DIGITAL LITERACY NOW GRANT PROGRAM
In 2019 a group from Massachusetts joined teams from the other five New England states to examine how state departments of education could use data to understand the state of CS education across the region including shared definitions of CS, understanding where students have access to CS, who participates, and what the outcomes are for students as well as equity-focused CS education efforts. As part of the two-day workshop led by Sagefox and the Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance, the group participated in an Equity Walk to explore the state of computing and technological education, workforce opportunity and policies. Out of this activity, participants left with:
A commitment for creating data systems and reports that disaggregate data to uncover the CS story including where CS is available, who participates, and potential indicators of student success outcomes
A model for data dissemination to inform policy and program design
New ideas for using data to prioritize resource allocation
Ideas for sharing data with their own stakeholders to generate broad-based support for computing education initiatives.
Key SageFox team members involved: Rebecca Zarch, Alan Peterfreund, Brie Johnson, Jordan Esiason
External partners: Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Work Examples:
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) STEM Equity Walk is a 45-90 minute, interactive activity designed to facilitate conversation among a diverse group of stakeholders about the current state of STEM education and workforce opportunity in Massachusetts.
This activity works best when embedded into a larger strategic initiative in which equity should be core to the conversation. Participants should leave inspired to pursue equity in their own contexts.
In the DESE STEM Equity Walk, data around equity in STEM is presented through a set of visual panels and presumes no prior knowledge or experience with data. The goal of this activity is to give participants the opportunity to reflect on these data independently and engage in community discussion, share ideas, raise new questions and propose actions to address challenges of equity in STEM education.