Forging Partnerships and Selecting Workshop Content
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External partnerships are paramount to delivering the recursive, team-based Seasons of CS professional learning model. Partners can provide resources, guidance, and hands-on support in designing, delivering, and evaluating the professional learning program. In previous years of the Seasons of CS, partners have included:
Partnerships can provide resources and funding necessary to offer CS professional learning for low-cost or no-cost. Additionally, partners can provide resources to enhance and augment the professional learning experience for participants. Partners include:
California Community College Chancellor’s Office
California Department of Education
LEGO
National Science Foundation
Small School Districts’ Association
The workshop content for the Summer of CS is selected because it prioritizes equity, aligns with the California K-12 Computer Science Standards, and the California Quality Professional Learning Standards. Workshops are also selected to serve a specific audience, including teachers by grade band (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12), administrators, counselors, and paraeducators.
In 2019, the following workshops were selected and offered to educators across the state:
Grades K-8 Teachers: Elementary 4 CS ( and ) - CS Fundamentals and CS First are elementary and middle school curricula that allows even the youngest students to explore the limitless world of computing. Courses blend online, self-guided, and self-paced tutorials with “unplugged” classroom activities that require no computer.
Grades 6-9 Teachers: - Computer Science Discoveries (CS Discoveries) is an introductory computer science course appropriate for 6th - 10th grade students. The curriculum emphasizes problem-solving, creation, and collaboration, while introducing students to the many ways computer science impacts their lives.
Grades 9-12 Teachers: - Exploring Computer Science (ECS) is a high school course that provides students with an introduction to the world of computer science. ECS is a college prep (A-G) and Career Technical Education approved course.
Grades 9-12 Teachers: - Computer Science Principles introduces students to the foundational concepts of computer science and challenges them to explore how computing and technology can impact the world. More than a traditional introduction to programming, it is a rigorous, engaging, and approachable course that explores many of the foundational ideas of computing so all students understand how these concepts are transforming the world we live in.
Counselors: - NCWIT Counselors for Computing (C4C) provides professional school counselors with information and resources they can use to support ALL students as they explore computer science education and careers.
Site and District Administrators: - During the #CSforCA Administrator Workshop, site and district administrators will discuss the current state of computer science education equity in California; examine biases and the challenges they pose for equitable computer science education implementation; collaboratively brainstorm responses to common challenges of implementation, using the CS Equity Guide as a resource; and develop action plans and ongoing support with a professional learning community.
Because these workshops exist within a larger effort, you may want to think about how the workshop content fits into the week-long multi-stakeholder experience
Minimize duplication of content - Whatever your larger theme focuses on in panels or talks (equity, policy, multi-stakeholder involvement, etc.), be sure to inform facilitators, so that they can integrate content with their workshops, and/or avoid repeating similar content in their workshops
Integrate workshops - Attendees found value in having other stakeholders (teachers, administrators, counselors) involved in their workshops. Consider brief cross-pollination of workshops to get diverse perspectives.
We ask providers to deliver a 30-hour workshop over 5 days:
6 hours per day, 2 hours to prep and provide ad hoc
Help facilitators with prep time and coaching
Prep time leading up to the workshop is a practice we have used
9:00am-3:30pm with a 30-minute lunch
Facilitators are compensated for $500/day (Facilitator compensation with the provider might be paid by the COE and might be paid by the provider)
Facilitator that is endorsed and trained by the provider
Spoke host has to be paid by the COE
Can we deliver more money to the COEs
Spelling out role in the MOU
Frequent Questions and Needs from Providers:
Flyer and website description
Specific requirements of applicants
Who handles materials?
Mailing/distribution?
What do you expect COE sites to provide?
Who handles catering?
The following are frequently asked questions providers had about the implementation of the Seasons of CS model:
Numbers of participants? 6-12 educators is approximately 450 in California, 250 K-5 teachers, administrators and counselors. 100 per region for a total of 700.
Is the summer a mixture of virtual and in-person? Each region will choose. All 7 regions have expressed interest in hybrid delivery for June 2023.
Does your funding cover the PD tuition costs for any CA teachers? Yes.
Can it be longer than 5 day PD for new to CS 6-12 teacher? Yes. Case by case basis. Hope to continue in Summer 2024.
Is there a research component? An implementation grant with an evaluation component.
More than 100 teachers in a region? Is there funding to support additional participants? Max of 700, we anticipate that not all regions will recruit 100, which will be used as an offset.
Double Stipend? Funding to defray the costs of staff time and travel will be provided to school, not the participant. We don’t anticipate that two stipends would be provided.
When will the workshops be offered? June 12-16, June 20-23*, June 26-30
Three days for K-5, 5 for 6-12? - is this flexible? On a case by case basis, this could be adapted.
Why only 250 K-5 teachers? This was proposed in the initial grant application; while the proposal prioritizes expanding 6-12 access, these are flexible estimates.
Could this include a train-the-trainer component? Yes. This could help scale and sustain the work.
Once a workshop is selected, it is important to consistently and frequently :
- A lot of value can come from attendee survey results, but survey fatigue is real. Be sure that attendees are clear what surveys are for the entire Summer of CS Week, and which are for their workshop, and be careful not to duplicate questions.
Recognizing that this is not an exhaustive list of CS curriculum and professional learning providers, additional providers have been included in the 2023-2024 implementation of the Seasons of CS professional learning model. These additional providers were asked to provide evidence of three (3) criteria: (1) culturally responsive/sustaining pedagogy; (2) professional learning aligned with the Quality Professional Learning Standards; (3) curriculum aligned with the California Computer Science Standards in .
