NSF Awards: 1837640
The Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech (Constellations) mission is to democratize computing — that is, to ensure there is access to computing education in schools, especially in underserved communities. The major task is developing teacher capacity. Only 1% of high school students in Georgia take any Advanced Placement computer science exam. Atlanta is the largest city in Georgia and the second most segregated city in the nation. School systems like Atlanta Public Schools (APS) are challenged with finding teachers with the knowledge and experience to teach computer science. The majority of the 52K students enrolled in APS are students of color (72% Black, 8% Hispanic, 16% White).
The Constellations Computing Equity Project is comprehensive and research-based. It includes on-going workshops, classroom-based coaching, and virtual support. The professional development (PD) is content-focused, emphasizing collaboration to build community with teachers, integrating active learning in the classroom, offering opportunities for feedback and reflection, and is sustainable over multiple years.
The Constellations PD consists of:
- 5 days in the summer focused on content, curriculum, research and best practices, and planning
- 4 one-day workshops (2 in the fall; 2 in the spring)
- Classroom-based coaching once a week
- Webinars for additional content development
- Access to instructional videos
- Participation in an online teacher community
Constellations recognizes this implementation is a learning process. We continually adapt and integrate lessons learned. As next steps to improve on the PD model we aim to utilize video to anchor conversations about PD activities that lead to increased efficacy. These videos will feature coaching and planning, classroom implementation, and reflection on observations and students outcomes.
Allie McFadden
Communications Officer
Hi everyone! Welcome to our video highlighting elements of our professional development program for teachers new to computer science. As you'll see in the video, we have implemented a program where teachers receive 1x1 support during the week from a Constellations fellow and in-person workshops throughout the year. We believe this approach is sustainable and adoptable by many school districts and is effective in increasing teacher efficacy. We'd love to hear your feedback on this approach.
We're also curious, what do you look for in a sustainable professional development program or what are some challenges you experience when seeking to implement PD?
Jennifer Rosato
Thanks for sharing more about the Constellations professional development program! I'm curious if coaching is part of the support the fellow provide and what that coaching model looks like, e.g. are there specific steps fellows take to establish and maintain a trusted relationship with teachers, are observation and reflection/feedback part of what the fellow does, etc.? Also, in terms of considering scalability and sustainability, how many teachers does a fellow support?
Krista Woodward
Carol Fletcher
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Jen! The Constellations Fellows were onboarded with a 4-part induction into the program: 1) data/mission; 2) cognitive and content-focus coaching; 3) curriculum/pedagoy/research review; 4) collaboration and planning. Initially, teachers attend summer PD with the Fellows where the initial trust and collaboration begins. They've been building these relationships over the last 1-2 years scheduling planning meetings where they deploy coaching strategies to plan and reflect on instruction and facilitation of the curriculum. Currently, Fellows are partnered with 2-3 teachers within Atlanta Public Schools high schools. For scalability, we are looking at features of this implementation that can be adaptable and effective in a virtual environment. Given the current conditions with COVID19, we've already started conducting observations and collecting data via virtual planning meetings with teachers.
Thanks so much for asking these questions!
Krista Woodward
Joshua Preston
This is very well done and the testimonials bring a lot to this video, as does the demonstration of the unplugged activities. This looks like a very novel way to approach computer science and get teachers prepared to engage students in the material.
Catherine Jones
Allie McFadden
Communications Officer
Thanks for your feedback, Joshua! We're glad you enjoyed this video. Our teachers have so far experienced great success with implementing activities learned in our workshops in their classrooms and we hope to continue to improve their outcomes.
Catherine Jones
Thank you for the investment in teachers. Learning content is great, but the follow up support and expanded network of colleagues helps sustain efforts to improve student learning.
Sarah Young
Director of Strategic Initiatives
The "umbrella" metaphor was incredibly powerful. What a great testimony to your project.
I would love to more about the Constellation "Fellows" and their selection? What is their background and how do you go about recruiting those individuals? It's clear they provide a great support to the new teachers, and I am very interested to know more about them.
