Establishing a more just, accessible, & equitable computer science education for all students
The Equitable CS Curriculum Initiative is a multi-year endeavor designed to create engaging computer science education experiences for children and youth in grades K-12. We will achieve this through intentional and collaborative efforts that dismantle racism and bias (individual and institutional), center CS learning on student assets, culture, and experience, and elevate the value that families and communities bring to the learning process. Ultimately, we aim to ensure CS educators and education systems are equipped with resources needed to create and develop engagement, identity, and persistence in computing pathways for Black, Latinx, Native American and girls, and gender non-binary students, to ensure they have opportunities to pursue computing pathways in college and career.
Reimagining CS Education: A Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Framework
In June 2021, Kapor Center released the CRCS Framework, developed in partnership with a national collective of education advocates to create more pathways for Black, Latinx, Native American, and other marginalized students to computer science education, tech careers, and STEM-related fields. This work will continue to grow and take shape as the need for CS education becomes more prevalent in communities across the country and educators seek new opportunities to lead positive change.










Why Achieving Equity in K-12 CS Classrooms Matters
For too long, too many students in Black, Latinx, Native American, and other historically marginalized communities have been denied fair access to computer science education opportunities and practices that allow them to prepare for their future.
Informed Educators = Liberated Students
The Equitable CS Curriculum Initiative aims to level the playing field and provide computer science educators and advocates with six actionable strategies that help eradicate barriers to learning in CS classrooms and center the focus on the most important stakeholders – students.
Collective Impact Driving the Work Forward
Since its launch in February 2020 the ECS Initiative has:- Identified key adult and youth thought leaders representing a variety of disciplines, perspectives, and communities across the country to guide this work
- Completed the first of its kind nation-wide landscape survey, engaging nearly 3,700 computer science educators in an examination of their experiences in classrooms to determine their needs particularly in the age of a global pandemic,
- Developed a virtual network of like-minded individuals committed to collective action
- Finalized the first iteration of a groundbreaking strategic framework that will offer teachers and school communities Core Components to help either deepen or align their work in ways that are culturally sustainable.
- This effort includes professional development opportunities (set to be piloted Fall 2021), resources, and tools that will offer educators and advocates synchronous and asynchronous opportunities to grow in their professional practice.