Addressing Diverse Student Population To Successfully Build a District-Wide Computer Science Program
Learn more about how one district in California created a CS program and included students of all backgrounds
Prior to 2020, Redlands Unified school district had two computer science AP teachers. Forty three students took the class with a 63% pass rate overall. Fast forward 3 years to 2023, and the program has grown to 159 students with a 78% pass rate!
The growth of the computer science department at Redlands Unified would not have been possible without the support of leadership like Deepika Srivastava, the STEAM and Innovation Coordinator. In order to accomplish a successful district implementation, she knew she would have to address the unique and diverse learning needs of her students while listening to input from the computer science teaching staff.
After learning more from teachers in the district who were already using CodeHS, Deepika decided to reach out to the leadership team at the school and helped make the decision to switch from Chromebooks to high-quality laptops. By making this switch, the future of computer science at Redlands Unified was solidified with devices that can be sustained over time.
Redlands Unified has made a commitment to excellence for all students, and in order to accomplish this have shared five tenets, including:
- Enhanced learning through innovation
- Excellence in academics
- Collaborative community and parent partnerships
- Equality through equity
- Learning in safe and secure environments
The goal of Redlands Unified staff is to close the opportunity gap in computer science as well as the achievement gap. Teachers like Allan Thoe, a former math teacher, shared more about their classrooms and how they are working towards this goal.
“I started teaching computer science in 2017 because I was a math teacher and we had an open lab. Nobody else was teaching it so I saw an opportunity to create a program at Citrus Valley High,” shares Allen. Because he had no prior experience teaching computer science, he used some online tutorials and YouTube videos to learn more about how to teach this subject to his students.
Allan teaches at Citrus Valley High, situated an hour east of Los Angeles, California, with a diverse student population of about 2000 students. The computer science program is composed of a variety of students, from those who have experience coding to those who have zero experience with the subject.
Allan runs a self-paced computer science class. With the ability to lock/unlock assessments and assignments on CodeHS, he’s still able to maintain some commonality among students as they work through the curriculum at their own pace. He customizes his classroom by adding in his own projects and keeping the requirements short, giving students room to be as creative as possible. The goal of projects is to highlight key concepts rather than giving specific instructions, allowing students to showcase their own individuality.
Other teachers like Sean Comadena had their first experience in the computer science classroom this past school year. His classroom consisted of many different students, and about half had no prior coding experience. Since he wasn’t sure what to expect, he decided to start teaching Python. Once students complete this course, the next class in the AP CSA sequence is Java.
“…it was a lot of fun this year when I would see students who had never coded before figure out the code to a specific lesson and show genuine excitement that they were able to do that on their own,” Sean shared.
His experience with CodeHS helped him structure his classes, and he used the platform to ensure his success during his first year teaching computer science.
CodeHS is excited to continue to support Redland Unified’s Computer Science program growth and their amazing students!
