Action to Catalyze Tech: A Paradigm Shift for DEI

Action to Catalyze Tech: A Paradigm Shift for DEI
Jared O'Leary
Download

In this episode I unpack Catalyze Tech Working Group’s (2021) publication titled “The ACT Report: Action to Catalyze Tech, A Paradigm Shift for DEI,” which provides suggestions for businesses that would like to improve DEI in ways that are relevant to CS organizations and educators.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    csk8 podcast my name is Jared O'Leary

    each week of this podcast is either an

    interview with a guest or multiple

    guests or a solo episode where I unpacks

    some scholarship in relation to Computer

    Science Education in this week's episode

    I'm unpacking the ACT report which

    stands for Action to catalyze Tech colon

    a paradigm shift for Dei the support was

    presented by the catalyze tech working

    group and had a variety of different

    partners working on it there's no

    abstract for this report however here's

    the preface this is from page two quote

    the research findings here represent

    years of work by experts in the field of

    diversity equity and inclusion eei and

    business and have been extensively

    peer-reviewed experts in the working

    group met bi-weekly for a year to

    aggregate the most relevant

    evidence-based approaches that

    businesses can take to radically improve

    Dei outcomes if Dei is a journey the ACT

    report aims to sit where the rubber hits

    the road we know how hard it can be the

    good news there's no need to reinvent

    the wheel instead we build on findings

    from dozens of experts and organizations

    to create a rigorous framework of action

    while this report addresses issues

    specific to the tech industry it also

    provides a roadmap for businesses of all

    kinds similarly although we focus where

    many large tech companies are

    headquartered the United States our

    message is global we recognize that

    different companies are at very

    different stages in their journey and

    one size never fits all we also know Dei

    represents an extraordinary opportunity

    this report is a call to action during a

    transformational moment of business

    ethics and leadership in 2020 most tech

    CEOs and leaders indeed most businesses

    pledge to improve Dei but real change

    requires a paradigm shift new found

    courage to change systems and mindsets

    we invite people across the tech sector

    and Beyond to use the tools here to act

    boldly and collaboratively on the

    defining issues of our day Equity end

    quote prior to summarize this report

    into a single sentence I'd say that this

    report provides suggestions for

    businesses that would like to improve

    Dei in ways that are relevant to CS

    organizations and Educators now this

    report is 162 pages long and so I'm

    going to try and make this episode as

    quick as possible to kind of give you a

    taste or a flavor of what this report

    has to offer and then encourage you to

    read more you can learn more about it so

    although this is targeting businesses

    and whatnot this is very applicable in

    my opinion to CS organizations or

    Educators who are interested in

    improving Dei or just equity in general

    so this report is broken down into some

    different sections so the first part is

    the introduction then the section one

    kind of describes the overall approach

    section two which is the bulk of this

    particular report is on recommendations

    Section 3 is on sustaining change and

    then it has an appendix now in the

    recommendations it's broken down into

    four different main categories so it

    uses most as an acronym and so the m

    stands for model and incentivize

    inclusive leadership the O stands for

    operationalized Dei throughout the

    business the S stands for share Dei data

    metrics and goals and the T stands for

    transform Pathways into tech for

    underrepresented talent now on page six

    of the reports they say that they have

    three steps for tech companies or

    leaders or in this case for CS

    organizations NCS Educators and leaders

    within the space these steps are to

    develop a strategy for pursuing or

    enhancing the four different

    recommendations then become a signatory

    to this report by pledging to share data

    and Report progress annually publicly

    and then to support Collective action at

    an industry level or in this case as a

    field level in CS education and on page

    seven the authors suggest that Dei and

    business cannot be separated in terms of

    like business strategies needs to

    incorporate Dei so for cease Educators

    one of the things that I've heard many

    people and organizations argue is that

    the EI and CS education fundamentally

    cannot be separated now I've talked

    about in some other podcast episodes how

    this might be an alignment for

    curriculum viewed as social

    reconstruction as compared to like

    curriculum as standards or curriculum as

    social reproduction Etc I'll include a

    link in the shout outs to podcasts kind

    of unpacks that more but if you're

    interested in seeing like who is signed

    on to this like if we look at page 8 and

    page nine there's a bunch of large

    corporations whether it's like Apple or

    Google Twitter NAACP Netflix Etc so a

    lot of companies have at least agreed to

    follow those reports I'm interested to

    see even five years from now like what

    are the annual ports going to look like

    for each of these companies who have

    pledged to do this now on page 10 this

    report talks a little bit about Dei and

    the history of it and why it has failed

    so if you're interested in learning more

    about that check out page 10. again this

    is 162 pages so I'm going to try and

    zoom through this on page 11 they talk

    about what could tech companies do so in

    this case what might CS organizations do

    so here's a quick summary of some of the

    highlights on there so one is to

    actually use recommendations in this

    report another is to model and

    incentivize inclusive leadership I think

    csda has done a really good job with

    that with like these CS Equity fellows

    and having conferences where the equity

    fellows are running it and presenting so

    kudos to csda for that another

    recommendation is to remove bias from

    hiring systems this might be out of the

    control of like individual Educators but

    it could be something that you can

    engage in a conversation with somebody

    who might have more of a say on the

    hiring does the shared Dei data metrics

    and goals now the elementary school that

    I was in and then with the elementary

    schools we work with at boot up every

    kid is participating in computer science

    but in schools where participation is

    not required by all students it would be

    really interesting to look at data

    metrics and goals related to who

    participates and then sharing that with

    other colleagues and maybe even publicly

    to learn more about how to improve in

    those areas now the recommendation Has

    Come Together as an industry or in this

    case I'd say to come together as a field

    create some new Pathways for CS

    Educators and Role Models within the

    space and the last recommendation is

    they recommend that companies redouble

    efforts to provide all children with

    Computer Science Education which I'm

    sure many of you hear that and go here

    here I agree alright so the next section

    starting on page 13 is a paradigm shift

    so they talk about how we need to change

    our mindset around Dei and talks about

    the difference between inclusion and

    belonging and how there has been

    discussion on including people within a

    space but it's also really important to

    focus on people who feel like they

    belong within that space Not Just

    included in it so as an example I've

    been to social Gatherings with my wife

    for like she might know the majority of

    people there and I don't know anyone and

    while I am included in that space I

    don't really feel like I belong because

    they're talking about work and stuff

    that I have no point of connection or

    context for that is a very simplified

    example of inclusion and belonging which

    is something that we can consider in RCS

    classes or organizations okay so if

    certain demographics of students sign up

    for classes or people sign up for

    organizations they might be included but

    do they feel like they actually belong

    there maybe question mark and then the

    next section starting on page 15 they

    talk about Cradle to Career so this is

    all about creating a systems thinking

    approach for Dei so thinking about Dei

    from K-12 all the way up through a

    career and so the authors argue that

    corporations and government and voters

    really need to proactively support

    education and educational programs which

    I agree and for CS education it could

    start in preschool like doing unplugged

    or scratch junior or something but

    here's a quote from page 16 that was

    interesting it caught my eye quote if

    you want to disrupt the school to prison

    Pipeline and transform it into a school

    to Tech pathway way we must ensure that

    every student has the fundamental Math

    and Science backgrounds to study CS end

    quote the question that I have with that

    is well is that actually what we want is

    the purpose of school to get into Tech I

    would argue no yes many people will do

    that but I don't think we should require

    it of everybody unless everybody's in

    fact gonna go into Tech and again just

    using the devices does not necessitate

    needing to understand how to program it

    we can't really conflate that but also

    how much math and science do we actually

    really need to do most CS I'd argue I

    use very little science if any and only

    sometimes some math above like maybe

    some basic addition or subtraction if

    I'm like programming the physics of the

    video game yeah I'll use like a lot more

    math but if I'm just creating a simple

    app I don't really use much math so I'm

    like I agree with the sentiment on this

    but there's more nuances to this

    statement that I think need to be

    unpacked I think it's problematic when

    advocates in any field like I have

    experience in CS education and music

    education but any field if you are

    advocating for something I'd recommend

    not speaking in Hyperbole and talking

    about how important it is and it's the

    most important thing ever and it's going

    to be the most important thing ever for

    everybody probably not I think it can

    kind of set us back when we start making

    claims like that because Skeptics or

    people like myself will listen to it and

    go no you're exaggerating there but

    that's just my opinion now one of the

    interesting things on page 17 is it has

    a case study so it talks about Atlanta

    and public schools and these case

    studies keep appearing throughout so for

    like each one of these sections in the

    paper it gives some case studies for

    people to kind of learn from and dive

    deeper into it and on page 18 they have

