“Understanding equity requires acknowledging that people have different challenges and barriers and that some systems exist and operate to disadvantage people at the onset,” shares CSTA Equity Fellow Lilibeth Mora, an Equity Teacher Leader – Instructional Coach, Teacher, at the Vallejo City Unified School District in Vallejo, California.
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“Understanding equity requires acknowledging that people have different challenges and barriers and that some systems exist and operate to disadvantage people at the onset,” shares CSTA Equity Fellow Lilibeth Mora, an Equity Teacher Leader – Instructional Coach, Teacher, at the Vallejo City Unified School District in Vallejo, California.
“In the classroom, equity is giving ALL students what they need to succeed in your class,” continued Mora. “Teachers and students respect one another and actively listen to each other in order to create an optimal environment for learning. Teachers deliver lessons that are equitable and accessible to all students utilizing a variety of research-based strategies to implement lesson plans. Students are engaged in learning and are comfortable with making mistakes and learning from them and each other.”
Mora, in conjunction with CSU-Sacramento (Sac State) in a Researcher-Practitioner-Partnership (RPP) for a National Science Foundation Grant, I represented Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD) in researching the reasons for the historic low enrollment of females in CS/ICT courses and identifying strategies that promote female student engagement with computer science.
“We developed student surveys that dig into why students and teachers, both male and female, decide to or not to enroll into CS/ICT courses and/or CS/ICT career pathways and will continue to gather more information via additional surveys, focus groups, individual interviews, and class observations throughout the course of the RPP,” said Mora.
During the summer of 2020, CS/ICT Teachers received a week-long training on the feminist perspective of computer science and a feminist approach to teaching data visualization. Teachers walked away with new tools and strategies to present the skills to students and to better understand why they’re learning specific content and how it relates to them and the world.
“The key takeaway from the event was for teachers to start each unit/lesson with the “why” they’re learning the day’s objective,” shared Mora. “Each participant had a wider perspective of who is collecting data, what is being collected, how it being is collected, how is the data being visualized, and what’s missing from the data.”
This current school year is the first year of implementation following the training. Mora is looking forward to observing change, if any, in student participation, specifically female students who are already in the courses.
“In the hopes of applying for a larger grant amount via NSF, EGUSD hopes to dig into recruitment and enrollment procedures/strategies that impact who is selecting CS/ICT courses and working with lower grade levels (middle and elementary schools) to obtain a deeper grasp into how computer science is implemented in PreK-8 at Elk Grove,” shared Mora.
The CCC Department at EGUSD facilities is an ICT Community of Practice (CoP) for all the CS/ICT Teachers. In preparing to transition to Distance Learning, the ICT CoP met more regularly, virtually, to support each other before Elk Grove rolled out the last 6 weeks of the Spring 2020 term.
Mora supported the Strong Workforce Program (SWP) grant in consortium with the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE). Along with the ICT Coordinator, Mora supported the regional ICT advisory meeting that gathers all CS/ICT middle and high school teachers, CS post-secondary instructors, and ICT industry partners (private and public) to meet twice a year. The regional ICT advisory group discusses industry trends, industry to education alignment and support (work-based learning opportunities), collaborates to develop curriculum and course outlines, and in some cases provides guidance for program budgets.
“We’ve begun to leverage the latter half of the workday during the semi-annual regional ICT advisory meetings for all the CS/ICT middle and high school teachers to collaborate, plan, and share resources at the North-Far North Regional ICT CoP,” said Mora. “In these meetings, we tackle issues of recruitment, lack of resources (funding, staffing, industry support, etc.), industry trends that impact curriculum, etc. In addition, I participate in the ICT Hub Task Force that meets monthly with leaders from varying stakeholders to address the needs of the North-Far North region. The work done so far has enabled CS/ICT programs to grow and resources to be shared.”
Mora applied to become a CSTA Equity Fellow to learn more about equity in regards to race, socio-economic status, locality, education, and specifically, in computer science. In today’s climate, it’s important for Mora to understand what equity means for her, her students, and her community. “It is important that I am clear of where I stand in my faith in social justice, to recognize my privilege as a Filipino woman of color, who still has a job, living in California, and to participate in transformative action. I hope to learn from my peers by listening to their stories, developing relationships, and supporting them in their efforts to reach their goals through this fellowship,” Mora shared.
Earlier this year, Mora, along with fellow cohort members Dominick Sanders and Deb Harding, organized the first-ever CSTA Equity in Action Summit. This event brought together K-12 CS teachers to call out inequities of access and achievement in marginalized groups and share strategies and resources to empower and equip teachers to address the digital divide. Additionally, Mora, along with Sanders, led a discussion with Coded Bias director Shalini Kantayya.
If you missed out on the Equity in Action Summit, all of the recordings and the post-summit Coded Bias discussion are available to CSTA+ members in the Resources Library.
You can learn more about Mora, this year’s cohort, and the CSTA Equity Fellowship program here.