Evaluación del Programa Computer Science for Oregon

MARTINEZ, M. CECILIA

2021-08-01/2021-11-30

Social

Ciencia y cultura-Sistema educativo

This report analyzes the Computer Science for Oregon project (CS for Oregon) funded by the National Science Foundation. The main goal of this educational project is building the capacity of the State of Oregon to offer culturally relevant high school CS (Computer Science) content knowledge to all students. To do so, the CS for Oregon prepares teachers to offer a inquiry-based, equitable computing lessons through year-long PD(professional development); and raises awareness among school administrators and educational leaders on the inequities of CS education. The external evaluation followed a grounded theory approach to identify emerging themes from systematically collecting and analyzing data. In agreement with the co-PIs, the evaluator focused her inquiry on the development of professional learning communities, teacher experience on teaching ECS remotely, and inquiry and equity conceptualization.Data collection included: 1. Observation of the summer ECS PD Week The summer PD week is an annual event within the program where newly recruited teachers and previous teachers? cohorts (returning teachers) join to learn, collaborate, and reflect on the ECS curriculum. The 40 hours PD had its 2021 edition online due to the pandemic. The external evaluator participated as an observer in all the synchronous online meetings to register all the large group events taking detailed notes of teachers? discussions and participation. Intentionally, the external evaluator did not participate in small group discussions to allow teachers to confer openly. At the end of the week, the researcher collected 40 pages of notes. In addition, the evaluator read and summarized postings on 10 online forums (where teachers discussed and reflected on the ECS lesson plans), reviewed teachers? collaborative posters, brainstorming sessions, chats, and lesson reflections shared in online documents.  2. Interviews with CS for Oregon co PIs. Three open ended interviews with the project PIs were conducted. These interviews gathered information about PIs´ tasks carried out during the year for both PD preparation and larger efforts to build state capacity to offer equity and inquiry based CS education. Interviews inquired about building a statewide network of teachers and educational leaders, informing policy makers and developing teacher preparation courses.  3. Project documentsCS for Oregon academic papers, newspaper articles, web pages, and social network pages were gathered to analyze research findings by CS for Oregon.Firstly, collected data was analyzed without reference to prior evaluations to identify new topics and dimensions particular to this year cohort and events. After developing and describing the 2021 themes, data was compared with the previous year´s analysis to identify changes or movements on the topics. All collected data was triangulated to reconstruct the PD design and rationale and to analyze how PD activities promoted teacher learning. This report describes these findings using extensive quotes from forums, chats, and observations with the purpose of providing a vivid account of the PD process.