    a call to action for companies to help

    support colleges that prepare teachers

    to teach computer science that's

    something that has been like a huge gap

    and like organizations like boot up

    there's a nonprofit that I work for and

    that powers this podcast learn more at

    boot.pd.org I've kind of filled this Gap

    where we have a bunch of Educators out

    in the field that don't know computer

    science and want to learn it then we

    don't have pre-service education

    programs really focusing on teaching

    Computer Science Education do future

    teachers so this report is calling on

    companies to help support those

    initiatives like we've received support

    from like Amazon future engineer then I

    know some other universities colleges

    have received some report from other

    organizations and whatnot all that can

    kind of help prepare future and current

    CS Educators all right so section one

    this starts on page 19. so it talks

    about the most framework that they're

    using so again most is model and

    incentivize inclusive leadership the O

    is operationalized Dei throughout the

    business the S is share Dei data metrics

    and goals and the t is to transform

    Pathways into tech for underrepresented

    talent they provide 10 important

    recommendations again this is on page

    personal Dei expertise number two

    establish Dei as a business imperative

    number three support Dei with funding

    metrics strategies and accountability

    number four redesign systems including

    hiring retention and promotion systems

    to remove bias number five apply both

    Dei framework and an ethical framework

    to the design of products and services

    number six support industry-wide Dei

    reporting standards and share anonymized

    data number seven set public goals

    number eight advocate for computer

    science CS to be required in all schools

    number nine build systems capacity to

    create more CS teachers at all levels

    and invest in CS faculty within colleges

    of Education number 10 invest in

    organizations that connect Talent from

    underrepresented groups to Tech careers

    end quote that gives you a very high

    level overview of the recommendations

    that they provide in this particular

    report again it's 162 pages so I'm going

    to go over these very quickly well

    hopefully this podcast will help

    highlight some sections that will be of

    interest to you or the organizations

    that you work with now you'll notice a

    couple of times in here I've mentioned

    systems thinking so on page 22 they talk

    more about what does this mean so they

    said that this is a chronic problem this

    is not a one-off thing it's familiar and

    is known in history we've tried to solve

    this problem before and it is an

    important issue that needs to be

    addressed but we can't just address it

    through mandates we have to approach

    this by trying to fix the system that is

    broken now on pages 27 and 28 you notice

    that there is a detailed some of the

    recommendations so it includes each of

    the 10 different actions as well as like

    some sub actions for each one of those

    so like sub action 9 has like four

    suggestions on things that you can do

    and I'm going to kind of unpack each of

    these very quickly in the following

    recommendations so in the first

    recommendation number one model and

    incentivize inclusive leadership now on

    page 32 they provide a little table that

    kind of summarizes well what exactly is

    inclusive leadership I'm going to read

    this off real quick quote visible

    commitment inclusive leaders articulate

    authentic commitment to diversity

    challenge the status quo hold others

    accountable and make diversity and

    inclusion a personal priority humility

    inclusive leaders are modest about

    capabilities admit mistakes and create

    spaces for others to contribute

    awareness a bias inclusive leaders show

    awareness of personal blind spots as

    well as flaws and systems and work hard

    to ensure a meritocracy curiosity about

    others inclusive leaders demonstrate an

    open mindset and deep curiosity about

    others listen without judgment and seek

    with empathy to understand those around

    them cultural intelligence inclusive

    leaders are attentive to others as

    cultures and adapt as required effective

    collaboration inclusive leaders Empower

    others pay attention to diversity of

    thinking and psychological safety and

    focus on team cohesion and quote so all

    of these are really interesting

    strategies that can be done not only

    with like a leader of a CS organization

    but also just like Educators who are CS

    leaders so again the six areas are

    visible commitment humility awareness

    and bias curiosity about others cultural

    intelligence and effective collaboration

    I think all of those are very applicable

    in CS classrooms and they do provide a

    citation if you want to learn more about

    where this came from I'd actually end up

    reading that article maybe turn that

    into an unpacking scholarship episode in

    the future so stay tuned alright so the

    first action to increase your personal

    Dei expertise so the first sub action on

    page 35 talks about how quote allyship

    is not a state it's an ongoing action

    make time for the personal reflection

    and engagement that sustains allyship

    end quote so there are three main ways

    that they recommend doing this one is to

    audit your personal and professional

    national network another is to read

    watch and listen and the third one is to

    trust and rely on Experts to elevate

    your personal learning each of these are

    unpacked in a few sentences so if you

    want to learn more about it I recommend

    taking a look on page 35 and also on the

    page there are some essential skills

    that they recommend for modeling

    allyship and those skills are to quote

    develop an intrinsic motivation for

    allyship relearn the ways you see the

    world take courageous actions speak up

    when you spot inequity support

    marginalized group members efforts and

    do so on their terms and embrace

    discomfort as a catalyst for Behavior

    change end quote the next sub actions

    are to interact personally and on an

    ongoing basis with employees from

    underrepresented groups and employee

    research groups which are ergs the next

    sub action is to model growth mindset

    and I actually don't think I've done a

    podcast episode on growth mindset yet I

    know I've mentioned it multiple times so

    thinking out loud I should probably

    record one because it keeps coming up

    but until then if you're interested in

    it check out Carol dweck d-w-e-c-k I'll

    include a link in the show notes so you

    can learn more about growth mindset but

    honestly if you just search for it

    you'll find a ton of articles logs

    research Etc all right the next sub

    action for this one is to disrupt

    everyday biases that subtly but

    repeatedly harm people from

    underrepresented groups I also recommend

    giving personal signals that you're an

    inclusive leader and again for each one

    of these sub-actions there are sometimes

    a couple of sentences or paragraphs kind

    of unpacking okay well how would I give

    signals that I'm an inclusive leader

    well there's four recommendations in

    there on how to do that if you want to

    check that out the link in the show

    notes at Gerald leary.com will take you

    directly to this report alright so

    action two is to establish Dei as a

    business imperative or in this case we

    might say as an organization imperative

    or classroom environment imperative Etc

    so the first sub action for this on how

    to actually do it is to quote include

    Dei as a Core Company value and annual

    priority ensure each c-suite Leader's

    business plan has Dei objectives on

    representation culture and wear

    applicable product end quote from page

    can do that the next sub action is on

    elevating the role of the chief

    diversity officer to ensure that they

    have adequate Authority training and

    resources to influence the c-suite I

    have six recommendations for that as

    well the next sub action they recommend

    is to apply the same risk tolerance to

    Dei as product Innovation one example

    that I heard this is a paraphrasing from

    a discussion at the worldwide developers

    conference that I went to a few years

    ago I forget when that was it was for

    Apple so they're talking about how when

    you design for the median or the mode or

    just like the group average you exclude

    the margins but when you design for the

    margins you include everybody so when

    creating products whether it's a lesson

    plan or a curriculum or like a robot

    you're selling if Dei is a core

    component of your product research can

    make it more inclusive insta I in Dei or

    even more accessible deia is becoming a

    more popular term than just Dei at least

    in some of the circles that I've seen

    now in each one of these like actions

    and whatnot they include some like some

    case studies or in this case like here's

    some examples of how you can set

    representation goals or well what was

    affirmative action and how has it had a

    positive influence again I'm only like a

    quarter of the way through this paper

    and I'm on page 45 right now so there's

    a lot more to unpack a lot more

    resources that they Point toward just

    kind of skimming the surface on this one

    not really doing a deep dive because

    this would end up being a few hour long

    podcast a little bit different format

    than previous episodes that were

    unpacking a specific paper that was

    shorter like last week's episode was

    like a four page paper but the next sub

    action for this particular area is to

    devote part of one board meeting and

    ideally part of one quarterly earnings

    call to Dei challenges and progress so

    one way we might be able to reframe that

    is to devote one entire PLC and like

    quarterly goals or Reflections or even

    semesterly like however you end up doing

    it in your school to focus on Dei the

    challenges progress Etc another sub

    action is to prioritize Dei in your

    company's spending strategy through

    intentional partner vendor and Supplier

    Diversity policies that's a really

    interesting area that I've only kind of

    like skimmed the surface on exploring

    there's so many interesting things to

    consider with that and at least at the

    non-profit level I'm not sure how that

    would relate to being in the classroom

    like there's like the approved vendors

    list and whatnot so you're kind of

    limited on who you can reach out to but

    it could be at least worth starting a

    conversation in your District like well

    who is on the approved vendors list and

    why who's excluded and why how does that

    relate to Dei goals Etc it's a

    recommendation two is on

    operationalizing Dei throughout the

    business or organization in this case

    maybe well maybe you're a business I

    don't know can't speak for you here's a

    really interesting quote from page 50.

