1. Eric Hsu
  2. http://math.sfsu.edu/hsu
  3. Professor
  4. SF CALL: Computing for All Learners and Levels
  5. San Francisco State University, San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
  1. Mario Piombo
  2. Video Director
  3. SF CALL: Computing for All Learners and Levels
  4. San Francisco State University
Public Discussion
  • Icon for: Rosann Tung

    Rosann Tung

    Facilitator
    Director of Research and Policy
    March 20, 2017 | 11:00 a.m.

    As the technology capital of the world, the San Francisco Bay Area has long imported (mostly white male) talent. This initiative leverages a cross-sector partnership among a school district, local state university, and municipal government focused the important goal of broadening access to CS careers among local first generation students of color and those living in poverty.

    After watching the video, I have some questions:

    • How long has SF-CALL been operating?
    • Has the district incorporated CS coursework as a graduation requirement? If not, what role does SF-CALL have in that step?
    • How does SFSU prepare its mentors (and I'm assuming future teachers) with regards to culturally responsive CS curriculum and pedagogy?
    • What are some indicators that will let you know whether SF-CALL has been successful in two years?

    Thanks!

  • Bryan twarek

    Guest
    March 21, 2017 | 01:29 p.m.

    Thanks for your comments and questions, Rosann.

    (1) SFUSD made its commitment to expanding high-quality CS education to all students in June 2015. The research-practitioner partnership with SFSU to support this work started about a year later. 

    (2) CS will be compulsory for all students in grades PK-8 (every year). It will be elective at the high school level. The district decided to not make it a high school graduation requirement because there are many existing requirements and most schools only have a six-period day. We are starting to create integrated CS classes at the high school level, that will make it easier for students to take a CS class.

    (3) Professor Yoon teaches a seminar for SFSU students once per week to discuss topics like culturally responsive pedagogy and curriculum. Additionally, we are focusing on culturally responsive pedagogy at our first joint summer institute (this August). We will be bringing together computer science teachers from the elementary, middle, and high school level to learn together in some core sessions, and then apply the learning in breakouts specific to the level and/or curriculum. We plan to involve the SFSU student mentors/TAs at this summer institute, as well.

    (4) We hope to see teachers reporting greater confidence and self-efficacy in teaching computer science, with a particular focus on reaching their traditionally underserved groups of students. We also hope to validate this through classroom observations and indicators of student performance.

  • Icon for: Rosann Tung

    Rosann Tung

    Facilitator
    Director of Research and Policy
    March 21, 2017 | 02:22 p.m.

    Brian, Thanks for answering my questions! In #4, the focus on teacher confidence and efficacy seems right on. I'll be interested to see your classroom observation protocol when you've developed it. I know the K-12 field is sorely lacking in such a tool that "measures" cultural responsiveness, confidence, etc.

  • Icon for: Kevin Brown

    Kevin Brown

    Facilitator
    Senior Research Scientist
    March 20, 2017 | 11:26 a.m.

    Very encouraging to see a program that recognizes that getting more at-risk or underrepresented children in computer science careers means starting early and often! I know in Chicago they’ve just implemented a mandatory CS curriculum for high school students, but I do not know what they are doing in elementary or middle school to lay the groundwork. What do you have in mind at the very youngest ages and do you anticipate that girls/women might have unique obstacles to overcome in what has become a more traditionally male STEM subject? Also, are you planning on tracking the progress of students that you touch all along the pathway, not only in terms of those who end up pursuing a CS major/career but those who picked up valuable skills in computational thinking etc but may be benefiting in less visible ways? Also great to see industry involved!

  • Bryan twarek

    Guest
    March 21, 2017 | 01:36 p.m.

    Thanks! In our theory of action, we believe that by teaching high-quality, engaging, and relevant CS instruction to all students beginning at the youngest levels, we will help students develop a positive personal identity within CS (and STEM) and begin to normalize CS as a discipline. We hope and expect that an explicit focus on the elementary and middle school levels will ultimately lead to disruption of the pipeline at all levels.

    We have been surveying our middle school students in CS classes, and we do note gender differences even in sixth grade. What we don't yet know is what it takes to mitigate these differences and how persistent experience with CS will impact their future elective course selection in high school. We started collecting unique student identifiers this year so that we can correlate affective data with demographics and other indicators of student achievement and culture (in an ongoing fashion). We are just starting to examine student learning in CS classes.

    In our curriculum, we are highlighting the contributions of people traditionally underrepresented in computer science (e.g., for Women's History Month in March, students at all levels examine contributions of women in CS). We also explicitly teach and reinforce growth mindset and help develop teachers in culturally relevant pedagogy.

  • Icon for: Kevin Brown

    Kevin Brown

    Facilitator
    Senior Research Scientist
    March 21, 2017 | 01:48 p.m.

    Thanks for the detailed response! I am very interested in seeing how the growth mindset intervention works outside of mathematics, with CS being the most natural extension to my mind. Maybe one day I'll be able to do some of that work myself, but until then I will follow your work with great interest.

  • Icon for: Marcus Hung

    Marcus Hung

    Math Teacher and Filmmaker
    March 20, 2017 | 11:32 p.m.

