PIs of the grant. From this information, the PI team created a list of probable changes to make for the second year of the pilot course.
Revision of Materials
Changes were made to the existing professional development by drawing conclusions based on the data listed above and through the application of theoretical frameworks and best practices that support the curriculum revision.
How can a professional development intervention build and sustain a cohort of teacher leaders that have the capacity to engage in and support CS integration?
How do the different materials and supports (both synchronous and asynchronous) provided during professional development contribute to the development of participants’ capacity for creating and leading CS integration training in their region?
What is the range of ways in which participants adapt and enact professional development to support CS integration in their region?
To what extent does the professional development increase participant coaches' sense of self-efficacy as regional resources for interdisciplinary CS teaching?
How does participants’ capacity to support CS integration in their school regions change over the course of the project?
How do regional context variables influence the enactment of professional development in each of the above areas?
To what extent does the intervention increase participant Social Studies Teachers' and Technology Integration Specialists' understanding of CS/CT skills and practices?
Unique Barriers and Limitations
There has been difficulty recruiting and retaining pairs of Social Studies Teachers and Technology Coaches from rural schools - this barrier resulted in recruiting Technology Integration Specialists paired with Social Studies teachers (many Technology Integration Specialists lack instructional coaching background)
After the first pilot year, it was determined that an intensive revision of the curriculum was needed in order to serve the goals of the grant and more effectively train the participants in computer science content and integration methods. The original plan used the scaffold of an existing professional development session that covered too broad of computer science topics and assumed that one teacher from each participant pair would have a coaching background and abilities.
The CodeVA Coaching Facilitation team did not have a middle-school background but was tasked with leading the professional development in this specific grade level.
The impact of COVID-19 affected both the training session and the overall disposition and capacity of the teachers (stressed from additional school duties and learning loss)
Some school administrators did not support teachers in their efforts to provide mini-professional learning sessions for their peers in the first pilot. This led to the inability of trained teachers to participate in phase three of the project.