Krista Woodward
Sarah Dunton
Jessica Gale
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Sarah!
The Fellows are former teachers and have gone through an extensive onboarding process to shape their role as an instructional coach with the main purpose being to increase teaching efficacy, especially with teachers new to computing. Prospects were informed they would have the opportunity to work with teachers within the school/classroom setting and conducting off-campus workshops. Before COVID19, Fellows were in designated schools 1-2 times a week and scheduling planning sessions with teachers. Currently, Fellows conduct online planning sessions on a weekly basis with teachers. We think this can be scaled effectively and are thinking about this carefully.
Using coaching strategies while planning an activity or a lesson, Fellows help teachers gain content knowledge and confidence in facilitating the activity. The fellows do not teach the lesson, but at request, may do some co-teaching. This means teachers take ownership of their own growth and development. This also means that Fellows must be knowledgeable about CS curriculum and resources (or willing to learn it) and be amenable to filling the role of an instructional coach, NOT as an administrator or evaluator.
Sarah Young
Leigh Peake
Thanks for sharing your work! Agreed with the note above that the testimonials are great. I appreciate your emphasis on "offline" activities in your work. I'm curious how you and your community have made the leap into our current virtual world?
Allie McFadden
Communications Officer
Hi Leigh!
We are currently conducting observations and collecting data via virtual planning sessions with teachers. We're looking for key features we've already established that can scale and effectively continue to promote teaching efficacy in a virtual environment. We're looking into leveraging videos that can be used during virtual planning sessions to learn more about unplugged or physical computing activities. The teachers in our project transitioned "easier" into conducting online sessions in large part due to the existing working relationship with the Fellows.
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Leigh!
We are currently conducting observations and collecting data via virtual planning sessions with teachers. We're looking for key features we've already established that can scale and effectively continue to promote teaching efficacy in a virtual environment. We're looking into leveraging videos that can be used during virtual planning sessions to learn more about unplugged or physical computing activities. The teachers in our project transitioned "easier" into conducting online sessions in large part due to the existing working relationship with the Fellows.
Jennifer Vermillion
Director of Innovative Teaching and Learning
I love the focus on building a supportive community for teachers who are working to increase participation. The umbrella metaphor was quite powerful! The statistic you shared about only 1% of high school students in Georgia taking any Advanced Placement computer science exam was alarming. I am curious if you explore any evidence-based strategies for student recruitment in your program?
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for your question! We work closely with teachers and administrators to highly encourage best practices for student recruitment with the goal to have CS classrooms with students representative of the school's student population. Each school ultimately implements their own recruitment efforts. Currently the largest hurdle is actually the limited number of teachers with the credentials to teach CS in high schools. Currently, about 160 out of 500 HS across GA offer an APCS course. This greatly affects student participation in the exam.
Carol Fletcher
Lien, Would love to learn more about the Fellows model - I'll be a lot of ECEP folks would be interested. I'm curious if you have found it difficult to recruit the fellows given the limited supply of experienced CS teachers that we are already dealing with and how you handled that? We have explored a large scale mentorship model with WeTeach_CS but scaling across the entire state of Texas is a challenge for sure!
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Carol,
We were as thoughtful and careful as we could be in recruiting Constellations Fellows. Accepting that we'd possibly be taking teachers from an existing CS classroom was really tough. We also looked at candidates with prior teaching experience in combination with experience conducting teacher PD. They need to be willing to develop their content knowledge even further and immerse themselves in striving to be a better coach each and every day. Candidly, a person in a position like the Constellations Fellows or perhaps mentors as you are considering, should have a deep understanding of the current challenges in CS ed and be willing and comfortable to work in and with complex school systems where the majority of students are students of color. Based on Fellows' collective experiences, we are analyzing the key elements of their work and thinking about how to scale leveraging those key elements that have proven to help build teaching efficacy. These range from consistency with scheduling planning sessions with teachers to fidelity of the implementation of curriculum.
What if we could build a mentorship program that includes existing CS teachers that would keep their teaching positions, help build their mentoring/coaching skills and then they can mentor teachers new to computing? Would love to connect and discuss further!
