Collective Impact at Scale: Comparing State-level Policy Adoption Related to Broadening Participation in Computing
Embracing the idea that all students should learn the fundamentals of computer science (CS), the United States has funded the development of coalitions designed to expand CS education. This poster employs an exploratory comparative analysis using simple descriptive statistics to examine potential impacts of broadening participation in computing (BPC) coalitions, focusing specifically on measurement of the Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance in relation to state-level CS course access, state-level CS course participation, and states’ adoption of the Code.org Advocacy Coalition’s 10 Policies. Findings include that ECEP states consistently demonstrated higher rates of CS course access and participation than non-ECEP states. ECEP states also were either at parity or above in their adoption of CS education policies. In the live poster discussion, we will theorize these differences might be linked to the elements of the ECEP Model of State Change. Given the ongoing investment in BPC coalitions, these initial findings indicate promising results and warrant further research.