Anita Borg Institute, CSTA and the University of Arizona Hold K12 Computing Teachers Workshop

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A recent workshop sponsored by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI), the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), and the University of Arizona demonstrates that equity and pipeline issues are a key concern for the entire computer science community.

More than 100 Kindergarten through grade 12 computer science and information technology teachers who work with under-represented populations of students attended the first K–12 Computing Teachers Equity Workshop at the 2009 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. This workshop provided a unique opportunity for teachers to focus on providing equity of computing access, instruction, and engagement for our increasingly diverse student population. The K12 workshop and participant scholarships were funded by the National Science Foundation, Motorola Foundation, and IBM.

“The K12 Computing Teachers Workshop at the Grace Hopper Celebration was created to help address one of the greatest challenges facing the high technology industry, the need to bring more students into the technical pipeline,” said Deanna Kosaraju, vice president of programs for ABI.

The workshop was keynoted by Jane Margolis, a senior researcher at UCLA and author of Stuck in the Shallow End: Race, Education, and Computing, whose ground-breaking work on access to computer science education as a social justice issue provided the perfect framework for the day.

Some key topics from the event included:

• Despite the growing needs of the workforce for computing professionals, there are deep disparities in access to computer science education for underrepresented minority students and for girls at the K-12 level. Systemic change is needed in public education across states to address the educational needs of tomorrow’s workforce, and this change needs to engage teachers, government, academia, and industry.
• Computer Science needs to be a part of the core curriculum in the K-12 educational system.
• Hands-on solutions for recruiting diverse students in the classroom, teaching methods, and creating curriculum that appeals to diverse groups were discussed.

According to Chris Stephenson, executive director of the Computer Science Teachers Association, the workshop demonstrated that teachers are deeply concerned about improving equity in computer science education and passionately committed to learning new skills and strategies.

“We began hoping that there would be at least 100 teachers interested in attending our workshop and were astounded to receive more than 650 applications,” said Stephenson. “This is a clear indication that these kinds of professional development events for teachers are both critical and valued.”

A white paper focusing on the key learnings from this event will be published later this year. It will disseminate solutions to a broad audience of teachers, STEM practitioners, and interested stakeholders.

About CSTA

The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) is a membership organization that supports and promotes the teaching of computer science and the other computing disciplines by providing opportunities for K-12 teachers and students to better understand the computing disciplines and to more successfully prepare themselves to teach and to learn. http://csta.acm.org. CSTA provides its over 7500 members with resources, research, and professional development opportunities. CSTA was founded by ACM in 2005.

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)

The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. ABI programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Google, Microsoft, HP, Cisco, First Republic Bank, Intel, National Science Foundation, NetApp, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Thomson Reuters, CA, Intuit, Amazon, Facebook, Raytheon, and Genentech. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.