Evolution of an Integrated, Elementary CSforAll Curriculum

A research-practice partnership (RPP) used a teacher co-design process, supported by equity-focused professional development, to create an elementary-level curriculum that integrates content, practices, and learning progressions from state computing standards with other standards-based curricula. Most district students are part of historically marginalized groups and the RPP chose to develop an equity and inclusion-focused curriculum that would be taught in all elementary classrooms to all students. Twelve teacher teams, supported by researchers and ELL and SPED specialists, designed, piloted, and documented 23 modules of 4-8, 45-minute lessons across K-5. Early adopter teachers followed the pilots and implemented the modules in their classrooms with the goal of facilitating adoption by all elementary classroom teachers. After being interrupted by the pandemic, the RPP developed a strategy where principals in cohorts of schools agreed to collaborate with RPP school-based lead teachers to establish professional learning communities (PLCs) to support classroom implementation of the modules. Eleven schools participated in a 2021-22 cohort and nine more schools joined in 2022-23. Centering equity, PLCs, and quality module documentation and materials are key to sustaining and evolving the CSforAll curriculum. The modules were revised based on feedback obtained from ELL and SPED specialists, early adopters, teacher coordinators, researchers, and district curriculum directors. Using a large data set of meeting and classroom observation records, interviews, field notes, focus groups, surveys, and module documentation, we track the evolution of the curriculum and provide a detailed analysis of one module as an example.