About Us
What does the CS4All Equity Team Do?
Drawing on pedagogies that recognize differences should be treated as an asset for teaching and learning, the Equity Team works to build Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CR-SE) into CS4All’s core programming. Working collaboratively with academic experts and educators, we are able to explore equity principles and directly apply a CR-SE framework* in CS.
Through CR-SE infused professional development and events, CS4All offers the opportunity for educators to gain tools to critically investigate their own practice and competency, while increasing the rigor of instruction in their CS classroom to meet the needs of their students.
CS4All works closely with a series of advisors, such as the CS4All Family Council and the CS4ALL Ingenuity Team, to create resources and curriculum that are responsive and rooted in an understanding of self, others and the power of diversity.
By developing a network of practitioners, students, academics and cultural influencers, CS4All is developing a pipeline for additional opportunities for engagement within the CS4All Equity space.
Our mission is for teachers and students to use CS as a tool for problem solving and to advocate with and for marginalized communities.
#Equity #CSforAllNYC
The CR-SE framework helps educators create student-centered learning environments that: affirm racial, linguistic and cultural identities; prepare students for rigor and independent learning, develop students’ abilities to connect across lines of difference; elevate historically marginalized voices; and empower students as agents of social change.
For more than a century, education providers throughout the United States have strived and struggled to meet the diverse needs of American children and families. A complex system of biases and structural inequities is at play, deeply rooted in our country’s history, culture, and institutions. This system of inequity — which routinely confers advantage and disadvantage based on linguistic background, gender, skin color, and other characteristics — must be clearly understood, directly challenged, and fundamentally transformed. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has come to understand that the results we seek for all our children can never be fully achieved without incorporating an equity and inclusion lens in every facet of our work (see also New York State’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Plan). This understanding has created an urgency around promoting equitable opportunities that help all children thrive. New York State understands that the responsibility of education is not only to prevent the exclusion of historically silenced, erased, and disenfranchised groups, but also to assist in the promotion and perpetuation of cultures, languages and ways of knowing that have been devalued, suppressed, and imperiled by years of educational, social, political, economic neglect and other forms of oppression.
New York State Education Department’s Culturally Responsivive-Sustaining Education Framework (PDF, 2018)
CS4All Equity Team
Christy Crawford is the Senior Director of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education for New York City’s Computer Science for All Initiative. For more than a decade she taught K-8 classes in Harlem and the Bronx. She was also a curriculum fellow for the New York City Computer Science for All Blueprint and an adjunct lecturer for the City College of New York. She was an education consultant for companies such as Scholastic, BrainPOP, and Nickelodeon. Prior to teaching, Crawford was a television producer for several networks. She uses her experience in education and media to foster equity by all means necessary. Crawford is an advocate for Black and Brown leadership in computer science.
Madison Allen is a PhD student in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology Program at Michigan State University. She holds a B.A. in Social Psychology and African American Studies from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Madison’s research interests lie at the intersection of race, culture, technology, and learning. These interests have led to work in culturally relevant and sustaining Computer Science education, equitable access to education and technology, and Ethnocomputing.
Nykema Lindsey is the Operations and Event Consultant for New York City's Computer Science for All initiative. She attended the Georgia Institute of Technology where she studied Biomedical Engineering. For the past 5 years, Nykema has worked as a program manager, curriculum/instructional designer and event coordinator for a number of educational outreach/technology companies. Throughout her various roles she has worked to ensure students with various disabilities have access to programs and that the curriculum is accessible to all. Her passions lie within creating affordable physically accessible edtech. Outside of work she enjoys traveling, cooking and spending time with family and friends.
Angela Lozano is the Operations and Event Consultant for New York City's Computer Science for All initiative. This is Angela's first year with CS4All planning virtual Equity Events. She engages in family outreach to provide better remote environments for kids as the Family Council Director of CS4All. She also hosts virtual classes such as Cooking and DIY Crafts for middle school kids with Manhattan Youth, an after-school program. Angela has experience in human resources and diverse administrative fields. She is passionate about sustainable living, loves a good list, and enjoys the rare sunset in Manhattan.
Melissa Mejias Parker is the Associate Director of Equitable Practices for New York City’s Computer Science for All Initiative. Before she learned to code, she was a math teacher and video lesson producer with Zearn Math. After receiving a Masters degree from a creative technology program at New York University (ITP), she pivoted to computer science education (and hasn’t looked back). She has been working for CS4All since 2018, where she develops computer science curriculum and leads NYC teachers in CS content and pedagogy. When she isn’t debugging, you might see her biking along the river or posted up at a pinball table.
Fabiha Samiha is the Equity Communications and Project Management Consultant for New York City's Computer Science for All initiative. Fabiha is a full-time undergraduate student studying mechanical engineering at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, NY. She uses her experience in engineering, public relations, and human resources, as well as her passion for helping diversify the demographics of the STEM world, to help provide and make CS and engineering materials available and accessible to the public. Outside of school and work, she loves baking and cooking, painting and drawing, and spending time with friends and family.
About CS4All
Computer Science for All (CS4All) will ensure all NYC public school students learn computer science, with an emphasis on girls, black and Latino students. Through our work, students will be better prepared to utilize computer science during their K-12 experience and after graduation.
In the fall of 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced an ambitious set of goals for New York City schools: by 2026, 80% of our students will graduate high school on time, and two-thirds of our students will be college ready.
Ron Summers is the Executive Director of CS Education for the NYCDOE.
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