June 2014 - June 2015 Program Report

What do teachers take away from Code.org professional development?

From June 2014 through June 2015, over 11,000* teachers across K-12 attended Code.org workshops. We offered professional development through two models:

Key Finding:

Through our professional development efforts, we are helping a large, diverse audience of K-12 educators feel more prepared to teach Computer Science using Code.org resources.

To study the effectiveness of our professional development, we worked with Outlier to conduct surveys and interviews studying attitudes, PD satisfaction, and classroom implementation. The results of those studies follow, broken down by grade-level band.

Table: Overall Participation and Satisfaction in Code.org Professional Development, June 1 2014 - June 15 2015, disaggregated by training model

Affiliate-Trained Teachers Code.org-Trained Teachers
Number of teachers trained 9,290 ~500
I would recommend the PD to others 98% 97%
This was the best PD ever 66% 81%
I feel prepared to teach CS 94% 88%

Source: Affiliate-trained teacher data from Code.org Survey. Code.org-trained teacher data from Outlier survey.

Table: Overall Participation and Satisfaction in Code.org Professional Development, June 1 2014 - June 15 2015, disaggregated by grade level

K-5 Affiliate-Trained Teachers K-5 Code.org-Trained Teachers MS Science MS Algebra HS
Number of teachers trained 9,290 176 89 85 316
I would recommend the PD to others 98% 96% 85% 98% 82%
This was the best PD ever 66% 55% 50% 82% 57%
I feel prepared to teach CS 94% 82% 45% 76% 57%

Source: Affiliate-trained teacher data from Code.org Survey. Code.org-trained teacher data from Outlier survey.

* Note: In the 2014-15 teacher cohort, we trained approximately 10,000 teachers. We trained an additional 1,000 teachers for the 2015-16 school year.

Elementary School Professional Development Programs

Approach

From June 2014 through June 2015, Code.org trained over 10,000 elementary school teachers to teach our CS Fundamentals courses for grades K-5. Two different programs helped us reach such a broad audience:

The main difference between the two groups being that our affiliate-trained teachers opt-in to the training, whereas our district-trained teachers are more likely to be appointed by an administrator.

Teacher Population

  • The population of teachers we are training through our K-5 work in districts is heterogeneous and diverse in terms of prior experience. Participants vary widely in terms of both their knowledge related to computer science, and their skill level for teaching computer science (based on self-reported levels).
  • Similar to our district partnership PDs, the audience for K5 affiliate PD is diverse in terms of prior CS experience; however 98% of participants are in-school teachers (not informal teachers or home school teachers).

Table: K-5 Affiliate-trained teachers: Self-reported roles, June 1 2014 - June 15 2015

Role Percent
Classroom Teacher 38%
Tech Facilitator/Computer Teacher 38%
Media/Library Teacher 8%
Other 16%

Source: Code.org Survey Data

Teacher Satisfaction with Professional Development

  • Of K-5 teachers trained in Charles County, MD and Chicago, 99% would recommend the training to other teachers and 86% say it was “...the absolute best professional development [they’ve] ever participated in.”
  • Of K-5 teachers trained in Charles County, MD and Chicago, 97% agreed that they felt prepared to teach Code.org curriculum after the training.

Implementation in the Classroom

  • The majority of teachers used Courses 1 and 2, and taught the lessons a couple times per week.
  • Most teachers agreed or strongly agreed that the Courses are developmentally appropriate for their students.
  • Teachers reported high engagement from all students, including girls and students who were not typically engaged in school.
  • Teachers asked for a full course progression for each grade K-5 and more differentiation… they want more!
  • Teachers' decision to teach CS would be most influenced by student enjoyment of CS and data showing student learning.

“I can usually judge a project by the amount of kids who start saying, ‘Do we have to do this today? Aren't we going to move on to something else?’ I have not heard that in all of the lessons that I’ve had that 4th and 5th grade is doing. I haven't had a single person say that."

Full K-5 findings are available on Outlier's website.

Middle School Professional Development Programs

Approach

Code.org offered professional development for middle school teachers through our District Partnership programs. The training offered was based on two different existing curricular models:

  • GUTS, a curriculum focused on integrating CS into Middle School Science courses
  • Bootstrap, a curriculum focused on integrating CS into Middle School Algebra courses.

