CS Pathways was a researcher-practitioner partnership among two universities (UMass Lowell and the University at Albany / SUNY) and three public school districts: Lowell Public Schools (Massachusetts), Methuen Public Schools (Massachusetts), and Schenectady City Schools (New York).
The project built culturally sustaining computing programs in middle school based on students engaging in app design for social good. It was led by PIs Fred Martin (UMass Lowell and then UT San Antonio) and Lijun Ni (University at Albany / SUNY) from 2019 to 2024 with awards from NSF’s CSforAll program.
In addition to the research products listed below, we have the CS Pathways project web site and curriculum site—a tech pathway and civics & CS pathway. See more materials produced from the project and an earlier collaboration funded by NSF ITEST here.
References
2025
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Understandings and enactments of culturally responsive pedagogy in teaching computer science: a case study with two middle school teachers
Lijun Ni, Gillian Bausch, Elizabeth Thomas-Cappello, and 2 more authors
Computer Science Education, Jul 2025
Culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) is an important approach for fostering equitable and meaningful learning experiences for students from diverse backgrounds. Teachers bring varied prior knowledge and experiences and may encounter challenges when integrating this pedagogy in teaching CS. This study investigated two teachers’ development of CRP throughout a multiple-year professional learning program within a researcher–practitioner partnership (RPP) project. Multiple data sources were analyzed to examine teachers’ understandings and reported enactments of the six pillars of the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Computer Science Education Framework. The two cases demonstrated how teachers developed their understandings and diverse ways of enacting CRP in teaching CS. Both teachers consistently prioritized student voice and agency, integrating students’ cultural assets into their curricula by addressing community issues. This longitudinal study offers valuable insights for designing RPPs and professional learning programs to enhance teachers’ understanding and CRP practices in CS education..
2024
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Investigating Middle School Students’ Early Learning Experience of Computer Science through Creating Apps for Social Good
Gillian Bausch, Lijun Ni, Elizabeth Thomas-Cappello, and 3 more authors
In Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1, Jul 2024
This study investigated middle school students’ learning experiences with a computer science and digital literacy (CSDL) curriculum, which was developed through the CS Pathways researcher-practitioner partnership (RPP) project. The curriculum is based on students learning computer science (CS) through creating apps that serve community and social good. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from students in three urban districts: 1) 330 paired pre- and post-survey responses indicating students’ confidence and interest in both learning CS and creating apps for social good; 2) 343 open-ended question responses in the post-survey probing into students’ perceptions on learning CS after taking the course. Whether there were gender differences emerged from both data were also examined. The results showed that students’ confidence in coding and creating apps for social good significantly increased after completing the course, regardless of gender. However, their interest in pursuing CS learning remained at a low level. Further analysis showed male students reported significantly stronger interest than female students. Qualitative analysis of the open-ended responses revealed that both male and female students appreciated the collaborative learning environment and learning coding through making apps. Male students did not like certain instructional approaches that their teachers used. Female students expressed their dislike of coding in general. We applied an interest development theory to further understand these results, which suggested that we consider the trajectory of students’ interest development of CS.
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Creating Apps for Community and Social Good: Preliminary Learning Outcomes from a Middle School Computer Science Curriculum
Lijun Ni, Gillian Bausch, Elizabeth Thomas-Cappello, and 2 more authors
ACM Transactions on Computing Education, Jul 2024
This study examined student learning outcomes from a middle school computer science (CS) curriculum developed through a researcher and practitioner partnership (RPP) project. The curriculum is based on students creating mobile apps that serve community and social good. We collected two sets of data from 294 students in three urban districts: (1) pre- and post-survey responses on their learning experiences and attitudes toward learning CS and creating community-serving apps; (2) the apps created by those students. The analysis of student apps indicated that students were able to create basic apps that connected with their personal interests, life experiences, school community, and the larger society. Students were significantly more confident in coding and creating community-focused apps after completing the course, regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, and grade. However, their interest in solving coding problems and continuing to learn CS decreased afterward. Analyses of students’ attitudes by gender, grade, and race/ethnicity showed significant differences among students in some groups. Seventh-grade students rated more positive on their attitudes than eighth graders. Students identifying with different race/ethnicity groups indicated significantly different attitudes, especially students identifying as Southeast Asian, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino. Self-identified male students also reported stronger interest and more positive attitudes overall than self-identified female students. Students also reported positive experiences in learning how to create real apps serving their community, while there were disparities in their experiences with coding in general and some of the instructional tools used in the class.
