Programming the Acceleration of Computing Education (PACE)

Challenge

Across industries, people with computer science (CS) skills have better economic prospects. Yet, there are significant gaps in the numbers of students graduating with CS skills, especially students in rural and under-resourced school systems. Further, the likelihood of schools offering CS courses is often determined by individual teacher interest and not systematic, districtwide planning.

In Programming the Acceleration of Computing Education (PACE), EDC builds the capacity of districts to provide students with the firm grounding in CS they will need for workforce success. The PACE model enables districts to adopt CS as a key component of middle school education. This approach helps ensure all middle school students receive high-quality CS instruction and support, helping build a future-ready workforce that is enabled with CS.

Key Activities

The project team is carrying out the following activities:

• Use change management processes to build capacity for all students at the middle school level to engage in high-quality CS coursework
• Develop a structure enabling districts to form and implement representative District Stakeholder Councils, including agendas and professional learning assignments
• Facilitate an ongoing professional learning community of educators in participating districts that provide participants with a space to learn and share
• Host two student CS expositions for six participating districts, where students shared their CS projects with industry representatives
• Present PACE at conferences, such as the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Digital Learning and Computer Science Summit and WeTeach_CS
• Publish a newsletter that shares project participants’ work, relevant news, and events
• Develop a toolkit to support districts and schools in successfully establishing and implementing the PACE model
• Provide opportunities for professional learning workshops through CSforMA and hosting CS trainings onsite at participating middle schools.

Impact

• Six Massachusetts districts established a CS course sequence on the master schedules of their middle schools.
• From 2020 to 2025, over 5,000 Massachusetts middle school students engaged in high-quality CS instruction through PACE.
• 128 students participated in two CS expositions, one held at a college and one at a high-tech lab, piquing students’ interest in college and high-tech careers.