Krista Woodward
Renee Fall
It is great to see your PD model in action and the commitment of the teachers and Fellows. The framework of your model looks similar to others, in that a summer in-person week is followed by quarterly day-long PD in the school year, and virtual support provided regularly by a facilitator/master teacher/fellow. This format may be sustainable, especially if funding for fellows is stable and teachers can be paid for their time. However, have you encountered turnover (teachers leaving, changing schools, or no longer being assigned to teach CS)? That is a barrier to sustainability in some districts. I am curious if all the APS teachers you are working with are following the same or similar curriculum, and if so, what it is? And are these all teachers at the same grade level? You are clearly doing something right for new-to-CS teachers.
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Thanks so much, Renee!
Yes,we have encountered teacher and administration turnover. At one school, the entire administration changed at the end of the academic year last year which negatively impacted support for the teacher we were working with. Unfortunately, we were not able to continue in that school again this year but may be able to begin again next year. We're working on that. On the positive, we made inroads with three additional high schools in the district (Atlanta Public Schools) so while we had to drop one school we gained three. We anticipate we will remain with all the same schools next academic year. In terms of curriculum, we are focused on AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A. Grade level for these courses are typically 10 and 11. We are implementing CodeHS across all the schools supplementing with unplugged and physical computing activities.
Meltem Alemdar
Great video! Do you also work directly with the school or district leadership since they also play a huge role in supporting the CS teachers?
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Meltem!
Yes, the Fellows meet with principals, assistant principals, and curriculum coordinators on a regular basis. We also request to meet with administrators during their district meetings which usually occur prior to the beginning of the school year. This really helps with sharing information across the district and maintain their trust with the progress updates on our project.
Krista Woodward
Tamra Carpenter
This is a wonderful video and project! The community-based support,especially from the fellows, is nothing short of heartwarming and seems critical to success. But, I wonder about scalability. Do you see a way to implement this model on a large scale, such as nationwide? I'm also curious about some of the questions Renee raises with respect to sustainability.
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Tamra,
In terms scale, we are looking at the aspects of the Fellows' relationships with teachers via our coaching model that can be scaled virtually. We are already working on expanding our implementation as we are currently conducting online planning/coaching sessions with teachers. As teachers are increasing their content knowledge and pedagogy we see an increase in confidence and enthusiasm. We think we will be able to identify teachers that can become mentors and apply a similar method for other teachers who are new to computing. The idea is to build a cohort of these mentors to support teachers across the state, or nationwide, in a virtual setting. What do you think?
Tamra Carpenter
Hi Lien, These seem like good approaches to me. In some of our projects, we have found that in-person time is critical in the beginning, but once people know each other, less in-person time is needed. It sounds like your online planning and coaching sessions will be very natural because personal relationships already exist. Also, building "communities" of teachers, with more experienced teachers helping those new to CS, seems like a nice model. I enjoyed learning more about your project!
Sarah Dunton
Hi Lien and Allie - It is great to see the impact of your work and to have educators talking about how the project and PD has built their confidence and set aside fears of CS.
Maureen Biggers
Hi Lien and Allie. A great program and video! Am curious about the prep work you do with the selected Fellows around inclusive pedagogy as it relates to BPC if someone wanted to adopt your model. Is that something you emphasize and are wiling to share?
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Maureen,
Of course, we'd be willing to share! I think you'll find that much of our implementation is rooted in research-based approaches that have been used widely such as content-focused coaching, cognitive coaching approaches, and cooperative learning structures. These are strategies that have been used in math and science ed and basically we've adapted these to use for CS ed. Additionally, integrating unplugged and physical computing activities in the curriculum lend themselves to be more inclusive and increases awareness for equitable engagement, especially with female students.
We spend significant time discussing the coaching strategies and how that should look like with teachers who are new to computing. It takes time to build trust and rapport with teachers and to help them feel comfortable with participating actively in planning/coaching sessions. As a team, we practice conducting coaching sessions among ourselves, e.g., taking turns being the coach and the instructor, and I conduct coaching sessions when Fellows plan PD workshops. I often do cooperative learning activities with Fellows to start/end our team meetings. This helps Fellows be super reflective with their practices that I believe carry over in their work with teachers.