    uh called the litmus test quote if you

    want to know if your Dei strategy has

    truly been operationalized at your

    company ask any middle manager to tell

    you the actions they take on a regular

    basis and in the last three months to

    implement your company's Dei strategy if

    they have no significant actions or

    outcomes to report this tells you that

    your Dei strategy isn't being

    operationalized end quote that's a

    really good thing to consider this could

    be like ask your principal or ask a

    teacher or ask the csma Mentor or ask a

    leader in your I don't know local csta

    chapter which you can learn more about

    in the podcast with Jason Bohr I'll

    include a link to that episode it's a

    good interview I'm really curious if we

    were to ask that it like boot up what

    people would say also curious like the

    former District that I worked in where I

    was the mentor CS educator who'd run

    like rpds and whatnot what would they

    say the goals were the next action is on

    supporting Dei with funding metric

    strategies and accountability here's an

    important quote from page 52 quote to

    measure progress on equity and inclusion

    however companies need to track more

    than representation without tracking

    inputs into critical processes affecting

    equity and inclusion such as employee

    development and performance evaluation

    it is difficult to change culture

    company should for example keep track of

    patterns in task assignments and role

    distribution and analyze formal feedback

    to ensure consistency and length and

    quality end quote okay so how do we do

    that the first sub action is to create

    Dei data infrastructure to equip teams

    and Leaders with data to make informed

    decisions Define strategy and track

    progress the next sub action is to set

    internal goals and track implementation

    of strategic actions they indicate that

    best practices require goal setting and

    at entry level mid-career and Leadership

    levels and the next sub action is to

    create incentives for c-suite leaders

    managers and others to achieve Dei goals

    the following sub-action is to direct a

    pay audit for underrepresented groups

    starting with gender and race to close

    the gaps that'd be really interesting to

    look at I wonder Thinking Out Loud here

    if there are gender and pay gaps in

    teacher salaries and whatnot I ask

    because the latter system like there

    wasn't really much budging or

    negotiating that could be done at least

    in the districts that I was in it was

    basically how long have you been

    teaching and how many degrees do you

    have or how many credit hours rather and

    that will kind of determine how much you

    would make and one of the interesting

    things that they note in here is you

    need to identify and assess the factors

    other than just race and gender that

    might actually impact differences in pay

    so I'd recommend taking a look at this

    section as well as every one of these

    sections honestly that stand out to you

    because there's some interesting little

    tidbits in here but again it's 162 pages

    so I don't want to make this like a four

    hour episode and by the way if you

    notice my voice sounds different the

    Timbre or whatever it's because this is

    a second day of recording all right so

    action number four is redesign systems

    including hiring retention and promotion

    systems to remove bias here's a quote

    from page 58 quote despite inclusive

    values held by many people in companies

    organizational processes systems and

    structures often contain unconscious and

    unintentional bias those issues must be

    identified and systems should be

    redesigned the point is not to fix

    people from underrepresented groups by

    encouraging them to behave more like

    people from majority groups but to fix

    the bias system itself startups can

    build in best practices introduce

    training and create inclusive systems

    right from the beginning end quote

    alright so how do we do it so one of

    these sub-actions is to invest in Middle

    managers success train them to be

    inclusive leaders then hold them

    accountable for meeting Dei goals I'd

    argue if you replace like middle

    managers with like Mentor teacher or

    chapter leader Etc these suggestions

    that follow would really help in terms

    of having training to kind of recognize

    and disrupt the biases that a person

    might have now one of the interesting

    tidbits that they give is they mention

    that if you rely too much on referrals

    from current employees or people within

    like the leaders Social Circles or

    network this can actually reinforce

    exclusionary practices so looking Beyond

    just who do you know in your networks

    because that might result in similar

    people similar perspectives which is

    good in some ways but it doesn't

    challenge the status quo in other ways

    the next sub action this is on page 61

    is to design recruiting and interview

    systems to drive out bias so one way you

    can do that is to focus on diversity

    over how fast you hire people you could

    focus on skills not just on degrees you

    could revise the job descriptions you

    can adjust the interview questions

    develop skills and interviewing you

    could build in some different systems

    and procedures to kind of check your own

    biases and on page 64 there's an

    interesting rule called the Mansfield

    rule which you want to learn more about

    it is talking about how underrepresented

    groups should make up 30 percent of a

    pool to actually disrupt bias so you

    can't just hire one person unless maybe

    you're a group of three who's from an

    underrepresented group one of the

    questions that I have when I was looking

    at this is okay but what groups are we

    talking about in terms of

    underrepresentation and are we looking

    at intersectionality Etc but I'll talk

    about this a little bit more at the end

    when I share some lingering questions

    and thoughts all right so the next sub

    section or sub action is to design

    Talent Development feedback and

    promotion systems to minimize bias and

    reward inclusion I'm not sure what that

    would look like in a school setting I'm

    not saying it can't be done I'm just

    saying I haven't been on the HR side

    it's of schools because it's usually

    like a very cut and dry in terms of

    here's the PDF that has the pay scale

    every year you'll get a little bit of a

    boost for every couple years depending

    on what district you're in and if you

    get more credit hours more degrees you

    get another boost you either move down

    or you move to the right so if anyone

    has some ideas on how schools might do

    that that'd be an interesting

    conversation to have so feel free to hit

    me up on contact me button on my website

    jaredelary.com to chat although it's

    gonna have to be likely sometime in

    December or January as I haven't been

    able to do interviews lately because of

    all the construction work and whatnot

    moving locations all the joys that come

    with that all right sub action 4.4 is to

    reduce bias in task assignment and work

    allocation and introduce a process to

    spread stretch assignments Beyond

    favorite groups so there's a couple

    pages of some interesting content on

    here but I want to highlight or read off

    rather something from page 72. so this

    is NC wit's task assignment toolkit so

    it's got four questions and then some

    tips so this is from page 72 quote

    number one are some team members

    assigned more frequently to highly

    visible tasks or projects number two are

    other talented team members missing out

    on these assignments perhaps because

    they are quieter or because their

    potential has been overlooked number

    three are some team members more

    frequently assigned to high-risk

    projects why or why not examine criteria

    used for assigning tasks number four

    make explicit your criteria for

    assigning tasks for each project and

    ensure they are relevant to these

    projects for example supervisors

    sometimes avoid assigning important

    projects to team member who work

    flexible hours even if that schedule

    should not impair their ability to do

    the job top tips watch for patterns

    where teamers perform stereotypically

    gendered roles research illustrates that

    women more frequently take notes or take

    on office work EG organizing Logistics

    social events Etc avoid or interrupt

    comments like women are more social or

    men are better problem solvers these

    comments reflect a misunderstanding of

    gender difference research and

    exaggerated findings avoid the glass

    Cliff phenomenon of giving projects that

    are more likely to fail to employees for

    an underrepresented groups end quote so

    some interesting things to think of

    whether you're a classroom teacher

    working in a PLC or working in a CS

    organization again lots of interesting

    little tips and things to consider in

    this report which I hope you consider

    reading alright so sub action 4.5 is to

    improve sponsorship allyship and

    mentorship opportunities and ensure the

    opportunities you personally provide are

    balanced among different communities so

    here's a quote from page 72 that kind of

    talks about what's the difference

    between mentorship and sponsorship quote

    mentors advise while sponsors use your

    social capital to actively cultivate

    opportunities for sponsories senior

    leaders can serve as Role Models open

    doors to New Opportunities offer support

    during setbacks and provide honest

    feedback end quote so that was an

    interesting distinction that I hadn't

    heard of I guess what I try and do is

    sponsor and I hadn't heard of it

    referred to that way like whether I'm

    collaborating with like a colleague at

    work or just in the field or in like the

    dissertation that I'm supervising right

    now I'm actively trying to find

    opportunities for the people that I

