The Rollout of Computer Science Education to Every Student in New York City: A Socio-Contextual Social Network Analysis

Abstract

Background

CS4All is an $81 million private-public investment aimed at creating the necessary infrastructure to provide computer science experiences to all New York City public-school students by 2025.

Purpose

In this paper, we examine the history of the CS4All initiative and document the network of actors and their relationships in the system such that we can understand how this reform is enacted, how it might be reactive to external contexts and pressures, and how the structure and pathways of this particular social network might inform similar efforts elsewhere.

Research Design

To structure our analysis of CS4All, we first examine the most recent historic example of a large-scale curricular reform—Man: A Course of Study (MACOS). By reflecting on the network structure of CS4All in light of the design, enactment, and eventual failure of MACOS, we can identify potential pain points and opportunities in CS4All's 10-year effort. We conducted interviews with core members of the CS4All initiative and examined available public records to construct and analyze a social network of key CS4All stakeholders, other actors, processes, and institutions.

Conclusions

In our analysis of the CS4All social network, we document how well-connected individuals simultaneously mobilized government resources and grassroots enthusiasm to create the conditions necessary for the initiation of this massive curricular reform effort, and describe the current pathways in place for decision making and resource distribution. Comparing the history and structure of the CS4All initiative to Man: A Course of Study —a failed nationwide curricular reform in the 1960s—we find that CS4All's centralized decision-making process and failure to create and distribute high quality formative assessment tools may lead to challenges to adoption. However, explicit efforts to solicit input from and communicate initiative values to the large diversity of stakeholders throughout NYC, as well as the innovation of a decentralized “buffet-style” curricular approach, may put CS4All on more sure footing.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adams

D. K.

(2002). Education and national development: Priorities, policies, and planning. In Education in developing Asia (Vol. 1). ADB: Comparative Education Research Center, University of Hong Kong.

Atkin

J. M.

(1997). Applying historic lessons to current educational reform. Paper presented at the National Academy of Sciences symposium titled Reflecting on Sputnik: Linking the past, present, and future of educational reform. National Academy of Sciences.

Bray

(2012). Control of education: Issues and tensions in centralization and decentralization. In Arnove

R. F.

Torres

C. A.

, & Franz

(Eds.), Comparative Education: The Dialectic of the Global and the Local (pp. 201—222). Rowman & Littlefield.

Brugha

, & Varvasovszky

(2000). Stakeholder analysis: A review. Health Policy and Planning, 15 3, 239—246. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/15.3.239

Committee of Ten on Secondary School. (1894). Report of the Committee of Ten on secondary school studies: With the reports of the conferences arranged by the committee. National Education Association.

CSNYC.org. (2017a, July 24). CSNYC: About [text/html]. https://csnyc.org/about-csnyc

CSNYC.org. (2017b, July 24). CSNYC: Partners [text/html]. https://csnyc.org/partners

CSNYC.org. (2017c, July 24). Knowledge Forum 2016 [text/html]. https://csnyc.org/our-work/csnyc-programs/knowledge-forum-2016

CSNYC.org. (2019, January 25). Community+Events [text/html]. https://csnyc.org/cs-community

10.

Dow

P. B.

(2001). Schoolhouse politics: Lessons from the Sputnik era. Replica Books.

11.

Evans

R. W.

(2011). The tragedy of American school reform: How curriculum politics and entrenched dilemmas have diverted us from democracy. Springer.

12.

Fitchett

P. G.

, & Russell

W. B.

(2012). Reflecting on MACOS: Why it failed and what we can learn from its demise. Paedagogica Historica, 48 3, 469—484.

13.

Flemming

A. S.

(1960). The philosophy and objectives of The National Defense Education Act. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 327 1, 132—138. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271626032700116

14.

Hardawar

(2013, February 25). Bloomberg announces 20 NYC schools for software engineering pilot program. VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/2013/02/25/bloomberg-announces-20-nyc-schools-for-software-engineering-pilot-program/

15.

Heart Research Associates. (2017). Public school parents on the value of public education. American Federation of Teachers. https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/parentpoll2017_memo.pdf

16.

