Computer Science for Georgia (CS4GA) is a collective impact effort by diverse stakeholders to bring quality CS education to all children in K-12 systems throughout Georgia’s 182 school districts. CS4GA has utilized the collective impact model to bring together stakeholders from all relevant sectors: school districts, industry, universities, philanthropy, state government, and others. CS4GA will ensure that underrepresented groups in particular receive the support they need to fully participate in CS education.
Our goal is to have quality CS education in Georgia for all its students!
Why is CS4GA needed?
Many Georgia schools suffer from pervasively low literacy and numeracy achievement.
Efforts must intentionally address the needs of minority students in relation to stereotype threat, complex self-identities, lack of CS role models, and perceptions of fit in CS and technology.
Better promotion and understanding of the diverse careers and content within CS and technology must be achieved.
Largely, school infrastructures do not allow the flexibility to infuse CS and computing into ongoing systems. Creative approaches to CS curriculum integration will be needed to ensure CS is not just “the next new thing”.
IT occupations represent almost 30% of the total number of job postings for the top 15 occupations in Georgia.
How will CS4GA expand access to quality K-12 CS education?
CS4GA is working with its partners to expand quality teacher professional development to as many schools as possible. Our current focus is on helping Georgia school districts meet the Senate Bill 108 Mandate to offer CS education in every middle school by the 2022-2023 academic year and in every high school by 2024-2025.
Once we make progress on helping districts provide CS courses, we hope to collaborate with public and private partners to also begin to raise awareness about CS education among parents and students through local engaging events and statewide social media campaigns.
Our Strategies
Help school districts create and implement CS plans which are aligned vertically ES > MS > HS
Help school districts to recruit and retain diverse certified CS teachers
Provide a comprehensive CS ed resources website for teachers, schools and districts
Help reduce the isolation of CS teachers by providing experienced CS education mentors and by providing practical CS teaching experiences
Which organizations are providing the ‘backbone’ support to CS4GA?
Who can be part of CS4GA and what is its structure?
Anyone who cares about ensuring that all of Georgia’s children have access to quality computer science education can join CS4GA. You can join CS4GA by simply filling out this simple Google Form. CS4GA has a very simple structure.
CS4GA’s members determine its goal and strategies
There are six Work Groups that are developing strategies to advance CS4GA’s goals
Policy Work Group
Professional Development Group
Industry/Philanthropy Engagement Work Group
Academic Partners Network
Equity Work Group
Public Awareness Work Group (coming soon)
CS4GA is a member of national CS awareness and advocacy groups
There is a Steering Committee made up of CS4GA members which ensure that our activities are overseen by a representative group of CS4GA members. Current Steering Committee members are:
Dr. Brian Williams – Georgia State University
Anona Walker – Google
Kathryn Hornsby – Technical College System of Georgia