    collaborate with to help them achieve

    the goals that they want or Branch out

    into new areas that they might be

    hesitant to do like hey I want to

    publish but I've never done it before

    all right cool let's co-author something

    so it's a good point to not just advise

    but to also like seek out opportunities

    kind of distribute things or lift up

    voices Etc and the part about like the

    social capital like if you listen to the

    interview that I did with Kimberly Scott

    we talk about this a little bit more as

    well as like the article that I unpack

    on Bordeaux applied to CS education your

    social capital is extremely valuable

    especially if you are a leader in

    whatever capacity that may be so the

    more that you can lift up people who

    have less social capital in that

    particular context the better so

    leverage it to their advantage be able

    to help them out in ways that maybe you

    wish you had when you were gaining your

    own social capital in whatever context

    alright so the next sub action is 4.6

    says to use ergs to support employee

    development create community and

    contribute to business objectives not as

    a substitute for a Dei strategy and an

    ERG is an employee Resource Group there

    are some suggestions on how you might do

    that on page 73. the next sub action 4.7

    is to evaluate what works and what does

    not and iterate accordingly that can be

    done with so much whether it was like

    after a lesson I'll go back and watch

    recordings of the lesson and then go

    what worked well what didn't work well

    what were the kids doing that I wasn't

    paying attention to who spoke the most

    who did I talk to the most who spoke the

    least who was least engaged why Etc but

    then you can also look at this in terms

    of projects all right we just finished a

    new curricular unit writing it out or

    something what worked really well how

    can we improve it or even just like

    little minor stuff like on the weekend I

    was video editing for all the gaming and

    drumming stuff because I'm a nerd and

    create content and Leisure and for work

    and I realized that I could adjust some

    of the key mappings in a way that would

    save me roughly seven seconds every time

    I was bouncing a video and considering I

    share seven videos a day on YouTube or

    at least have been in the last couple

    months that adds up over time especially

    because there's the widescreen version

    there's The Tick Tock and shorts version

    there's Instagram version so each one of

    those seven videos has three different

    variations of it for different

    formatting Dimensions Etc so even though

    seven seconds sounds like okay Jared

    whoop-dee-doo it really adds up but that

    is a very simple example in relation to

    technology we can also look at okay well

    what is working well in an organization

    in terms of how are we communicating or

    not communicating what could we improve

    and if people are actually open to

    sharing their thoughts then you can

    actually iterate and improve or not

    which stinks now on page 75 and 76 there

    are some recommendations for focusing on

    disabilities I'll include links in the

    podcast to some of the previous episodes

    that I did on disabilities in relation

    to CS education there's some really

    interesting interviews with like my

    Israel Jesse wrathgabber as well as some

    unpacking scholarship episodes

    disability is one of those things where

    when we say CS for all it doesn't always

    mean people with disabilities so it's

    really something we need to consider and

    honestly improve which again is one of

    the reasons why instead of just going in

    Dei some people are referring to it as

    deia or accessibility so check out the

    show notes for some more information on

    that well let's get into action five

    which is to apply both a Dei framework

    and an ethical framework to the design

    of products and services now when you

    think of a product or a service that

    could be like a curricular unit or a

    lesson or a robot that you sell as an

    organization or maybe just your own

    teaching or facilitating so again this

    is like geared towards corporations but

    if we think beyond that use this as a

    springboard for ideas we can apply this

    into classroom context or organizational

    context alright so how do we do this so

    sub action 5.1 is to develop product

    inclusion principles and operationalize

    them throughout the product development

    process here's a quote from page 79

    quote address the user consider race

    gender age education level ability

    geographic location and other dimensions

    of diversity When developing a product

    start with Equity inclusion shouldn't be

    an afterthought make sure that

    underrepresented voices are being heard

    throughout the product development

    process continually test to ensure

    products are inclusive keep researching

    and testing end quote alright so here's

    an example so there's a grant that I've

    been working on for a couple of years

    and my main role in this grant was to

    create curricular units so then the Wind

    River Reservation in Wyoming which has

    the northern Arapahoe and Eastern

    Shoshone tribes living within the same

    shared space as a community when

    creating these curricular units they

    were supposed to integrate computer

    science with new social study standards

    in Wyoming then we eventually were like

    oh this actually works really well with

    Ela standards as well so while doing

    that my role was to try and focus on

    culturally responsive side of things

    make it so that students were able to

    express themselves being an outsider

    somebody who is white who is not native

    and who lives in a completely different

    state I wanted to make sure that I was

    not trying to impose my my own ways of

    being or understanding on the students

    in the reservation so the way that we

    address the user like this First Column

    that is discussed in the 79 is we made

    it so that all the lessons are about

    students being able to learn about their

    own understandings of their culture by

    diving deeper through mentorship with

    Elders community members and to share

    what they have learned or to share their

    own understandings and interests on what

    they believe to be culture it might

    relate to being Northern Arapaho or

    Eastern Shoshone or it might relate to

    being an artist or a gamer or whatever

    the entire design of the curricular unit

    focused on Equity making it so that we

    explored in the history of the Wind

    River Reservation like some of the

    problematic things the United States

    government did and we focused on

    highlighting underrepresented voices

    from within the community and outside of

    the community and then we just

    continually iterated on things so we

    constantly got feedback we constantly

    were seeking like artwork from students

    within the community and incorporating

    that into the projects making it so that

    peers could remix each other's artwork

    with attribution of course and

    constantly checking back with is there

    any information in these resources that

    might be considered culturally sacred if

    so we need to remove them so that is one

    example of how you might be able to

    focus on inclusion principles throughout

    a like lesson plan process or curricular

    unit development Etc so I kind of did a

    little bit of a deeper dive there just

    to kind of demonstrate how you might use

    some of these ideas in case you're like

    okay well I don't create a product I

    just teach a class right but let's think

    about it in relation to creating a

    lesson think of that as your product and

    the service is teaching or facilitating

    that lesson let's get into the next sub

    action it's 5.2 prioritize accessibility

    in your products page 82 has some

    principles for accessible web content

    which talks about making a website

    perceivable operable understandable and

    robust I'd recommend checking out page

    run like a JavaScript HTML CSS course

    but sub action 5.3 is to address

    potential bias in your artifact

    intelligence AI machine learning ml

    technology if you are doing any kind of

    AI or machine learning I'd recommend

    taking a look at page 83 and 84. but 5.4

    is to consider how your company can

    mitigate harm from the application of

    your technology and if you're listening

    to that and going okay well I don't

    create technology like how's this going

    to cause harm just a scratch project

    okay let's say you engage in a project

    that only represents gender as a binary

    or presents a heteronorm in a view

    meaning all the relationships in the

    scratch project are heterosexual people

    or only presents one skin tone Etc all

    of these can cause harm in different

    ways it may serve as an unintended

    hopefully microaggression this is why I

    like curriculum development in my

    opinion is really difficult you really

    got to think through so many little

    nuances like that and more and not just

    write a lesson you need to think about

    how is it going to impact individuals in

    different groups different identities

    different cultures it's one of the

    reasons why I think teachers should be

    paid more among many other reasons it's

    hard work to consider all of that and

    it's one of the reasons why I prefer

    project-based learning among many other

    reasons Project based learning allows

    you to actually customize things rather

    than just like okay we're going to

    engage in a puzzle-based platform that

    students teachers can't adjust whatever

    characters in the game are what's in

    that game or that platform or whatever

    but if it's Project based and it's more

    interest driven okay well if there are

    biases built into a project we can

    encourage kids to remix the project and

    make it not so biased Etc alright so 5.5

    sub action is to increase representation

