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AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin is celebrating a milestone after serving to 600 Texas academics earn a pc science educating certification. This system, referred to as WeTeach_CS, was shaped in 2015 with the aim of getting ready in-service educators to show pc science.
“STEM and pc science careers are the fastest-growing careers within the nation and will be ladders of financial alternative not only for college students, however for total households,” stated Carol Fletcher, director of Expanding Pathways in Computing at UT Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center. “No matter race, gender or socioeconomic standing, each pupil deserves a chance to study pc science abilities.”
In 2014, Fletcher took a listing of pc science training in Texas, discovering that solely 25 academics statewide had graduated from a pre-service trainer preparation program. Recognizing that the easiest way to rapidly enhance the variety of pc science educators was to give attention to coaching in-service academics, Fletcher in her preliminary outreach despatched an electronic mail blast to math and science academics in Texas. Lecturers have been invited to take part in a undertaking in partnership with Oracle Academy referred to as Hold Calm and Java On, consisting of free on-line coursework to study Java programming.
Fletcher’s hope was to recruit 20 academics. Two weeks after her preliminary outreach, she obtained greater than 100 functions for participation and realized that an untapped market of potential academics was out there. Leveraging U.S. Department of Education funding, WeTeach_CS started piloting in-person skilled growth that targeted particularly on the competencies addressed on the Texas trainer pc science certification examination. As soon as once more, demand was excessive, with some academics touring greater than 1,000 miles spherical journey to take part. This led to the creation of the WeTeach_CS staff’s signature on-line course, Foundations of Computer Science for Teachers. The Foundations course allowed this system to succeed in potential educators in each nook of the state.
In 2015, James Hovey of Martin Excessive College within the Arlington Unbiased College District (ISD) turned the primary to earn a pc science educating certification with the assistance of WeTeach_CS. In July, Eybar Vasquez-Nevarez of Clint ISD Early School Academy, a faculty in a small city exterior of El Paso, turned the 600th.
“Analysis exhibits that rural districts are much less more likely to supply pc science programs than city and suburban districts, so aiding academics in bringing training to college students in rural districts is a excessive precedence for UT Austin,” Fletcher stated.
With the assist of organizations such because the U.S. Division of Training, Microsoft, Beyond100k and the Siegel Family Endowment, WeTeach_CS created the Certification Incentive Program, which supplies a $1,000 stipend to any Texas educator who earns a pc science educating certification.
WeTeach_CS has served academics from the state’s largest college districts like Houston ISD, with almost 200,000 college students, to the smallest ones like Terlingua, which has simply 98. Since 2015, Texas educators from 469 faculties and 251 districts have achieved pc science certification with the assistance of WeTeach_CS. As a result of success of this program in Texas, WeTeach_CS now companions with different states to assist them develop their CS trainer workforce.
“We would like WeTeach_CS to be a one-stop store for educators trying to develop sturdy and inclusive Ok-12 CS packages,” Fletcher stated. “Each Texas pupil deserves nothing much less.”
For extra info, learn TACC’s profile on WeTeach_CS’s 600th licensed trainer, Vasquez-Nevarez.
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