Perrin Chick
I love the analogy shared in this video- mentors serve as umbrellas. I wonder how you document the evolution of the mentoring relationship over time. I am always fascinated at the tipping point- when does it become trusted and valued and sought out.
And with Covid19- how have you sustained these relationships when they are not able to meet in person and take time away from their classrooms to get the support they need?
Glad i viewed this video.
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Perrin,
The Fellows complete a weekly report where they provide updates on planning/coaching sessions with teachers. They also report on progress with the curriculum implementation and any challenges or lessons learned for the week. We use that data to determine what's working and fix what is not working, and consider the successful elements of their for scalability purposes. With the COVID19 policies in place, Fellows are still meeting with teachers 1-2 times a week virtually. They are conducting planning sessions and assisting teachers with supporting students online. It's this approach that we are paying close attention to and already attempting to implement some of our lessons learned to support teachers virtually. One vital lesson learned is to allow for acknowledgement of their current state of mind and convey a mutual understanding of that state of mind. We've learned this before COVID19 and it's even more important now to ensure to deploy that strategy. It has helped strengthen the work that the Fellows do with teachers. Even in the midst of this global pandemic, they have continued to make the time to meet with the Fellows on a weekly basis. To boot, the principals of each school have also been supportive and appreciative of our continued work with their teachers in a virtual environment. And actually, we believe we will continue our implementation in a virtual model moving forward.
Thanks for watching our video!
Krista Woodward
Krista Woodward
Hi Lien,
I really appreciate the work you're doing in this project and am following this discussion and often "nodding my head" as I read. The two biggest take-aways for me are: 1) The the power of rich partnerships between the fellows and teachers - the consistent one to one meetings 2) Regular communication with site admins. I could see this being so crucial to ensuring a better support system for teachers as they take risks in their classrooms.
My questions are, how did you go about forging this partnership with the district and with each site? Were you able to get buy-in at sites fairly easily? Did you have challenges?
Thank you!
Janice Cuny
Global DIrestor of Align
Lien and Allie,
Nice project! I'm curious about the logistics of the Fellows: How many Fellows do you have? Is this their full-time job? Would you expect them to continue for a number of years or is the "Fellow" designation meant to connote a one year appointment? How many teachers does a Fellow work with a year? What might similar support look like in a smaller or a rural area?
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Jan!
There are currently three Fellows working and it is a full-time position as a research associate. Their current role in the project is essentially an instructional coach and they are charged with building teaching efficacy with high school teachers who are new to computing. We expect this is a 3-5 year endeavor. We're working in 7 of the 10 high schools in Atlanta Public Schools so each Fellow is assigned 2-3 teachers. They are called Fellows because we envision the role will eventually evolve in order for us to scale. As it turns out, COVID19 has launched us into an anticipated virtual implementation with teachers. Fellows meet with teachers 1-2 times a week virtually (zoom, Webex, Google classroom, etc.) to plan/coach and decide on how to continue progress with students. We've learned a lot already in the last five weeks of this virtual implementation and we expect we'll continue doing so over the coming year(s) with additional teachers statewide, especially in rural GA. We're working on building a cohort of experienced teachers who would still teach their courses, participate in PD to become a mentor/coach, and then assign them teachers across the state to mentor. It's still in development and would love to get feedback on this. What do you think?
So great to hear from you! And thanks for watching our video!
Krista Woodward
Ann Gates
Hi Lien,
Nice program. Elsa and I are working on a pilot Microsoft CS Teacher Academy, and there are definitely connections to this project. I would especially like to hear more about your unplugged activities.
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Ann,
We've used the resources from the available open-source unplugged activities and the Fellows have created a few of their own. We are also in the process of developing content videos to show quick recommendations on how to introduce specific topics in the CS courses we support, such as, variables, conditionals, and arrays. Some of them feature the implementation of unplugged activities.