    and disrupt scenario types in your

    original content marketing and

    advertising so again kind of building

    off of what I mentioned previously if

    you think of your advertising your

    marketing think of like what is

    displayed in your room or on your

    website or in the curricular resources

    that you're sharing like I did an

    unpacking scholarship episode that was

    talking about how in order to try and

    eliminate some biases some curricular

    developers would use objects or

    architecture rather than people or

    animals to try and disrupt some of the

    stereotypes that might be present in

    some of the imagery used in your

    classroom think about who is displayed

    on your wall what kind of identities

    cultures ontologies are represented so

    on page 87 they have recommendations for

    focusing on who is being featured in an

    ad who is framing the narrative and the

    depth and agency of that character are

    they a caricature or is there more

    nuances to them so on that last note as

    a more recent example my wife introduced

    me to someone who knew that I was

    non-binary but they had no idea what I

    looked like they didn't know my name

    they just knew that my wife was married

    to somebody who was non-binary and when

    the person met me they were like taken

    aback by like wait your racist partner

    and while they meant no harm by it they

    clearly had this like caricature of like

    oh well a non-binary person is somebody

    with like blue hair and like facial

    piercings and yada yada I say that not

    as a critique of that person because I

    have these like caricatures built up or

    stereotypes built up of groups of people

    that I don't normally interact with so

    we need to make sure that when we are

    representing people we are not

    representing surface level caricatures

    and saying this person represents

    everybody who is within the this

    particular culture or I identity if you

    want to see some of the questions that

    they have on page 87 or things to Think

    Through I highly recommend checking that

    out alright so recommendation three is

    to share Dei data metrics and goals so

    action number six under this one is to

    support industry wide Dei reporting

    standards and share anonymized data I'd

    argue we could also do this within the

    Cs field which paper Center has done and

    I did a podcast on like here's the state

    of Cs Educators Across the Nation so

    I'll include a link to that in the show

    notes highly recommend taking a look at

    that or listening to that episode but

    how do we do this at least in this

    report okay so 6.1 sub action is at

    minimum commit to collecting tracking

    and Publishing intersectional data on

    representation hiring and nutrition now

    keyword in there is intersectional data

    not just here are data on gender within

    our classes or in our organization and

    then in a different table here are data

    on race in our classroom District

    organization Etc but looking at okay

    yeah that's great what about the the

    intersections between race and gender

    how does that break down on page 96

    there's an interesting histogram at the

    bottom that I highly recommend taking a

    look at so it shows that men earn more

    than women in general but if you look at

    the intersections of gender with race or

    ethnicity Hispanic men make about thirty

    six thousand dollars while Asian men

    make about sixty six thousand dollars so

    again check out page 96 if you want to

    see a very clear example of why

    intersectional data is important to take

    a look at but sub action 6.2 is to

    disaggregate Baseline metrics by

    function and level and align on

    definitions to ensure Apples to Apples

    comparison so this is taking a look at

    what is the function or role of

    individuals and then what is their level

    are they a director are they a manager

    are they mid or entry level are they an

    intern Etc so I guess in a school

    context it might be are they like a

    teacher's aide are they a teacher are

    they the superintendent are they an

    assistant principal are they an HR

    Director Etc so look at roles and

    functions within an organization or

    within your District to see how do we

    represent the students that we're

    actually working with or do we not and

    in what ways sub-action 6.3 is to expand

    demographics Beyond equal employment

    opportunity commission categories

    including intersectional data through

    self-id surveys now if you look at page

    ethnicity categories that shows much

    more expansive than what I've seen on

    like recent forms that I've filled out

    like medical stuff or whatever so for

    example some of the race or ethnicity

    categories are African-American or black

    East Asian Hispanic or latinx middle

    eastern Native American Alaska native

    First Nations Pacific Islander South

    Asian Southeast Asian white prefer not

    to answer and then in this section they

    talk about how it's important to make

    sure that people have the opportunity to

    select multiple categories which is an

    excellent point some of the ones that I

    filled out did not have that option so

    mixed-raced individuals had to select

    one all right sub action 6.4 is to

    leverage surveys to measure inclusion

    and employee sentiment how do people

    feel included or going back to something

    that I mentioned earlier how to people

    feel in terms of their sense of

    belonging and then their sentiment about

    working at the organization or in the

    district 6.5 is to share anonymized Dei

    data with an industry body that will

    support standardization of Dei data

    collection okay so this is really

    interesting and I'm glad to see that the

    encouraging tech companies to do this

    but this would be interesting to look at

    for like the K-pop centers report that I

    mentioned not too long ago in what ways

    might we share data about like CS

    Educators with the kpor center if you

    get their survey in the future maybe you

    set aside some time to fill it out if

    you didn't previously or sign up for

    their newsletter Etc these are some

    different ways that we can kind of model

    what is being encouraged by the industry

    within the field of Cs education the

    more data we have the more we can

    actually address some issues but to

    argue with myself there it has been

    known for a very long time that like 86

    percent roughly of like elementary

    teachers are white women and that hasn't

    really changed too much so once we have

    the data and we like report on okay well

    there's clearly some demograph traffic

    imbalance is going on here maybe we

    should take a look at how did I

    diversify things in one way we might do

    that is with goals speaking of action

    number seven is to set public goals

    how's that for transition all right so

    how do we do it so 7.1 sub action is to

    analyze your company's Dei data to

    identify discrepancies and gaps again

    what I just mentioned it's been well

    known that there's the vast majority of

    teachers are white women in the

    elementary space in particular so sub

    action 7.2 is to select meaningful

    benchmarks to determine whether goals

    are realistic On Any Given metric so now

    that we I know that 86 roughly of

    teachers Across the Nation are white

    women and by Nation I mean United States

    my apologies for everyone else and the

    rest of the world I know the world does

    not revolve around the United States I

    just also happen to know most of the

    people who listen are from the United

    States shout out to everyone who's not

    and everyone that is now one of the

    interesting things that they mentioned

    in this short section is to not only

    have external benchmarks but also

    internal benchmarks and if you're like

    wait what are those take a look at page

    ensure goals are challenging to motivate

    meaningful progress so I've done a lot

    of reviews of goals whether it's for

    like multi-million dollar Department of

    Education grants like being a grant

    reviewer for those as well as like

    something a lot less high stakes like

    setting goals within like the music

    education department in the former

    District that is in and oftentimes

    whether I'm reviewing a grant or

    engaging in those plc's but you hear

    goals like okay well we're at a like 64

    passing rate on this particular thing

    we're going to try and get to 65 by the

    end of the year like okay I mean that

    might not statistically be a good enough

    change to really strive for or is that

    really motivating meaningful progress so

    behind it set goals yes but make sure

    it's not just like I'm gonna get one

    point better and I say that as somebody

    who is like constantly trying to find

    that one percent way to improve things

    like I was mentioning saving seven

    seconds for each video that I bounce I'm

    that kind of person but to say like

    we're going going to improve our percent

    of underrepresented groups by one

    percent or something like that

    I don't know about that maybe aim for

    something a little bit loftier like 1.5

    I'm just kidding that was a joke 7.4 for

    the sub action this is ensure that goals

    are smart goals which are specific

    measurable attainable or achievable

    realistic and time-bound and there's a

    ton of resources on smart goals just

    search for a smart goal and then you can

    learn more about it 7.5 is to

    incentivize goal attainment so that's an

    interesting idea not sure how you would

    do that in a district depending on what

    your goal is because like when I think

    of like a corporate space like an

    incentive might be if you meet this goal

    we'll give you a bonus right but that

    doesn't really happen often in teaching

    although we I guess to argue with myself

    we do have like the pay for performance

    which where I was in the districts

    because I saw every kid like k36 in my

    first district and then every kid k

