Chapter 11: Leveraging Collective Impact to Scale Computer Science Teacher Professional Development and Certification

The CS for all movement represents an ambitious effort to bring computing education to all American K–12 schools. Achieving this goal will require the rapid scale-up of educator capacity to teach computer science (CS) in thousands of schools that do not currently offer CS. This study explores the use of a collective impact approach called WeTeach_CS to address this complex problem in Texas. We describe how WeTeach_CS operationalized the five core elements of collective impact (common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and a backbone organization) to create a collaborative, multi-sector network of partners all focused on supporting in-service teachers to build the CS knowledge and skills necessary to achieve a high school CS teacher certification. To evaluate the collective impact model, we describe a quasi-experimental study using interrupted time series analysis that demonstrated empirically the effectiveness of the model in increasing the rate of CS teacher certifications. The relationship between teacher capacity and other elements of the CAPE Framework for equitable computer science education, such as access and participation, are also explored. We discuss implications for other states who may consider deploying a similar model as they develop strategic, large-scale investments in K–12 systems for computing education.