Building High-Quality K-12 CS Education Research Across an Equitable Outcome Framework using CAPE

The Building High-Quality K-12 CS Education Research Across an Equitable Outcome Framework using CAPE project seeks to address the critical need for high-quality, equity-focused K-12 computing education research (CER) across the U.S. This NSF-funded research is needed to meet the needs of finding promising practices for teaching computing to all students regardless of their backgrounds, identities, or experiences.

For this project, we are analyzing existing and ongoing research and developing guidelines for conducting high-quality, equity-focused research. One goal is to identify barriers and gaps in equity-focused research across K-12 computing education using the Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience (CAPE) framework as a lens for analysis. Those results will be used to develop workshops to build the capacity of researchers to include and focus on equity.

Our research questions for this project are:

1. How comprehensive is K-12 CER when examined with a specific lens on how it explicitly addresses broadening participation in computing or equity goals?
2. What are the barriers that prevent K-12 computing education researchers from conducting research across the four components of CAPE?
3. How effective are new resources, materials and workshops specifically created to address the gaps in and barriers to producing high-quality, equity-focused K-12 CER?

Our primary objectives are:

1. Frame prior research against the CAPE framework to identify gaps in research, and identify barriers researchers face when conducting high-quality research in equitable K-12 computing education.
2. Using resulting data identified in Objective 1 as well as input from experts in the field and other standards bodies, develop recommendations and resources for expanding coverage of equitable K-12 computing education research using the CAPE framework.
3. Using recommendations and resources created in Objective 2, design and pilot workshops for training researchers in equitable K-12 CER methods and practices.

Logic model for this project.

Team Members

Dr. Leigh Ann DeLyser (PI) CSforALL, Executive Director	Dr. Sarah Heckman (Co-PI) North Carolina State University, Professor	Bella Gransbury North Carolina State University, Graduate Student	Dr. Monica McGill (Co-PI) CSEdResearch.org, Founder & CEO	Jennifer Rosato (Co-PI) College of St. Scholastica, National Center for Computer Science Education, Director

Advisory Board

Dr. Joshua Childs University of Texas at Austin	Dr. Joseph Carroll-Miranda University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras	Dr. Todd Lash University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Stefanie Marshall University of Minnesota	Dr. Tamara Pearson Spelman College

Collaborators

This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2122212. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.