Because of the rapid expansion of computer science (CS) education, educational leaders must consider how to recruit, prepare, and support teachers who typically do not have a background in CS. This study examines two professional development (PD) approaches used to introduce CS education to non-CS teachers. We aim to understand if/how each model…

Computer Science affords a unique context for English Learners (who we refer to as Multilingual Learners or MLs) to engage in disciplinary practices that support computational thinking and language development. Yet MLs at the secondary level tend to be systematically excluded from CS courses. Through a collaborative research process involving…

The goal of this study was to examine how two groups of middle school students' self-efficacy, interest, goal orientation, and prior experience related to evidence of their building upon existing ideas and code in digital artifacts they created using MIT's App Inventor, a computational practice that Brennan and Resnick (2012) identified as…

Motivating girls to enroll in computer science (CS) courses is critically important. Stereotypes that girls are less interested than boys in CS may deter girls. Three preregistered experimental studies (N = 1,053) examined causal links between gender-interest stereotypes and middle school students' CS motivation. Experiment 1 showed that…

We report findings from qualitatively analyzing audio recordings and teacher-generated products from a two-day in-person collaborative design (co-design) workshop where nine experienced high school CS teachers revised parts of an existing introductory high school program toward justice. In response to our research question of how teachers…

The importance of developing individuals' computational thinking (CT) skills has given rise to many practices and research and development initiatives. Although there is a considerable volume of research on improving students' CT skills, remarkably little is known about teachers' design work to improve students' CT skills. This multiple case study…

Multilingual learners, also known as English learners (ELs), are underrepresented in K-12 computer science (CS) courses, where they often struggle. This paper demonstrates how a Computer Science for English Learners (CSforEL) professional development (PD) program supported Advanced Placement CS Principles (APCSP) teachers in attending to both…

While computer science is widely recognized as crucial for all U.S. high school students, challenges persist for teachers' pedagogical, content, and culturally responsive-sustaining education. In this paper, we explore how a co-teaching model with an experienced CS instructor shaped three novice CS teachers' knowledge while implementing Advanced…

This study investigated common student errors and underlying difficulties of two groups of Chinese middle school students in an introductory Python programming course using data in the automated assessment tool (AAT) Mulberry. One group of students was from a typical middle school while the other group was from a high-ability middle school. By…

This paper explores how minoritized Computer Science (CS) students articulate their sense of critical agency to positively impact the world around them, both for today and the future, when participating in a Girls Who Code program focused on ethics, equity, and underrepresentation in computing. Observations, interviews, and surveys were conducted…

This qualitative case study describes how participation in an outside-of-school program sustained middle school girls' interest in computer science and positively influenced their computational perspectives. Data consists of interviews, observations, and videos analyzed from ten girls participating in a nine-month program during 2017-2018.…

This study, which took place during a 7-week middle school computing course, used structural equation modeling to examine the overall cumulative relationship between self-efficacy, interest, and prior computing experience and students' computer science learning outcomes. The findings indicated that 52% of the variance of student success, measured…

Recent policies across the United States support rigorous high school computer science courses acting as flex credit courses. This allows the courses to count as graduation requirements in lieu of traditional mathematics or science courses. In this study, 457 teachers in high schools that had not yet adopted flex credit policies indicated school…

Current policy efforts that seek to improve learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) emphasize the importance of helping all students acquire concepts and tools from computer science that help them analyze and develop solutions to everyday problems. These goals have been generally described in the literature under the…

The new Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science (CS) Principles course increases the need for quality CS teachers and thus the need for professional development (PD). This article presents the results of a 2-year study investigating how teachers teaching the AP CS Principles course for the first time used online PD material. Our results showed…