Chapter 12: Expanding Computer Science Opportunities: A Personalizable, Flexible Model for Professional Learning

The past 5 years has seen a rapid growth in teacher professional learning programs at scale to address the significant shortage of computer science (CS) teachers (Code.org, 2017a; Cuny, 2011). The focus has been primarily on intensive face-to-face workshops aligned with a specific curriculum (Code.org, 2019a). The long-term success of a broad-scale CS initiative, however, requires a more flexible, personalizable approach to professional learning that will attract, retain, and support new CS teachers beyond an initial week of workshops (Zhao, 2018). In this chapter we present a model for effective, personalizable CS professional learning that has been designed and successfully implemented in North Carolina. The program brings together effective professional learning activities, including online courses, web-based learning resources, and communities of practice to supplement widely-used face-to-face workshops. We discuss barriers that limit teacher engagement in CS as well as the underlying principle components of the model for effective, personalizable CS professional development. Finally, opportunities for further development and study across research, practice and policy are offered with a lens toward scaling to other states and refining the model to adapt to the rapidly changing field of CS education.