Dr. Ryoko Yamaguchi (Office of Research and Engagement) received new funding from the National Science Foundation for the project “BRIGHT-CS PD: Building Student Retention through Individuated Guided coHort Training in Computer Science Professional Development Research-Practitioner Partnership.”
BRIGHT-CS PD (Building Student Retention through Individuated Guided coHort Training in Computer Science Professional Development) is a small grant-size class proposal for NSF’s Computer Science for All program (NSF 20-539) under the high school strand, submitted by UNCG. BRIGHT-CS PD is a Researcher-Practitioner Partnership (RPP) that will provide math and science teachers access to and support for rigorous CS learning. The RPP will collaboratively create robust professional development (PD) materials for high school teachers to improve school and classroom practices to better support and broaden participation of black girls in computer science.
This proposal builds on the BRIGHT-CS middle school student and school projects. Lessons learned from these projects indicate that robust PD materials for teachers are critical to systemically broadening the participation of black girls in CS. The proposed RPP will work with math and science teachers to provide access and support as the teachers participate in high-quality, extant CS instruction via Harvard University’s CS50 courseware. The RPP team will then work with these teachers to adapt and build out their new, up-to-date CS/CT knowledge via robust PD materials designed to help teachers inculcate CS/CT skills into their math and science instruction.
