Reimagining Computer Science Pathways in High School and Beyond
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Virtual
Session description
Outline
1. Launch: Presenters introduce themselves, goals, and agenda. Frame the need to reimagine computer science pathways and equity considerations. (5 mins)
2. Foundational CS Content: Participants view a persona that describes one of today's high school students ten years from now. They use this to identify what CS content is most essential for their life and career. Participants will briefly discuss in breakouts, then share their responses via an interactive polling tool. Presenters will synthesize trends and compare to community consensus. (15 mins)
3. Reimagining CS Project: Presenters provide a brief overview of a research project that identified essential content and pathways for learning in high school and beyond. (5 mins)
4. Selecting Pathways: Presenters share example pathways for learning computer science, including integration, AI, data science, and cybersecurity. Participants are first guided in identifying their students' interests and school/community context. Then, participants will discuss which example pathways are most relevant for their school or community and plan adjustments to their pathway options about 5-10 years in the future. This will involve independent reflection with a graphic organizer, breakouts to discuss and compare, and a brief whole-group share. (20 mins)
5. Close-out: Presenters will share additional resources and activities available at ReimaginingCS.org. They will prompt participants to share a key takeaway and lingering questions via an interactive polling tool.
Supporting research
CSTA, IACE, ACM, Code.org, College Board, CSforALL, & ECEP Alliance. (2024). Reimagining CS Pathways: Every student prepared for a world powered by computing. Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3678016
This report is the culmination of a National Science Foundation-funded research project that included extensive studies. The report lists 100+ references that were used in the development of the project.
Presenters




Session specifications
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Attendee device specification:
Laptop: Chromebook, Mac, PC
Tablet: Android, iOS, Windows
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ISTE Standards:
Equity and Citizenship Advocate
- Ensure access to technology, connectivity, inclusive digital content and learning environments that meet the needs of all students.
- Build on the shared vision by collaboratively creating a strategic plan that articulates how technology will be used to enhance learning.
- Set goals to remain current on emerging technologies for learning, innovations in pedagogy and advancements in the learning sciences.