CSforCA, in partnership with Seasons of CS, hosted a 3-day professional learning event February 23-25, 2025 at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center for over 20 school leaders from districts across California interested in increasing access to CS for their students. Co-hosted by UCLA Computer Science Equity Project, with generous funding from the Educator Workforce Investment Grant (EWIG), administrators used data to identify gaps in participation and delved into what it means to meaningfully integrate CS learning and support for all students to learn computing. The facilitation team included experienced Champions , program managers, and researchers, all guided by CSforCA’s common mission of bringing high-quality CS education to all students in California.
Facilitation Team:
The workshop goals were as follows:
Attendees learned about what is CS (and what it is not), why it’s important to learn CS, what is the state of CS in California, and what resources are available such as the California K-12 CS Standards and CS Equity Guide. The school leaders were particularly moved by guest speaker Jane Margolis, co-author of Stuck in the Shallow End, that provided the initial research that helped spark the CSforAll movement.
Participants connected with one another and experienced CS hands-on through unplugged activities, table conversations, group work, and experimenting with AI tools.
Attendees were given journals to take notes on their experiences and were asked thought-provoking questions about how they personally viewed equity and access that prompted them to reflect deeply on their biases and foster meaningful connections to this critical work.
To help people plan for next steps, participants read case studies and discussed common challenges to equitable implementation. They also received practical guides and resources for navigating complex systemic change to take home for their district implementation planning.
Most importantly, the convening provided a space and time for administrators to step away from their daily business to meet new colleagues and build new networks with like-minded people over meals, common challenges, shared problem solving, and new ideas. Before the event even ended, the group had already initiated planning follow-up meetings to continue connecting to become accountability partners to thinking through how to bring the ideas from the workshop into their schools with a concrete action plan. Way to go team!
A post-event survey showed that the most common response for the "best aspect" of the academy was networking and finding new resources. Here are what one of the attendees had to say:
Special thanks to all who participated in the workshop!
Interested in increasing CS in your school or district? Check out the CS Equity Guide or see about attending an upcoming Seasons of CS professional development event.
