The arrival of generative AI in schools has altered the education landscape in myriad ways and raises issues from the pedagogical to the ethical. In this context, the perceptions of teachers regarding whether, what, and how students should be taught about AI are important to consider. For this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with several dozen teachers, representing a wide variety of teaching contexts. Our analysis of the interviews revealed that most teachers support student learning about AI, but that their reasoning varied substantially. Rationales for supporting education around AI included encouraging best practices for AI use, preparing students for their futures, equipping students to critically evaluate AI output, and promoting academic integrity, among others. Other teachers were less supportive of AI education, worried that encouraging its use would engender over-reliance on it. Teachers also expressed a variety of perspectives on the ways in which AI might either help or harm learning, augmenting concerns about what and how students are taught about these tools. These educator perspectives constitute an important contribution toward the wider conversation about AI in schools.

Computer Science (CS) equity initiatives in high schools are increasingly common, but their evaluation remains challenging due to a lack of specialized assessment tools. Existing tools for general education evaluation often fail to address the unique aspects of CS education. This study addresses this gap by leveraging the Experience lens of the CAPE framework (Capacity, Access, Participation, and Experience) to develop a survey tool in collaboration with educators in a Researcher-Practitioner Partnership. These survey questions are designed to capture nuanced data about students' CS experiences, which generic survey tools could overlook.

Improving equity in K-12 Computer Science (CS) education benefits from the collaboration of classroom teachers, school counselors, and school leaders. This paper presents the outcomes of a pilot program that brought together cross-functional teams consisting of CS teachers, school counselors, and administrators. Over the course of a year, these teams attended monthly, equity-focused workshops, leveraging pre-existing materials from affordable, high-quality, research-based programs. The use of these resources demonstrated benefits of sequencing and synthesizing existing programs. Evidence from surveys and interviews shows that the workshops promoted learning and fostered collaboration between the cross-functional teams that would not have happened otherwise. Participants were motivated by the program, and they generated ideas that turned into actionable projects to promote CS education equity in their schools. While the initiative was well received, areas for improvement were identified, particularly, in school recruitment, workshop structure, and evaluation. This pilot initiative demonstrates that equity-centered programs comprised of cross-functional teams can help achieve systemic improvement of CS education equity.

While there is growing recognition of the need to support young learners as they develop computational thinking (CT) skills, this paper advocates for an increased focus on computational identity (CI) and digital empowerment (DE) in particular, as we posit that these CT skills will help young learners become self-motivated, innovative creators. When nurturing identity and empowerment, it is a persistent challenge to provide youth with real-world experiences and suitable development tools. This paper advances two key approaches to address these issues: 1) A critical computational literacy approach to engage youth in developing personally meaningful applications that have impact in the real world; 2) the use of a tool, like MIT App Inventor, that lowers barriers to creating useful, impactful technology. Using two case-based studies, we show how these two approaches have supported youth in developing applications that respond to meaningful challenges in their communities and helped them to establish their computational identities and digital empowerment.

Ubiquitous Games (UbiqGames) are browser-based multi-player games played primarily on mobile devices. UbiqGames are designed to be played outside of formal class time and over several days, alongside more traditional instruction in the topics covered in the games. Teachers can use class time to facilitate thoughtful reflection on game strategies and data generated through gameplay. In the UbiqGame Weatherlings, players collect virtual creature cards and "battle" other players in arenas based on real cities, which feature the cities' meteorological data from the recent past. Success in the game requires players to consider climate conditions and do short-term forecasting from this real weather data. In this pilot study, 20 Singaporean 10 and 11 year-olds played Weatherlings using mobile devices over four days, playing primarily outside formal class time. Survey and interview data, combined with server logs, demonstrate positive outcomes for students including strong appeal and high engagement, increased interest in weather, and self-reported improvement in weather prediction skills. Outcomes suggest opportunities for additional research around UbiqGames to probe this new model for game-centered learning.