    through eight like I was either tied to

    a specific grade level like depending on

    how the fourth graders test that's gonna

    determine your performance pay okay

    great I guess I'll really be on my a

    game with the fourth grade fourth grade

    music classes but then others would do

    like an aggregate where it was like okay

    across the whole School here's what your

    performance pay is and that didn't

    motivate me at all because quite frankly

    I don't care how kids are doing on test

    scores I care whether or not they

    actually enjoy learning and want to

    continue to do that as opposed to if

    they like increase their reading scores

    by one percent great but do they hate

    reading now as a result of it maybe all

    right let's get into recommendation four

    which is to transform Pathways into tech

    for underrepresented talent I would

    argue that this section we could think

    of how do we transform Pathways into

    education or specifically CS education

    for underrepresented talent which I

    don't like that word talent I did a

    Content analysis on the use of the word

    over the course of things like five or

    six decades and it's so vague like some

    people view it as like this innate thing

    that you're born with that can't change

    fixed and immutable and then other

    people look at Talent as not like you

    just gotta practice so I don't know I

    would avoid that word if I were writing

    this but I'm not I'm just talking about

    it other people did the hard work I'm

    doing the easy part so in this they're

    talking about how tech companies should

    do certain things but I'm gonna modify

    this slightly to say okay well to

    diversify the Cs Educators in the

    country perhaps we should recruit from

    universities that have diverse student

    populations and we can do that by

    requesting Dei data from these

    universities or develop relationships

    with different Workforce programs that

    help prepare future teachers but I say

    this with the understanding that at this

    point districts are just happy to get

    anyone in the room with teacher

    shortages and all that stuff that's been

    going on lately so this is like an ideal

    but honestly I don't know if we'll if we

    have the capacity to really focus on

    that right now depends on where you're

    at some districts are doing great and

    they're able to focus on this others are

    not and so they're focusing on just

    getting anybody in the room regardless

    of their identities or cultures and I

    understand that Dei should be a part of

    every process I also understand like an

    administrator perspective or even a

    student and parent perspective where

    it's like yeah but there's nobody able

    to teach this class let's just find

    somebody anybody who can do that

    regardless of whether or not they

    improve diversity within the district

    but that might be a hot take so know

    that I mean it with the best intentions

    and understand that there are many

    nuances here totally on board with the

    EI being throughout everything but also

    understanding that there are other

    things to consider as well not as an

    either or but as an and yes we need to

    improve diversity and we need to make

    sure that somebody's in the classroom

    all right so action 8 is to advocate for

    computer science to be required in all

    schools so for the first sub-action that

    they recommend 8.1 is to partner with

    the expanding computer education

    Pathways esep Alliance to initiate and

    support state and district-based policy

    reform to improve CS education if you

    haven't checked out esep I will include

    a link to it in the show notes if you

    type in esep computer science I'm sure

    you'll find it within the first page of

    search results on Alta Vista I'm just

    kidding I don't even know if that exists

    anymore 8.2 recommends encouraging

    increased local state and federal

    investment in educational Equity CS

    educational policies and well-prepared

    teachers wholeheartedly agreed there I'm

    assuming the audience does as well if

    you're listening to this particular

    episode I guess this podcast in general

    I'm gonna skim by these 8.3 is a

    leverage site selection where business

    expansion to drive investment in K-12 CS

    funding this I'm very skeptical of I've

    co-authored an article that kind of

    critiques corporate influence on

    education so if you want to get really

    nerdy take a look at it it's written

    from music educators but I promise

    there's a ton of computer science in

    there builds off my work and my

    dissertation and again it's pretty nerdy

    alright so skipping on to action number

    nine this is to build systems capacity

    to create more CS teachers at all levels

    and invest in CS faculty within colleges

    of Education this is an interesting one

    so boot up the nonprofit that I work for

    has focused on in-service Educators

    helping prepare people who don't have a

    background on CS be able to teach CS but

    I see a lot of open job postings for

    colleges and universities to be able to

    help prepare not only end service like

    at The Graduate level but pre-service

    Educators to become CS Educators and

    this is great I do see that as

    potentially making it so boot up does

    not need to exist in the way that it

    currently does and I say that as like a

    good thing like the the goal is to make

    it so that boot up is irrelevant at some

    point because we've achieved our mission

    and at that point maybe pivot to focus

    on other things and I see the university

    and CS education side of things

    happening at the Collegiate level or

    pre-service as being a way to help with

    that but unlike the field that I've

    actually got all my degrees in in music

    education the people who become music

    educators typically make more than they

    would as a performing musician alone the

    opposite is the case for CS Educators so

    while there might be an overabundance at

    times of music educators in different

    locations all vying for the same high

    school job or whatever or CS education

    you could double triple quadruple your

    pay by going into industry so I honestly

    see this as being as a recurring issue

    where people who get degrees win

    relation to computer science are going

    to look at the field of Computer Science

    Education and go I don't know if I want

    to deal with all of those issues whether

    it's helicopter parents or school

    shootings or low pay or whatever so

    let's take a look at what the

    recommendations are for this so 9.1 is

    to create CS education capacity in the

    schools that prepare teachers wholly

    agree with that 9.2 is to advocate for

    and support teacher certification in

    colleges of Education I have a very

    mixed reaction to certification programs

    I've mentioned this before I am not

    considered highly qualified as an

    elementary educator because I never took

    a 100 level course on Phonics doesn't

    matter that I have a PhD I've presented

    over 100 times have a dozen Publications

    receive multiple International teaching

    Awards I'm not highly qualified at least

    in Arizona I rant about that another

    podcast so I'll leave it there and say I

    understand but also there's some

    problems with the certification system

    existing teachers to teach CS here's a

    quote from page 117. quote corporations

    compare CS professionals with teachers

    in the classroom to engage with students

    disconnected from Tech career

    opportunities fund employees to

    volunteer with schools or a half to one

    day a week leveraging Corporate social

    responsibility CSR efforts employee

    resource groups ergs and other corporate

    volunteer program resources volunteers

    learn to teach and teachers learn CS a

    win for everyone see the Microsoft

    Technology education and literacy in

    schools Telos program for an example of

    this in practice end quote so I know

    some people who do teals and I know some

    people have a background in CS who then

    went into education like check out the

    interview with Grant Smith or gt Rubble

    who's done deals both of them are

    awesome interviews and awesome people

    but I also know people who have come

    from Tech who went into the classroom

    and were not really good at it at all so

    I'm skeptical of the approach I've seen

    it work really well but in general I'd

    argue that most CS professionals don't

    have any idea of how to teach especially

    across the grade span having taught

    Evergreen kindergarten through doctoral

    student I can say that you really kind

    of approach things differently when I'm

    supervising dissertation it's very

    different than when I'm working with a

    kindergartner which is very different

    than when I'm working with a teenager

    Etc so I say this to say that it's not

    just about the content knowledge and I

    really wish people who don't have a

    background in education kind of

    understood that more it's great that you

    understand this field that you

    understand computer science it doesn't

    mean you understand how to teach at

    grade appropriate levels even if you

    have a passion for it you gotta sit in

    and learn the pedagogy you got to sit in

    and understand kids Etc but I'll get off

    of my soapbox I do want to say I do

    value people who want to give back and

    want to teach but there's a lot to learn

    in order to do it real well it's not

    just oh I understand so yes I'll be a

    great teacher maybe and sub action 9.4

    under this particular action is to work

    at an industry level to retain CS

    teachers that's going to be hard to do

    largely because page 118 mentions that

    are not satisfied with their salary and

    again in CS you could double triple

    quadruple your pay pretty quickly

    alright this is vocal Timbre number

    three as I continue to record before

    contractors arrive action number 10 is

    to invest in organizations that connect

    talent for an underrepresented groups to