    Great project that looks promising! Good to see so much partnership across the education/life spectrum from early middle school to young adult education-- I wonder what the teacher training component will look like given that most STEM teachers are not necessarily proficient themselves in a CS background. What is the strategy that SF CALL will use to make that happen-- also echoing Rosann's comment about how will it be culturally responsive? That's a huge question to tackle given that the tech gap in our schools is premised on much more than just some schools having money to fund it and others do not-- there's a real divide in terms of those who have knowledge and access to CS and CS careers and to students who do not know what CS is and do not have family/friends/neighbors who come from that world.

  • Jill Denner

    Guest
    March 21, 2017 | 05:14 p.m.

    This is such an incredible initiative. What advice do you have for getting something like this started at other school districts? What are the first steps? Is it best to begin with the school board, the superintendents, the principals, teachers, parents? 

  • Dean State

    Guest
    March 21, 2017 | 07:21 p.m.

     Thanks for the comments - I am very proud of our SF CALL Team in this video. We could not have even begun this without the visionary folks in the San Francisco Unified School District and our very engaged SF Chamber of Commerce.  

  • Icon for: Joni Falk

    Joni Falk

    Center Co-Director
    March 22, 2017 | 02:40 p.m.

    This was a great video showing multiple perspectives and it seems a great project as well. I have some questions about the network. Can you describe how SFUSD, SFSU and the chamber of commerce are interacting? What I mean by this is if SFSU is implementing its own innovations for its faculty and students or if they are actively helping to transform SFUSD and if so how? And what is the role that the chamber of commerce plays for both SFSU and SFUSD? Did they make the connection to Google? Are there other examples of how they are involved? I am trying to learn what each group gives to the network, and what they get? Or if they are working on similar innovations each within their own sphere? Thanks!

     

  • Keith Bowman

    Guest
    March 22, 2017 | 08:20 p.m.

    The team includes folks from all three organizations, including SF State education, science & engineering and Metro Academy folks.  Our SF State students are supporting SFUSD teachers who are teaching computing by being available in the classroom.  We will also have SF State faculty and students participating in the summer professional development workshops for computer science teachers in the school district.  Many members of SF CALL are also involved in the curricula at the middle school and high school level as they are developed and refined.  Both SF State and SFUSD are leading members of the Chamber of Commerce's STEM Talent Pathway.  My role as PI is to be the connector for the STEM Talent Pathway since I am now a co-chair of this SF Chamber program.  We have presented our work in meetings held at the Chamber wherein many of the local companies are participating, including some that are supporting the activities in the school district.  We also have connections we will expand upon with other school districts.  Dean Keith J Bowman, SF State College of Science & Engineering

  • Icon for: Joni Falk

    Joni Falk

    Center Co-Director
    March 22, 2017 | 11:09 p.m.

    Thanks this sounds like a great project. I hope you are able to measure the impact both on participants in SFSU as well as those in the school district. I like the higher ed and k-12 connection, and  I think that bringing industry into the mix is especially interesting. Look forward to hearing more as this evolves. 

  • Jeremy Roschelle

    Guest
    March 22, 2017 | 04:00 p.m.

    HI SFUSD and SFSU team -- great video. Super motivating discussion of the challenge & problem; we gotta do this! How is having INCLUDES money enabling you to "think different" about what we can do? Is the collective impact or NIC approach bringing something new into your thinking? Keep up the great work... jeremy

  • Icon for: Jeff Forbes

    Jeff Forbes

    Facilitator
    Associate Professor of the Practice
    March 23, 2017 | 11:16 a.m.

    This project is an inspiring example of a partnership between a school district and a local university. I was interested in how you're planning on integrating industry support. You mention that Google will select students who are interested in CS degrees.  Do you have any plans to transfer lessons learned about working with students from underrepresented groups to industry and help inform their recruiting, retention, and advancement processes?

  • Sarah Wille

    Guest
    March 23, 2017 | 04:58 p.m.

    So happy to hear about this new collaborative initiative! At this point in your partnership, what would you say have been your biggest challenges around establishing work priorities and timelines across your organizations, and simply working together toward a share goal? Looking forward to following this work here in San Francisco. 

  • Icon for: Chris Boynton, EdD

    Chris Boynton, EdD

    March 24, 2017 | 10:34 a.m.

    Great to see more about the work across the bay !  How are you working with the new CS supplemental credential work?  Will you offer PD to teachers to allow them to obtain that credential?  We are working to integrate CS across the board with our Career Pathways initiative that targets alternative education students - How are you incorporating the continuation and alternative school settings in this project?

  • Icon for: Chrystalla Mouza

    Chrystalla Mouza

    Presenter
    March 26, 2017 | 10:13 a.m.

    Eric - nice to see a more fully developed presentation of your work. As I shared during the PI meeting in DC, our work with both the NSF Includes and our Partner4CS project (http://sites.udel.edu/partner4cs/) shares a lot of similarities. Our team would love to engage in future conversations and ways in which we can potentially collaborate as we focus on engaging young students (in both formal and informal settings) with CS opportunities.

  • Pati Ruiz

    Guest
    March 26, 2017 | 08:27 p.m.

    Thank you for sharing your work! Like others have said, it's great to see the focus on underrepresented groups and curriculum that can engage all students with culturally responsive pedagogy. I hope to hear more about your work and this project!

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.