Collaborative Research: RAPID: CS-NYCE: An ecological approach to understanding the rollout of student-centered computer science education in New York City

WCER collaborates with the Teachers College at Columbia University and the Georgia Institute of Technology to study the effectiveness of Computer Science for All (CS4All) in diverse New York City  communities.

CS4All is a 10-year initiative to scale up computer science education to 100% of New York City’s public schools. CS4All is a public-private partnership between Computer Science for all NYC Students (CSNYC), The City of New York, and the NYC Department of Education.

The program is deployed across the city in diverse communities and schools that have not previously offered formal courses in computer science or engineering. This represents the largest rollout of computer science education in the nation’s history, and one of the largest scaled rollouts of a new academic subject for American public high school students in decades.

The success of this program could improve computer science education for thousands of NYC students and could provide a blueprint for the rest of the nation.

The CS4All initiative provides an important opportunity to evaluate the impact of K-12 CS curricula and teaching in highly diverse settings at a scale rarely possible.

Guiding research questions include: What are the challenges in implementing CS education (with embedded student-centered pedagogies) across NYC?  
What are the practical roles of the stakeholders in curriculum design, rollout, and uptake for new CS classrooms?