Teacher Population

  • The teacher population in each workshop was quite varied. A common characteristic among most of them, however, is that they are teaching computer science for the first time.
  • Teachers come into PD with little CS knowledge. Teachers in the Bootstrap PD rated themselves a 4.66 out of 10 on their “...skill level for teaching computer science.” Teachers in the GUTS PD rated themselves a 5.19 out of 10. These relatively low self-efficacy ratings have implications for future PD planning and organization.

Teacher Satisfaction with Professional Development

  • 98% of participants agreed that they would recommend this workshop to others
  • 98% agreed or slightly agreed that this was the “...the best professional development [they’ve] ever participated in.”
  • Some teachers surveyed felt unprepared to teach the GUTS curriculum. Approximately 73% felt prepared.
  • These results reflect a slight disconnect between teacher satisfaction with a professional development experience and their belief that the PD will impact or change their practice.

High School Programs: Exploring Computer Science

Approach

Code.org offered professional development for high school teachers based on the Exploring Computer Science model, but with slight variations:

  • Code.org added online professional development support before the first ECS training, as well as during the school year.
  • Code.org added a separate, final phase for teachers who had just completed teaching their first year of ECS, delivered in Summer 2015.

Teacher Population

  • Participants varied by gender, subject certification, and previous experience with CS, but most interestingly participants varied by whether they volunteered to be at the training or whether they were selected by an administrator to attend. Whether or not someone “opted-in” impacted their level of satisfaction and the positivity of their responses overall.

Teacher Satisfaction with Professional Development

  • The overwhelming majority of participants agreed that the week-long summer workshop was a good use of their time (82%). Similarly, 83% of participants agreed they would recommend it to others.
  • A majority of participants reported general satisfaction with the first online PD experience. In general, teachers felt the in-person workshops, especially the week-long summer PD, were more effective and beneficial than the online ones, but teachers relied heavily on online groups and forums to share ideas/resources. “We have shared folders, if somebody's having an issue, we have a collaboration folder."
  • Although a majority of participants agreed to some extent that they understood the goals of online Phase 1, it was a modest majority, leaving a large proportion of participants who did not. Similarly, almost 40% of participants did not know what to expect for the next phase of the professional development.
  • Participants felt prepared to use inquiry and equity in their computer science classrooms this year, but would like more support with content. Teachers were not confident that they know all they need to know about CS topics in order to teach them well.

Implementation in the Classroom

  • The majority of teachers (72%) taught ECS to 9th and 10th graders.
  • Teachers strongly enjoyed the idea of teaching with a complete CS curriculum versus creating one on their own and indicated that they moderately enjoyed the ECS curriculum indicating that they may have many recommendations and ideas for improving the curriculum materials.
  • Teachers modified the curriculum for varying levels of students' CS knowledge and academic preparedness, and also to make it more relevant to their students' lives.
  • On the whole, teachers reported facilitating risk taking, group work, and autonomy more frequently than they facilitate cognitively demanding work or student interest.

Teacher Attitudes

  • Teachers showed high levels of intrinsic motivation and commitment to teaching CS.
  • They valued CS highly, believing that all students should learn it, that it makes lives better, and that CS is just as important as math or science.
  • They showed moderate levels of self-efficacy, with the lowest scores related to teaching CS concepts versus higher scores for the ability to explain the importance of CS.

Challenges

  • Participation remained low (less than 30%) in the online PD components for the entire year, calling for a rethink of the online learning design and model.
  • Of the teachers who participated in the week-long summer PD, only 42% attended all four quarterly workshops during the academic year, with 61% attending two or less. More than half (54%) cited personal conflicts with the Saturday workshops.
  • Teachers new to CS felt limited by their own lack of CS content knowledge.
  • 1 in 5 teachers struggled with assessing student learning, and many teachers did not know what should be assessed and that evaluating students often felt subjective. "I would like more concrete means of assessment that don't depend on my perception of their participation." Teachers reported a desire for more assessment resources in the curriculum.

Full ECS interview and questionnaire findings are available on Outlier's website.