Board 363: Reimagining Essential Computing Content for High School Students

Julie M. Smith; Monica McGill; Jacob Koressel; Bryan Twarek

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/46946

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Paper Authors

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Julie M. Smith CSEdResearch.org

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Dr. Julie M. Smith is a senior education researcher at CSEdResearch.org. She holds degrees in Curriculum & Instruction and Software Development. She also completed a doctoral program in Learning Technologies at the University of North Texas. Her research focus is computer science education, particularly the intersection of learning analytics, learning theory, and equity and excellence. She was a research assistant at MIT’s Teaching Systems Lab, working on a program aimed at improving equity in high school computer science programs; she is also co-editor of the SIGCSE Bulletin.

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Monica McGill Institute for Advanced Engineering orcid.org/0000-0002-3096-9619

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Monica McGill is President & CEO of CSEdResearch.org and a Temporary Research Specialist at Knox College. Her area of scholarship is K-12 computer science and cybersecurity education research with a current focus on diversity and improving the quality of research.

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Jacob Koressel

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Bryan Twarek

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Abstract

There are several changes anticipated in computer science (CS) education over the next decade, including updated student standards, rapidly changing impacts of artificial intelligence (AI), and an increasing number of school systems requiring a CS class for graduation. In order to prepare for these changes – as well as to address the equity issues that have plagued CS since its inception – we engaged in a project designed to reimagine content and pathways for high school CS education. As a collaborative project, we hosted multiple events for relevant parties (including K-12 educators and administrators, higher education faculty, industry professionals, state and district CS supervisors, and CS education researchers). These events were designed to collaboratively seek input for the creation of a series of reports recommending what a CS course that satisfies a high school graduation requirement should include, how that course should align with Advanced Placement (AP) and post-secondary CS instruction, and what pathways should exist for students after that introductory high school course.

The portion of the project highlighted in this article contains an analysis of data collected from focus groups (n=21), interviews (n=10), and an in-person convening of participants from K-12, post-secondary, and educators (n=35). The data is centered on determining what CS content is essential for all high school students. Participants considered knowledge, skills, and dispositions across a range of CS and CS-adjacent topics and, through a variety of activities, described what new content should be taught when viewing through the lens of teaching CS to high school students in the year 2030 and what content should be prioritized. Our analysis sought to delineate and synthesize their sentiments. Six major priorities emerged from our analysis: societal impacts and ethical issues, algorithmic thinking, data and analysis, inclusive computing culture, AI, and career knowledge. The significance of our findings is that they present a broad overview of what a variety of relevant parties consider to be the most important CS content for high school students; this information is important for educators, administrators, and those who develop curriculum, standards, and/or teaching tools.

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Smith, J. M., & McGill, M., & Koressel, J., & Twarek, B. (2024, June), Board 363: Reimagining Essential Computing Content for High School Students Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://strategy.asee.org/46946

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - There are several changes anticipated in computer science (CS) education over the next decade, including updated student standards, rapidly changing impacts of artificial intelligence (AI), and an increasing number of school systems requiring a CS class for graduation. In order to prepare for these changes – as well as to address the equity issues that have plagued CS since its inception – we engaged in a project designed to reimagine content and pathways for high school CS education. As a collaborative project, we hosted multiple events for relevant parties (including K-12 educators and administrators, higher education faculty, industry professionals, state and district CS supervisors, and CS education researchers). These events were designed to collaboratively seek input for the creation of a series of reports recommending what a CS course that satisfies a high school graduation requirement should include, how that course should align with Advanced Placement (AP) and post-secondary CS instruction, and what pathways should exist for students after that introductory high school course.

The portion of the project highlighted in this article contains an analysis of data collected from focus groups (n=21), interviews (n=10), and an in-person convening of participants from K-12, post-secondary, and educators (n=35). The data is centered on determining what CS content is essential for all high school students. Participants considered knowledge, skills, and dispositions across a range of CS and CS-adjacent topics and, through a variety of activities, described what new content should be taught when viewing through the lens of teaching CS to high school students in the year 2030 and what content should be prioritized. Our analysis sought to delineate and synthesize their sentiments. Six major priorities emerged from our analysis: societal impacts and ethical issues, algorithmic thinking, data and analysis, inclusive computing culture, AI, and career knowledge. The significance of our findings is that they present a broad overview of what a variety of relevant parties consider to be the most important CS content for high school students; this information is important for educators, administrators, and those who develop curriculum, standards, and/or teaching tools.
AU  - Julie M. Smith
AU  - Monica McGill
AU  - Jacob Koressel
AU  - Bryan Twarek
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 363: Reimagining Essential Computing Content for High School Students
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/46946
ER  -