    Tech careers so how do we do this this

    report suggests for sub-action 10.1 to

    increase support for building technical

    Talent pools for your Workforce by

    promoting systemic reform and funding

    students from underrepresented groups at

    institutions of higher education now in

    the episode with Andre Dowdy that

    relatively recently came out Andre

    mentioned that some school districts are

    doing this so this is definitely

    something that we can do even though

    it's mentioning like Tech Force school

    districts could do this and certainly

    like non-profits and for-profit CS

    organizations so if you want to learn

    more about suggestions for that check

    out page 120 and 121 and check out the

    interview with Andre it's a really good

    conversation for sub action 10.2 this is

    to establish relationships with

    institutions that graduate negative

    American Black and Hispanic latinx

    students promote opportunities for paid

    internships Sprint internships and

    apprenticeships with your company now

    that could certainly apply for a

    non-profit and for-profit I am curious

    what an internship or a Sprint turnship

    and apprenticeship would look like in a

    school district I know there are

    organizations like Teach for America

    that can Fast Track being able to get

    into the class to teach and then again

    with some of the more recent things

    going on in politics making it so that

    like if you're a veteran in Florida you

    can start teaching without a degree or

    background in education Etc but I'm

    really curious like what it would look

    like to have more opportunities for

    people to kind of try out teaching

    before making a commitment to go and get

    a degree so for example I started

    drumming in eighth grade then when I was

    in high school my private drum

    instructor asked me to help teach a

    middle school class this was like a

    summer program think of it like a camp

    and we would introduce middle school

    kids into percussion that was my very

    first exposure to what it was like being

    an educator and it was fun it was

    exciting I really enjoyed it and with

    that experience I was like oh I can

    actually teach this is fun and so then

    my senior year I actually started

    teaching the Drumline that I was a part

    of and then started teaching private

    lessons as well I had like 25 students

    or so on the weekends and it's

    solidified for me that oh this is

    something that I really am passionate

    about because I was spending all weekend

    teaching and then I was teaching

    throughout the week in the mornings and

    some times in the evenings for like

    Drumline rehearsals and whatnot if there

    are more opportunities to help people

    get into the field get their foot in

    before they commit to a degree I think

    that could really help out because I

    know some people who like hadn't taught

    and then they went and got a good degree

    in education and then they realized how

    difficult it was or it's just different

    than what they expected and then they

    went into like a career in sales or

    something completely different so I

    think that could help prevent some of

    the Dropout or the turnover rate if we

    have more opportunities for people to

    teach part-time before they become a

    full-time teacher but that's just one

    thought sub action 10.3 is the fun

    intermediary programs and organizations

    to help build Pathways to Tech for

    students from underrepresented groups so

    I don't know how many school districts

    would be able to do this but certainly

    some CS organizations might be able to

    help fund Pathways for more CS Educators

    like hire on and professor at a

    pre-service teacher education program

    and make it so like the first year the

    company pays like 100 of the salary and

    then like 90 the next year 80 something

    like that that way the university over

    time will take take on the full salary

    of that person but they can get started

    right away with support from a company

    and at the end of the section they

    actually have from Pages 124 to 126

    they've got a bunch of different links

    for where you can go to learn more about

    potentially doing this so I highly

    recommend checking out all the links in

    there if you're interested in it but

    then we start on page 127 they talk

    about Venture capitalists and startups I

    don't know if that's necessarily

    relevant to the audience of this podcast

    but section three on here on page 132 is

    on sustaining change and so one of the

    ways that they recommend doing that is

    to become a signatory for the ACT report

    so if you are a tech organization you

    can commit to some things that are on

    page 135 and then page 136 and Beyond is

    the appendix so it's got the

    acknowledgments glossary summary of the

    toolkits and then some endnotes now at

    the end of these episodes where I unpack

    some scholarship in relation to Computer

    Science Education I like to talk about

    some lingering questions or thoughts now

    one of the thoughts that I had is I'm

    honestly kind of skeptical when I see

    reports use phrases like quote school to

    Tech pathway end quote by ensuring quote

    that every student has a fundamental

    Math and Science backgrounds to study CS

    end quote from page 16. I'd argue that

    not all CS requires a background in math

    or science a lot of what I've done with

    like game modding and app development

    required like no Science Background a

    little bit of physics kind of helped or

    some things that I was doing which is

    where I like okay I could see some math

    depending on what you're doing but most

    of the programs that I made required

    like basic Edition maybe some

    subtraction maybe some multiplication so

    I'm always skeptical of stuff like that

    I totally understand you need to be able

    to use like calculus and other things in

    CS or at least you can and I totally see

    that there are plenty of connections

    with science at least there can be but I

    don't think it's a requirement and I

    also am very skeptical when it's a

    school to Tech pathway I don't think

    everyone needs to go into Tech Career

    just because people are using something

    doesn't mean they need to know how it

    works like I'm sitting in a comfortable

    chair right now I don't need to know how

    to build this chair but again I

    understand the sentiment it's just when

    it's like these hyperbolic statements

    where it's like everyone needs to do

    this thing it's the most important thing

    ever I disagree degree and I think it

    can turn people away because people can

    easily go ah I don't know about that and

    then it kind of diffuses the argument so

    another question I have is when we say a

    diverse Workforce what does that mean to

    you do you think of someone's race

    gender sexuality geographic location

    socioeconomic status ethnicity languages

    spoken disability their age

    neurodiversity veteran status education

    level immigration status religion

    political alignment marital status level

    of experience dependency status are they

    a dog or cat person Etc what about the

    intersections of all these different

    identities what does a diverse class

    look like in school when the school

    itself might not be very diverse

    according to the demographic data that

    is being collected and then if one

    person is the only person who is

    teaching a subject in a school like

    computer science what can you do to

    expand the diversity of adults teaching

    that subject that is being represented

    within that school far too often I see

    diversity statements center around race

    gender maybe sexuality but really none

    of the other stuff that I mentioned like

    why are we not talking about disability

    or veteran status when it comes to

    Identity and cultures there's so many

    more layers like I just listed I don't

    know like a dozen things right there but

    that's just the tip of the iceberg of

    what makes up somebody's culture or

    cultures or identity not related to that

    there's a tendency when some people

    advocate for diversity to be vague in

    what's being asked for so how can we as

    individuals or as a field clarify goals

    to strive toward for example I've heard

    some say an organization or a like panel

    of speakers isn't very diverse and when

    I ask what they mean by that they

    usually go with what they can see in a

    picture and this becomes problematic for

    many aspects in terms of lack of depth

    and in terms of misidentifying people so

    example labeling myself as male when I'm

    very open about being non-binary but

    then also it's just it's skimming the

    surface on what it means to be a human

    and it reduces people to like one or two

    categories race and gender when we are

    far more complex entities than just two

    demographic categories they are two very

    important demographic categories but

    they are not the only ones so if you had

    a panel of all black women speakers you

    might look at that and go well that's

    not very diverse but then you realize oh

    well they're diverse in terms of

    sexuality they're diverse in terms of

    Veteran status education level their

    political alignment number of languages

    spoken Etc like there's so many more

    nuances that we can look at there than

    just oh it's all black women but if we

    start looking at all those different

    intersections and different layers of

    identities it becomes a little bit

    harder to talk about it is I will admit

    much easier to just focus on one or two

    categories rather than a bunch so I

    understand why people do it and I

    certainly understand why it's important

    to talk about race and gender because

    there are so many things that are

    systemically set up to be advantageous

    for some races or genders and

    disadvantages for others so those

    structural barriers need to be addressed

    but they're also structural barriers