Herold

(2018, February 28). CS for all: Can schools pull it off? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/02/20/computer-science-for-all-can-schools-pull.html

17.

(2016, February 21). Teaching Bronx students the language of computers. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/nyregion/teaching-bronx-students-the-language-of-computers.html

18.

Kenyon

(2010, October 12). DARPA seeks to shape young minds. https://gcn.com/articles/2010/10/12/darpa-launches-computer-science-education-program.aspx

19.

Klein

M. F.

(1991). The politics of curriculum decision-making: Issues in centralizing the curriculum. SUNY Press.

20.

La Vorgna

, & Goldman

(2013, November 13). AT&T donates $1.6 million to expand software engineering curriculum for high schools. http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/364-13/mayor-bloomberg-chancellor-walcott-at-t-donate-1-6-million-the-fund-public

21.

Lazer

Pentland

A. S.

Adamic

Aral

Barabasi

A. L.

Brewer

Christakis

Contractor

Fowler

Gutmann

Jebara

King

Macy

Roy

, & Alstyne

M. V.

(2009). Life in the network: The coming age of computational social science. Science, 323 5915, 721.

22.

Leavis

F. R.

(1962). Two cultures? The significance of C. P. Snow. Melbourne Critical Review, 5, 90—101.

23.

McGinn

N. F.

, & Street

S. L.

(1985). Educational decentralization in Latin America: National policy or factional struggle? Harvard Institute for International Development, Harvard University.

24.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards. http://www.corestandards.org/

25.

National Science Foundation. (2012). Computing education for the 21st century (CE21). https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12527/nsf12527.htm

26.

NCLB. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107–110, 20 (2002).

27.

Nelkin

(1976). The science-textbook controversies. Scientific American, 234 4, 33—39.

28.

NGSS Lead States. (2013). Next Generation Science Standards: For states, by states. The National Academies Press.

29.

NYC Department of Education. (2019). DOE data at a glance. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/reports/doe-data-at-a-glance

30.

Prell

Hubacek

, & Reed

(2009). Stakeholder analysis and social network analysis in natural resource management. Society & Natural Resources, 22 6, 501—518. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920802199202

31.

Santo

Vogel

, & Ching

(2019). CS for what? Diverse visions of computer science education in Practice. CSforAll. https://www.csforall.org/visions/

32.

Science Curriculum Implementation Review Group. (1975). Minority report of Joanne McCauley including dissenting and additional views (Report of the Science Curriculum Implementation Review Group to the Chairman, Committee on Science and Technology).

33.

Scott

, & Carrington

P. J.

(Eds.). (2011). The SAGE handbook of social network analysis. SAGE.

34.

Shaver

J. P.

(1992). The new social studies, textbooks, and reform in social studies. Publishing Research Quarterly, 8 4, 23—32. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02680671

35.

Snow

C. P.

(1959). The two cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge University Press.

36.

Taylor

, & Miller

C. C.

(2015, September 15). De Blasio to announce 10-year deadline to offer CS to all students. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/nyregion/de-blasio-to-announce-10-year-deadline-to-offer-computer-science-to-all-students.html

37.

U.S. Department of Education. (2016, July 19). Race to the Top fund [Program Home Page; Programs]. https://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html

38.

Vogel

(2015). CS education in New York City: A network diagram approach. Unpublished Manuscript, CUNY Graduate Center.

39.

Vogel

Santo

, & Ching

(2017). Visions of CS education: Unpacking arguments for and projected impacts of CS4All initiatives. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on CS Education (pp. 609–614). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3017680.3017755

40.

Wilson

(2009, December 21). Getting CS into middle school. http://avc.com/2009/12/getting-computer-science-into-middle-school/

41.

Winner

(1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109 1, 121—136.

42.

Wingfield

(2012, September 30). Microsoft sends engineers to schools to encourage the next generation. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/technology/microsoft-sends-engineers-to-schools-to-encourage-the-next-generation.html

43.

Zamansky

(2018, September 11). Creating a school for CS. http://cestlaz.github.io/posts/creating-a-school/