District to District Collaboration Drives Innovation for Computational Thinking Pathways

During Computer Science Education Week, we are highlighting several ways that Digital Promise supports schools and educators to broaden computing opportunities so all students can pursue postsecondary paths in computer science. One Digital Promise initiative focusing on this goal is Districts Helping Districts, which supports seven school districts to build inclusive K-12 Computational Thinking (CT) Pathways. Developing and implementing these pathways is challenging work that requires a dedicated group of educators, including teachers, administrators, and coaches. Bringing these committed educators together across the seven districts in communities of practice (CoP) creates more opportunities to advance this critical work.

For instance, the Building Awareness CT Pathway Community of Practice (CoP) emerged from the realization that, while these seven districts had made significant strides in broadening access to computing, there was still a lack of awareness about computational thinking (CT) and its value to students within each district. Educators joined this CoP with ideas to expand their CT programming but sought feedback and inspiration from other educators experienced in CT.

Feedback from experts in the field

District leaders from the Kettle Moraine School District in Wisconsin aimed to create a one-pager—a visual tool to quickly and clearly explain computational thinking (CT). The Kettle Moraine team shared a draft in the community of practice (CoP), where peers reviewed the infographic and offered detailed feedback and suggestions for improvement and broader use. Because CoP members were already familiar with CT and its value in building problem-solving skills, the feedback was both substantive and actionable. Kim Jones, a library media specialist in Kettle Moraine, shared how the feedback improved their work in unexpected ways. “We hadn’t even thought of attaching links! We got some great feedback to make it better,” she said.

Sharing the struggles while staying inspired

Implementing innovations like computational thinking (CT) pathways can be challenging. School districts often face competing priorities, making it difficult to sustain momentum for CT programming. District leaders in the Building Awareness CoP found tremendous value in sharing these struggles with one another. Annmargareth Marousky of Broward County Schools in Florida reflected on the experience: “Hearing how other districts also have that challenge, even if they’re smaller, made me feel like, ‘Okay, so everyone has something to contribute here and a way to fix that problem’.” Learning about how other districts were approaching building awareness of CT provided models and examples for each district to then consider implementing in their own district.

While supporting each other through challenges was critical for building relationships in the community of practice (CoP), educators also served as sources of inspiration. For example, in addition to creating a computational thinking (CT) one-pager, Kettle Moraine showcased their CT work during an evening district curriculum night. This idea sparked inspiration among educators from other districts. As Jerrica Roberson from the Talladega County School District in Alabama shared, the cohort “was very impactful because they’re doing things that we’re like, ‘Man, if they’re doing that kind of Computational Thinking work, we can do that, no problem’.”

Join your own community of practice

Feeling stuck getting an initiative underway in your school, district, or community? Communities of practice (CoP) bring together educators from different school districts and are powerful learning opportunities to advance educational innovation. At Digital Promise, we support and encourage peer-to-peer learning at the educator level with programs like the HP AI Teaching Academy and with district leader communities like our League of Innovative Schools Learning Collaboratives. Consider joining one or finding your own community of practice (CoP) via social media.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2219350. 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.