Collaborative Research: Broadening Participation and Building Pathways in Computer Science (CS) through Concurrent Enrollment

This project studies the implementation and outcomes of Concurrent Enrollment (CE) programs as a vehicle for broadening participation in high school to college pathways in Computer Science (CS). The Mobile Computer Science Principles (Mobile CSP) project at the College of St. Scholastica, an established curriculum endorsed by the College Board for its alignment with the Advanced Placement (AP) CSP framework, has formed a Research-Practitioner Partnership (RPP) with CE programs at Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut and Southwest Minnesota State University in Minnesota and with partner school districts in each state. The RPP project explores whether CS through CE can broaden the high school to college pathway in computing disciplines for those traditionally underrepresented in these fields--female, underrepresented minority, and low-SES students. While the AP CSP course has enrolled a more diverse group of students than previous AP CS courses, it is not as diverse as other AP courses. CE programs appear to have better penetration than AP among schools that predominantly serve underrepresented minorities and low-SES students, showing promise for broadening participation in other disciplines and encouraging college matriculation. By implementing and studying CS through CE in two different contexts (rural and low-SES in Minnesota and urban, diverse, and low-SES in Connecticut), the project contributes to transforming the educational pathways in CS in a variety of contexts and to understanding the supports and barriers to implementing CSP as CE with a broadening-participation goal. This project provides professional development and support of 40 high school teachers to teach a CE version of the Mobile CSP course among partnering school districts over the course of 3 years. The goals of this RPP project are (1) to examine and address the supports and barriers to implementing and sustaining Mobile CSP as a concurrent enrollment course and (2) to study whether a CE implementation of the CSP course broadens participation in computing. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.