A Siena team that developed an innovative computer science education initiative scored an important honor this year at a national conference.
“How a Small College Can Make a Big Impact on High School CS” was named Best Paper at the annual Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education and was presented at the conference held March 1 in Pittsburgh.
The paper was co-authored by Jim Matthews, M.S. and Robin Flatland, Ph.D., both professors of computer science; Jesse Moya, Ph.D., department chair and associate professor of education; Pauline White, M.S., teaching instructor of computer science; and their University at Albany colleague Kathryn Schiller, Ph.D.
The team presented on their well-known Siena Computer Science for All (CSforAll) initiative, which supports partnerships and research to help equip high school teachers to teach computer science. The team now works with more than 50 area school districts, and is partially funded by the National Science Foundation.
“There are about 40,000 certified K-12 math teachers in New York state, but only about 300 certified computer science teachers,” explained Matthews. “That ratio is reflective of most other states. We partner with educators on their professional development so they can qualify to earn their computer science teaching certification.”
The team originally presented on Siena CSforAll at the 2022 symposium; this update highlights how the successful program has grown and evolved, and may be replicated. (MaryAnne Egan, Ph.D., professor of computer science, is also part of the Siena CSforAll team and attended the symposium.)
Matthews and Flatland shared that in the last three years the number of their partner school districts has increased from 23 to 55. The partnership’s teacher retention rate is 95 percent, with most veteran teachers belonging for almost ten years. Important components of their model include summer and school year professional development, curriculum and support for four CS courses, a dual-enrollment program, teacher CS certification pathways, and a professional learning community.
“The project provides a model that can be used by other colleges and universities for building long-term partnerships with schools to improve CS education,” said Flatland. “We identify opportunities and challenges for those interested in developing a similar program.”
“A Best Paper award at this extremely competitive conference is a prestigious honor,” said Jim Teresco, Ph.D., department chair and professor of computer science. “It’s great to see their impactful work being recognized in this way.”
The symposium is the flagship conference of the Association for Computer Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE). This highly competitive venue for computer science education research accepts just over 30 percent of papers submitted each year. Close to 2,000 educators attend to discuss issues related to the development, implementation and evaluation of computing curricula and pedagogy.
