NYC CS4All: An Early Look at Teacher Implementation in One Districtwide Initiative

Computer science for all initiatives have broadened the participation of students enrolled in elective computer science (CS) courses and introduced compulsory CS instruction in many areas of the United States. However, there is a shortage of K-12 teachers with the background, preparation, and experience necessary to teach CS. To build capacity to deliver this instruction, districts must provide teacher preparation that includes not only CS content, but also high-quality pedagogical approaches that will meet the needs of all students enrolled in a wide variety of school settings. In this paper, we explore teacher outcomes across multiple CS professional development opportunities, in one large urban district. The teacher outcomes were measured via a survey administered between eight months and two years after teachers received training to implement CS. Though our findings are from a single district, we believe these findings are relevant to other settings and provide useful information about the outcomes of teacher professional development for CS education, as well as supports and barriers to implementing CS, in a large, urban school system. The results offer insight into professional development quality, teacher confidence, the ability of teachers to implement CS in their classrooms, and supports and barriers to offering CS instruction (even in a district where CS education is a priority). They also shed light on how supports and barriers differ in schools serving students with high economic needs and lower academic performance compared with schools serving students with lower economic needs and higher academic performance. These differences underscore the importance of considering economic need and academic performance (in addition to race and gender) when developing and executing CS for all initiatives.