We think a combination of the unplugged and physical computing activities along with these videos that teachers will have a quick reference of resources to rely on as they begin teaching the courses fully independently. That is our goal!
Janice Cuny
Global DIrestor of Align
Nice project Lien! I loved seeing how the work has evolved.
Deborah Seehorn
I love this approach to professional development for CS teachers--particularly the follow-up after the initial 1x1 week. I like Lien's dream of a " ...mentorship program that includes existing CS teachers that would keep their teaching positions, help build their mentoring/coaching skills and then they can mentor teachers new to computing." That would be so helpful as we seek to grow the cadre of CS teachers who have the content and confidence to excel in the classroom while not removing the awesome teachers we already have.
Do you have plans to grow this program to other locales?
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Deb,
We are considering conducting a pilot in GA pending approval and funding. And yes, we'd welcome the opportunity to expand across state lines! :)
Jill Rhoden
Great program! It is so important for teachers to have support and to have it in their content area is bonus! Our teachers have commented positively about our professional development because it is science content focused rather than something general presented to the entire school so I love to see this happening in places. As our program progresses and grows, we are seeing our returning teachers taking on mentor roles while still in the classroom. I am inspired to consider implementing something similar to what you mentioned of the mentor teacher touching base with a new teacher regularly throughout the school year. Thank you for sharing!
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Best of luck, Jill! I hope we can continue learning from each other's projects. Please stay in touch!
Malgorzata Thatcher
Very interesting project, thank you for sharing the video. I was wondering if you are planning to extend the base of the participants in your program to other educators like community leaders, older peers (college students who may consider career in education), especially those involved in helping students in after school programs and tutoring?
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
We have worked with industry volunteers which require MOUs or some form of agreement to adhere to district requirements. We are interested in working with college students who may be considering a career in education. It has proven to be difficult at Georgia Tech but we are exploring potential opportunities with schools of ed in GA.
Marianne Dunne
I loved hearing about your project. The umbrella analogy was great--as so many others mentioned. Having been a K_* Science Instructional coach in a large urban district, I wonder how you will sustain this professional learning model when the funding is gone? We find it hard to recruit teachers for this type of model without offering a stipend or credit. Thank you for sharing it seems like an effective model-- especially the low technology aspect for teachers to experience and transfer to their classrooms and schools.
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Marianne,
Funding is absolutely a shared concern. We are studying different models and are looking into integrating collective impact strategies that can help sustain these types of efforts to support school systems as they build their own program. We think this approach allows districts the autonomy they need as they learn the structures needed to sustain a successful CS program. It helps to have a policy advocate (i.e., person to secure or safegaurd funds for teachers) included in the discussions. This and going virtual are the next components we are working to strengthen in our project's sustainability.
Michael I. Swart
Great work. Wonderful to see a program that understands the importance of supporting teachers in PD THROUGHOUT the year!! Love to see creating communities for support and as an embodied cognition researcher, quite fond of the "unplugged" activities. Our lab looks at the role of the body in learning, especially how we use gesture to complement how we communicate our understandings.
What kind of data does this project produce? How has the data helped answer/address your research questions?
Lien Diaz
Director of Educational Innovation and Leadership
Hi Michael,
The Fellows complete weekly reports including outcomes of planning/coaching sessions. With the recent pivot to virtual implementation, Fellows have provided insight into challenges and success for scaling our approach via online support. Additionally, we administer post workshop surveys to determine effectiveness and usefulness for teachers in terms of content development, and pre/post attitudinal surveys which provide data on teachers' perception of the project and how they see themselves as effective CS teachers. Of course, we capture student demographic data as well. A significant finding so far (in a nut shell) is that the teachers, all new to teaching CS and especially advanced CS (APCSP and APCSA) rely on first-hand information from the Fellows. As you can imagine, this didn't happen overnight and there are always things to overcome. That said, the trust and rapport between the Fellows and the teachers is key to advancing progress (i.e., increasing teaching efficacy) and this is evidenced in the pre/post attitudinal and workshop data.