The Research Committee does just what the name implies – research surrounding computer science education in K-12 setting.  The research is often in conjunction with other organizations, such as Oracle that led to the recent CSTA – Oracle Academy 2014 High School CS Survey.  Beside partnering with corporations, CSTA also conducts larger research projects, such as the Bugs in the System: Computer Science Teacher Certification in the US.  These types of research are important to understanding what is happening in the landscape of computer science education and identify issues our CS educators face .

Along with larger research projects we also do our own CSTA Membership Survey (results of past years here) and CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey (results of past years here).  These two surveys alternate years to allow CSTA to collect complimentary data and inform our work.

• The membership survey gives us data on membership demographics, how they are connected to CS education, and CSTA resources they find useful in their work.  This gives us data to improve CSTA’s support and direction for the membership at large.
• The CSTA National Secondary CS Survey gives us data on what is being taught at the high school level, the types of certification teachers hold, demographics of the students we reach, as well as allowing us to see the demographic reach of CS education.  The survey data allows us to tailor our professional development resources to meet the curricular needs of the CSTA members and apply for grants and funding based on the student population we are reaching.

This years 2015 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey was sent out in an e-blast yesterday (4/21) to the US Secondary membership. We would greatly appreciate your time in completing the survey as the data is valuable in meeting your needs.  As an incentive, we have a drawing for five Amazon gift cards worth $100 for those that complete the survey.

Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2015NatHSCS (Closes on May 5, 2015, at 11:59pm HST)

Thanks,
The Research Committee
Stephanie Hoepppner & Aman Yadav, CSTA Board and Research Committee Members

By: Deborah Seehorn and Dave Reed

The primary purpose of the CSTA Nominations and Elections Committee is to oversee and maintain the nominations and elections process.

The primary functions of the committee are listed below.

1. Conduct and oversee the Call for Nominations prior to each Board of Directors election.
2. Actively recruit and bring forth qualified applicants to maintain diversity on the Board of Directors.
3. Ensure that recruiting of applicants for open positions on the Board of Directors occurs prior to the close of nominations. If only one qualified nomination is received, the Nominations and Elections committee may seek additional candidates.
4. Select two applicants from the pool of nominations for each open Board of Director position during an election period. These two applicants will then be presented to the general membership during the Board of Directors election process. If only one qualified nominee can been found, that nominee will be acclaimed.
5. Work with staff to facilitate the sharing of candidate information with the members.
6. Work with the Executive Director and CSTA staff to select and refine technologies for conducting fair and secure election. Election technologies shall be approved by the Board of Directors.
7. Ensure that all elections are carried out in accordance with the current Bylaws and Board of Directors Policies and Procedures.
8. Make recommendations to the Board of Directors for qualified candidates to fill vacated positions on the Board of Directors.
9. Provide recommendations to the Board for the revision of the current election process and eligibility requirements of candidates.
10. Stagger the elections for the positions of 9-12 Teacher Representative and At-Large Representative so that only one from each is position is elected each year. If more than one position from either of these representative categories will become vacant in the following year, the Board may vote to extend the term of one of the current representatives for a period of one year. The Chair will determine which of the two current representatives will be asked to extend their term of service

For the 2015 CSTA Board Election, the Call for Nominations was issued in November 2014. Nominations closed on February 1, 2015. CSTA received an ample number of well-qualified nominations for each of the three open board positions. Each member of the Nominations and Elections Committee reviews the qualifications of the nominees and rates them based on an objective rubric.  These ratings are then used to select the top two nominees for each board position. Those two nominees become the two candidates for each board position. The candidate qualifications are then posted on the CSTA website. This year candidates also submitted blog posts to the CSTA Advocate blog https://advocate.csteachers.org/.

The Election Buddy website was set up for the 2015 Election, and the election began on April 2, 2015. The election will conclude on May 4, 2015. The newly elected board members will be notified and then announced to the CSTA membership shortly thereafter. The new board members will participate in the CSTA Board Meeting in Grapevine, Texas in July.

The current members of the CSTA Curriculum Committee are:

Dave Reed, Creighton University, [email protected]

Tammy Pirmann, School District of Springfield Township, PA, [email protected]

Karen Lang, Former Board Member, [email protected]

Deborah Seehorn, NC Department of Public Instruction, [email protected]

Lissa Clayborn, Acting CSTA Executive Director, [email protected]

We welcome your comments and suggestions on how the CSTA Nominations and Elections Committee can better meet the needs of our CSTA members.