    with all the other demographic

    categories in dimension like think about

    being a convict who served your time in

    jail how difficult is it for you to get

    a job after that I mean if if you're

    considered to be 100 reformed you paid

    your dues back to society ID by serving

    time there are so many barriers for you

    after that and it's not often discussed

    another question that I have is when is

    the purpose of education for getting a

    job and when is it not how do we balance

    the two across the entire formalized

    education grade span like when I worked

    with primary kids my goal was to just

    show them how fun learning could be and

    then with college students it was more

    on Career so something to think about

    should I consider career development in

    kindergarten should I consider it in

    depends on the students that you're

    working before but this podcast went way

    too long I hope you enjoyed this and I

    hope you consider taking a look at the

    ACT report and you can find a link to

    this paper at jaredoleery.com where

    there's like 160 some odd podcast

    episodes there are a bunch of interviews

    with some really amazing people so make

    sure you check those out and a bunch

    more unpacking scholarship episodes if

    you enjoyed this episode I know it was a

    little bit different please consider

    sharing with a friend or leaving a

    review stay tuned next week for another

    episode as long as I can record it

    before contractors get here thank you so

    much for listening I hope you're all

    staying safe and are having a wonderful

    week

Report

Catalyze Tech Working Group. “The ACT Report: Action to Catalyze Tech, A Paradigm Shift for DEI.” Published by the Aspen Institute and Snap Inc. October 2021. Available online at ACTReport.com

Preface

“The research findings here represent years of work by experts in the field of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and business, and have been extensively peer reviewed. Experts in the Working Group met biweekly for a year to aggregate the most relevant evidence-based approaches that businesses can take to radically improve DEI outcomes. If DEI is a journey, the ACT Report aims to sit where the rubber hits the road. We know how hard it can be. The good news: there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we build on findings from dozens of experts and organizations to create a rigorous framework of action. While this report addresses issues specific to the tech industry, it also provides a road map for businesses of all kinds. Similarly, although we focus where many large tech companies are headquartered—the United States—our message is global. We recognize that different companies are at very different stages in their journey, and one size never fits all. We also know DEI represents an extraordinary opportunity. This report is a call to action during a transformational moment for business ethics and leadership. In 2020, most tech CEOs and leaders—indeed, most businesses—pledged to improve DEI. But real change requires a paradigm shift—newfound courage to change systems and mindsets. We invite people across the tech sector and beyond to use the tools here to act boldly and collaboratively on the defining issue of our day: equity.”

My One Sentence Summary

This report provides suggestions for businesses that would like to improve DEI in ways that are relevant to CS organizations and educators.

Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • I’m skeptical when I see reports use phrases like “school-to-tech pathway” by ensuring “that every student has the fundamental math and science background to study CS.” (p. 16)

    When we say a diverse workforce, what does that mean to you?

    • What does a diverse class look like in a school that’s not very diverse?

      • When one person is the only one teaching a subject in a school, what can you do to expand the diversity of adults teaching CS that are represented within that school?

  • There is a tendency when some people advocate for diversity to be vague in what’s being asked for, so how can we as individuals or as a field clarify goals to strive toward?

  • When is the purpose of education for getting a job and when is it not?

    • How do we balance the two across the entire formalized education grade span?

Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode

  • Other podcast episodes that were mentioned or are relevant to this episode

    • Accessibility and Inclusion in CS Education with Maya Israel

      • In this interview with Maya Israel, we discuss Maya’s shift from special education into CS education, the importance of universal design for learning (UDL) in CS classes, understanding the spectrum of accessibility for students with a diverse set of needs, the current status of accessibility and inclusion within the field of CS education, problematize deficit framings of students with disabilities, and so much more.

    • Designing Curricula at Scale with GT Wrobel

      • In this interview with GT Wrobel, we discuss the importance of understanding your “why” behind pedagogical approaches and curriculum design, the internal tensions that arise when designing curriculum used by people around the world, the potential for standards and assessment to be a form of oppression, how feedback impacts the evolution of a curriculum, considerations when designing culturally relevant curricula that is used around the world, aligning curriculum development with professional development, the importance of taking a break to prevent burnout, where we hope the field goes in the next few years, and much more.

    • Exploring (Dis)Ability and Connecting with the Arts with Jesse Rathgeber

      • In this interview with Jesse Rathgeber, we discuss what educators should know about (dis)ability culture and research, person-first language vs identity-first language, suggestions for combating ableism through anti-ableist practices, how the arts and CS can come together and learn from each other (great for sharing with arts educators who might be interested in CS), and much more.

    • How to Get Started with Computer Science Education

      • In this episode I provide a framework for how districts and educators can get started with computer science education for free.

    • Images of Curriculum

      • In this episode I unpack an excerpt from Schubert’s (1986) book titled “Curriculum: Perspective, paradigm, and possibility,” which describes different examples, intents, and criticisms of “images” or “characterizations” of curriculum.

    • Intersections of Cultural Capital with Kimberly Scott

      • In this interview with Kimberly Scott, we discuss some of the problems with discourse around grit, students as techno-social change agents, teaching with culturally responsive approaches in communities that are hostile toward culturally responsive pedagogies, unpacking discourse and Discourse, considering both present and future identities when teaching, potential disconnects between theory and practice with intersectional work, comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comforted, and so much more.

    • Lessons Learned From CSTA Chapters Across the United States with Jason Bohrer

      • In this interview with Jason Bohrer, we discuss lessons learned coming into computer science education from another subject area, lessons learned working with CSTA chapters across the country (and during a pandemic), how CSTA has impacted the field and continues to evolve over time, how Jason continued to learn about CS without getting burned out, considering equity and inclusion when recruiting for CS education, CSTA’s new CS Teacher Standards, and much more.

    • Lessons Learned from (In)Formal CS Education with Grant Smith

      • In this interview with Grant Smith, we discuss the importance of continuing to learn from other educators, what informal and formal learning spaces can learn from each other, how COVID has impacted Grant’s teaching philosophy, our preferences for in-person or virtual professional development and classroom instruction, lessons learned from entrepreneurial adventures in CS education, learning by jumping in and trying new things, heuristic-based learning, and so much more.

    • Reconceptualizing “Music Making:” Music Technology and Freedom in the Age of Neoliberalism

      • In this episode I unpack Benedict and O’Leary’s (2019) publication titled “Reconceptualizing “music making:” Music technology and freedom in the age of Neoliberalism,” which explores the use of computer science practices to counter neoliberal influence on education.

    • Re-examining Inequalities in Computer Science Participation from a Bourdieusian Sociological Perspective

      • In this episode I unpack Kallia and Cutts’ (2021) publication titled “Re-examining inequalities in computer science participation from a Bourdieusian sociological perspective,” which uses Bourdieu’s discussions of capital, habitus, and field to analyze 147 publications on CS interventions.

    • See, What Had Happened with Andre Daughty

      • In this interview with Andre Daughty, we discuss how an educator in Andre’s life sparked a passion that led to a career in education, representation in education, thoughts on what’s holding back the field of education, setting boundaries when communicating with people who are being disrespectful, taking care of yourself to prevent burnout, the Mamba mentality, Andre’s intentionality with improving as a public speaker, the importance of play in learning, growing a podcast audience, and so much more.

    • The Computer Science Teacher Landscape: Results of a Nationwide Teacher Survey

      • In this episode I unpack Koshy, Martin, Hinton, Scott, Twarek, and Davis’ (2021) publication titled “The Computer Science Teacher Landscape: Results of a Nationwide Teacher Survey,” which provides recommendations for the field based on a summary of findings on teacher demographics, current challenges for CS educators, and the state of cultural relevance in CS education.

    • More episodes related to diversity

    • More episodes related to equity

    • More episodes related to inclusion

    • All other episodes

  • Learn more about CSTA’s Equity Fellowship

  • Listen to Carol Dweck talk about growth mindset in a TED talk

  • Learn more about ECEP

  • Find other CS educators and resources by using the #CSK8 hashtag on Twitter

More Content

Unpacking ScholarshipJared O'LearyDiversity, Equity, InclusionComment