CSforAll Adds Chappaqua Schools To Planning Team

From the Chappaqua school district

CHAPPAQUA, NY — The global economy is rapidly shifting, and educators, policy makers, families and business leaders are increasingly recognizing that computer science (CS) is a “new basic” skill necessary for economic opportunity and social mobility.

The Computer Science for All (CSforAll) Consortium, launched as a nation-wide initiative out of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in 2016, has partnered with New York University to support districts’ plans around CS education. Specifically, to help districts coordinate vision, implementation and curriculum decisions around CSforAll. Its aim is to empower all students, from kindergarten through high school, to learn computer science and be equipped with the computational thinking skills they need to be creators in the digital economy, not just consumers, and to be active citizens in our technology-driven world.

It was recently announced that a team comprised of leadership CSforAll, New York University, Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES and Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES selected the Chappaqua Central School District to participate as a Pixel Movers member in the strategic planning process led by CSforAll.

Pixel Movers is the designation used for districts wanting to go a little deeper and are ready to begin forming leadership teams that develop CSforAll implementation plans. The Pixel Movers option provides a level of basic implementation assistance through a two-day professional development visioning and planning workshop. These teams will also commit to participate in limited research around their implementations, and will be supported to collect interim formative data that the research team will then share back to support ongoing planning and development.

“Our participation will enable the District to build upon its already robust computer science curriculum,” said Christine Ackerman, Superintendent of Schools. “We will soon be at the point where CS is as commonplace as reading and writing within the course of a student’s school day.”

PHOTO/ Chappaqua public schools