Deborah Seehorn
CSTA Nominations and Elections Committee Chair and Board Chair

Dave Reed
CSTA Nominations and Elections Committee and Board Chair-Elect

The Membership Committee of the CSTA is responsible for cultivating membership.  It seems like a straightforward enough job, but we set our goals pretty high.  The CSTA is valuable precisely because of its member base.  Being a member of the CSTA gives you access to thousands of members around the world with whom you can share ideas, learn, and grow as a Computer Science teacher.  We’re always trying to increase membership so that everyone has a great experience and lots of smart teachers to connect with.  In addition to individual members, we also have institutional members: schools, universities, and companies who support the mission of the CSTA.  These members provide additional resources for our members and often sponsor events and activities that are advertised to our membership.

How many members are there?  Altogether, we have almost 20,000 members, both individual and institutional.  These members represent all 50 states and over 140 countries.  That’s a powerful group of advocates!

Membership levels by country:

Membership levels by state:

Why join CSTA? I recently represented the CSTA at the Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference and was asked that quite a bit.  Being a member of the CSTA means being a part of a larger community of Computer Science Teachers, Educators, and Advocates. You get access to curriculum resources, reports and information about Computer Science education.  Many CS teachers are the only ones at their school, so having a community to connect with makes you feel less alone, and being a member means you, too, can contribute to the direction of Computer Science Education.  There’s a lot of work to be done, and every voice needs to be heard, so add yours now! Find out more at the CSTA membership page.

The CSTA Board’s Equity Committee is, no surprise, concerned with issues around equity of opportunity, support and encouragement for all students in computer science education and careers. We are especially concerned with supporting women and underserved minorities. Diversity is critically important in society and computer science is no exception.

For the past several years a major effort of the Equity committee has been “We are the Faces of Computing” competitions (http://csta.acm.org/Advocacy_Outreach/Other/FOC.html ). The purpose of these competitions is twofold. First is to get students thinking about diversity in computing and its importance. Secondly, and even more importantly, we want students to create artifacts that can be used to help more students see themselves in the field of computing. A collection of winning posters from several years is available at the Faces of Computing web page. For 2014 the Equity committee ran a competition to create videos. The winners were announced during CS Education Week and can be found at the CSTA web site. (http://csta.acm.org/Advocacy_Outreach/sub/CSEdWeek.html)

Throughout the year, the Equity committee works to make sure that all CSTA programs help to support the CSTA goals of equal opportunity and broadening the participation in computing to all segments of the population.

These tasks are of course everyone’s job but having specific members of the board with a particular focus on Equity is an important responsibility that helps the Association keep sight of the goal.

Alfred Thompson, Equity Committee Chair and At-large member, CSTA Board

The primary purpose of the CSTA Curriculum Committee is to provide K-12 computer science teachers with access to high quality, standards-based curriculum resources. During the past year, the committee has been busy vetting crosswalks to the CSTA K-12 CS Standards that have been submitted by curriculum providers. The crosswalks that have been vetted by the committee include those submitted by Linux, Oracle, Google, Tech Corps, and Mobile Makers iOS. Vetted crosswalks to the standards are posted on the CSTA website http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/K12Standards.html upon approval by the curriculum provider.

A major publication for the CSTA Curriculum Committee is the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards, released in 2011 and available at the above webpage. The purpose of the standards was to delineate a core set of learning standards designed to provide the foundation for a complete computer science curriculum and its implementation at the K–12 level. The standards allow the Curriculum Committee to support our CSTA members by informing them of quality standards-based curriculum resources. To better support and assist CS educators, the CSTA K-12 Standards have been crosswalked to these national standards: Common Core State Standards, Common Core Mathematical Practice Standards, STEM Career Cluster Topics, and the Partnership for the 21st Century Essential Skills Standards. The CSTA K-12 CS Standards are also available on the CSTA website en Español.

The current members of the CSTA Curriculum Committee are:

Laura Blankenship, The Baldwin School, [email protected]

Debbie Carter, CSTA Board Member Emeritus, [email protected]

Fred Martin, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, [email protected]

Tammy Pirmann, School District of Springfield Township, PA, [email protected]

Deborah Seehorn, NC Department of Public Instruction, [email protected]

Lissa Clayborn, Acting CSTA Executive Director, [email protected]

Frequently the Curriculum Committee collaborates with other CSTA committees on projects of interest to both committees. Occasionally, the committee solicits assistance from experts with a particular area of computing curriculum expertise. We welcome your comments and suggestions on ways the CSTA Curriculum Committee can better meet the needs of our CSTA members.

Deborah Seehorn, CSTA Curriculum Committee Chair