CSPdWeek: A scalable model for preparing teachers for CS for all
Professional development (PD) has long been recognized as one of the key ingredients in CS Education, particularly when addressing the problem of underserved communities. Over the last decade, significant work has been done to create professional development and curricular offerings that are research based, with a proven track record. Bootstrap, Exploring Computer Science and AP CS Principles represent these types of programs. Each of these programs has developed high-quality PD for educators and have been recognized by the White House as exemplar courses. However, economies of scale make it difficult to expand to the vast number of small school districts around the country, including some of the most isolated and underserved areas such as rural communities and Native American reservations. This panel will discuss an alternative model - "CSPdWeek" -A national event aimed at providing best-in-class PD to teachers across the country. The inaugural CSPdWeek took place in July, 2016 at Colorado School of Mines, and provided a week-long residential experience for teachers attending one of three teacher-focused professional development programs. Additionally, Counselors for Computing, an NCWIT program, provided a shorter 2-day experience to 20 school counselors. Over 240 classroom teachers attended CSPdWeek, making this professional development the single largest cross-curricular effort in preparing U.S. teachers to teach computing as part of the "CS for All" movement. This panel will focus on why this year's CSPdWeek was such a success and what was behind social media testimonies from teachers who talked about being part of an educational movement. What opportunities for learning, community building, and teacher cross-program communication were made possible by this model? What was the high value-Added of this PD model? What lessons did we learn for improvement and expansion? What would we keep the same and what will we change (and why) will be the focus of the discussion.
