Developing District K-12 Pathways in Computing: the 4Cs Pilot

About

Is your district interested in developing a pathway for equitable learning opportunities in computing? 

Digital Promise recognizes learning pathways as essential to ensuring students have equitable learning opportunities – and perhaps nowhere is this more crucial than in K-12 computing education with computer science (CS) remaining one of the most doggedly inequitable academic disciplines in districts nationwide.  

Our Track Record

Since 2018, Digital Promise has a demonstrated track record designing and implementing equitable K-12 computing pathways with a total of ten districts based on four key principles (the 4 Cs of integrated learning pathways): Districts must commit to consistent offerings across all their school and classrooms, computing activities must build cumulatively from year to year, the work ought to be complementary to existing district priorities, curriculum, and initiatives, and last, the work must be rooted in specific competencies (i.e., “data practices”, “automation”) that can be assessed across multiple subjects.  

This opportunity builds upon our team’s successful National Science Foundation (NSF) projects, “Developing Inclusive K-12 Computing Pathways for the League of Innovative Schools" and "Districts Helping Districts: Scaling Inclusive Computational Thinking (CT) Pathways" You can explore resources developed through this work here. For more about computational thinking at DP, see here.

The Opportunity

Using a hybrid professional learning model, Digital Promise wants to support your district in identifying the best path forward within your unique context to develop a Computational Thinking (CT) pathway.  

Districts who participate in this pilot can expect:

• Comprehensive District-wide Asset Mapping: Our team will work with your district to frame your district’s current strengths and gaps in CS and CT, and develop a working roadmap for the implementation using our Pathways framework. This Asset Mapping will include a virtual asset inventory and a resource gap analysis.
• Strategic Plan: In collaboration with your team, we will draft a K-12 mapping of competencies unique to your district's CS/CT offerings and outline a 6-month plan by which to begin to enact this mapping within district schools and classrooms.

Application Criteria

Your district may be a good fit for this opportunity if the following criteria applies: 

• CT/CS has been identified as a strategic priority
• Students have access to existing CS/CT offerings via classes, clubs, or complementary programs (e.g., MakerSpaces) 
• Your district has a commitment in broadening your CS/CT efforts to include AI and other emerging digital technologies
• Interest in working with Digital Promise team to communicate district efforts more broadly through conference proposals and wider district-to-district networking 
• Have a team of 3-6 members available to participate Fall 2025.

Application Instructions

Interested?

Consider your district and its upcoming objectives for Fall 2025 and if this CT Pathways opportunity seems well-aligned, please complete the application. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis throughout the Summer and into the Fall.  

Note: This opportunity is a paid for opportunity and a direct service Digital Promise is offered. If interested, the Digital Promise CT Pathways team will set up a 30 minute call reviewing deliverables as well as the pricing breakdown per deliverable/ module completion.

Contact Dr. Quinn Burke at qburke@digitalpromise.org with questions and complete the application to be contacted by one of the team to schedule an individual follow up meeting via Zoom.

Links

Time and Cost Overview

Contact

Quinn Burke