2023
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Creating Apps for Community and Social Good: Learning Outcomes of a Culturally Responsive Middle School Computer Science Curriculum
Lijun Ni, Gillian Bausch, Elizabeth Thomas-Cappello, and 2 more authors
In Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1, Jul 2023
This study examined student learning outcomes from a culturally responsive middle school computer science (CS) curriculum. The curriculum is based on students creating mobile apps serving community and social good. Two sets of data were collected from 294 students in three urban districts: (1) pre- and post- survey responses on their attitudes toward learning CS and creating culturally responsive apps; (2) the apps created by those students. The analyses of student apps indicated that students were able to create basic apps that connected with their personal interests, life experiences, class community, and the larger society. Paired sample t-tests of pre- and post- survey results indicated that students were significantly more confident in coding and creating community-focused apps after completing the course, regardless of gender and race. However, their interest in solving coding problems and continuing to learn CS decreased afterward. Analyses of students’ attitudes by gender, grade, and race showed significant differences among some of those groups. Seventh grade students rated more positively on their attitudes than eighth graders. Students of different racial groups indicated significantly different attitudes, especially the Southeast Asian and African American groups. Male students also reported stronger confidence and interest and more positive attitudes overall than female students.
2022
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CS Pathways: A Culturally Responsive Computer Science Curriculum for Middle School
Garima Jain*, Fred Martin, Bernardo Feliciano*, and 5 more authors
In 2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Jul 2022
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Teachers as Curriculum Co-designers: Supporting Professional Learning and Curriculum Implementation in a CSforAll RPP Project
Lijun Ni, Gillian Bausch, Bernardo Feliciano*, and 2 more authors
In 2022 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), Jul 2022
2021
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Project, District and Teacher Levels: Insights from Professional Learning in a CS RPP Collaboration
Lijun Ni, Fred Martin, Gillian Bausch, and 3 more authors
In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Jul 2021
This paper presents an experience report from an NSF-funded researcher-practitioner partnership (RPP) project. Based on a collaboration among two public research universities and three urban school districts in the Northeast USA, the goal of the project is to establish an institutionalized middle school computer science curriculum in the districts. The CS curriculum incorporates digital literacy skills as an integral aspect of learning computer science, and is based on students developing mobile apps that provide social and community good. Here, we share our professional learning process during the project’s first year, which had been developed iteratively and dynamically adjusted to a remote format in response to exigencies of Spring 2020. The paper includes analysis of three data sets from teacher-participants: (1) their questions about the nature of the project, which we categorized into three levels: project, district and teacher levels. These questions bridge the visions and knowledge among different groups of the project partners; (2) analysis of semi-structured interview conversations with more than half of the teacher-participants; and (3) teacher survey responses. Our findings include two recommendations: that RPP projects elicit teacher questions to illuminate the three levels identified, and use strategies that engage teachers in designing a professional learning process for teaching computer science.
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One-on-one meetings as boundary practices: Managing RPP computer science curriculum co-design
Bernardo Feliciano*, Lijun Ni, Fred Martin, and 3 more authors
The intersection of RPPs and BPC in CS education: A culmination of papers from the RPPforCS Community, Jul 2021
Research-practitioner partnership (RPP) projects using approaches such as design-based implementation research (DBIR), seek to build organizational infrastructure to develop, implement, and sustain educational innovation [19]. Infrastructure consists of the practices and objects that support educational practice. Infrastructure constitutes human and material resources and structures that support joint work [18,29]. Although RPP literature has identified co-design as an infrastructure-building approach, to the best of our knowledge, specific techniques for managing co-design and other infrastructure building practices are still lacking [9,18,23]. Without such tools, RPP partners’ varied backgrounds, workplace norms, and priorities can produce behaviors that may be normal in the context of a single organization but can impede communication, resource access, and innovation implementation in a collaborative context. The NSF-funded Computer Science Pathways RPP (CS Pathways) project’s DBIR approach uses co-design of a culturally responsive middle school CS curriculum to develop infrastructure for providing high-quality CS education across three urban school districts. The curriculum focuses on developing mobile apps for social good and will be taught by teachers with varied CS experience in varied classroom contexts (e.g., civics, science). The purpose of this workshop paper is to demonstrate a technique, namely Manager Tools One-on-one meetings [15], adapted by CS Pathways partners to manage the co-design process. O3s have six features: they are frequent; scheduled; 15 to 30 minutes in duration; held with all participants working on a specified project; semi-structured; and documented by the manager or researcher. This workshop paper describes how to use O3s to engage teachers and researchers in developing collaborative infrastructure to promote shared exploration of feedback and build and sustain partnerships.
