At SIGCSE 2022 we reported on a grant funded CSforAll project to develop comprehensive and sustained college-high school partnerships focused on building computer science (CS) teacher capacity and broadening participation in high school CS classrooms. The partnerships involve a wide range of districts including high-needs and small rural ones. In this paper we first provide an update on this distinctive and successful project. Grant funding ended in 2022, however the project continues to grow and evolve. Led by faculty at a small liberal arts college, some of the results are stunning and demonstrate the impact a small college can have. For example, in the last three years the number of partner school districts has increased from 23 to 54. The teacher retention rate is 95%, with the most veteran teachers belonging to the partnership for almost ten years. This update includes two additional years of data on student experiences in their CS classes. Second, we provide suggestions and encouragement for replicating this work. The project provides a model that can be used by other colleges and universities for building long-term partnerships with schools to improve CS education. Important components of this model include summer and school year professional development, curriculum and support for four CS courses, a dual-enrollment program, teacher CS certification pathways, and a professional learning community. We offer suggestions and identify opportunities and challenges for those interested in developing a similar program.

We present a new high school level computer science (CS) curriculum that is a key component of a comprehensive college/high school partnerships program supporting secondary CS education in New York State. The year-long curriculum offers a broad introduction to CS and is designed using best practices for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. It was collaboratively designed and implemented by a team of college CS faculty and high school CS teachers participating in a research-practice partnership. This year (AY2023-2024) the curriculum is being taught in 27 school districts representing high-needs, rural, and suburban communities. Preliminary analysis of student data is included.

Previous research on belonging in computer science offers insights into the role that stereotypes play in reducing females' sense of belonging or fit in computer science (CS), which has been associated with their significant underrepresentation in the field. Drawing upon mixed methods (surveys and interviews), this study explores the quantitative variables associated with a sense of belonging for females in high school CS courses and provides qualitative insights from students to help explain why these factors matter. Pre/post survey analysis indicates that the courses are contributing to reducing pre-course gender gaps in students' perceived efficacy and belonging in a CS classroom. The surveys also suggest that females were more engaged and developed stronger relationships with teachers. And yet, females' commitments to continuing with CS had no statistically significant changes. Student interviews provide important context regarding the quantitative findings and describe how positive relationships with a female teacher, collaborative work and inclusive teaching practices played key roles in promoting a classroom sense of belonging for females. Overall, these results suggest that an academically engaging and socioemotionally supportive experience in a computer science course can reduce gender gaps and foster females' sense of belonging in the classroom even if they retain some reservations over their long-term fit in the field. The findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the factors that promote equitable experiences for females in CS and the relationship between classroom level belonging and long-term fit in computer science.

Expanding access to and engaging diverse groups of students in high school computer science (CS) classes depends on qualified CS teachers. In this paper, we describe how faculty at our liberal arts college built CS teacher capacity at over 20 school districts through comprehensive college/high school partnerships. The majority of these districts serve rural or high-needs students, groups underrepresented in CS classrooms. The program works primarily with in-service teachers from other disciplines, helping them develop the expertise to teach CS. It is comprehensive in that it includes curricula and professional development for a high school level CS course and a dual-enrollment college level CS course, pathways to CS certification, community events, and opportunities for teacher leadership and collaboration. These modes of engagement are structured so that novice and veteran teachers and college faculty have opportunities to interact in different capacities over several years to create a robust professional learning community. Initial survey results show increasing levels of teacher confidence and sense of belonging, and increasing student confidence in their CS abilities.

Mathematics requirements for computer science students vary broadly by institution. The general question of what mathematics should be required of computer science majors naturally leads to more specific questions such as: What mathematics content should be required? What mathematical concepts? Should the theory of computation be required? Should calculus, discrete mathematics, probability, and/or linear algebra? What impact do newer fields such as data science and machine learning have on the mathematics needed or required for computer science majors? What are faculty members doing to integrate mathematics into their computer science courses and does this help some students overcome difficulties learning the mathematics? What level of mathematical maturity should a computer science graduate attain? In this session, participants will share their answers to these questions with the goal of coming to a broader understanding of how mathematics informs the discipline. Through this discussion, we will try to reconcile our idealized curriculum with the practical reality of requirements, dependencies, and limits imposed by our institutions.

We describe a new methods of teaching computer science (CS) course tailored for mathematics education majors but also applicable to others interested in teaching CS. Goals of the course are enhancing their ability and confidence in developing and offering CS courses at high schools and starting CS courses at high schools that do not offer them. The course involves a combination of reading, programming, lesson/unit plan development, code reviews, and discussion of the various paradigms for introducing CS at the secondary level. Results indicate the course enhances the students' confidence, ability, and preparation for teaching CS in high schools.

In this paper we show how an engaging problem can be used in both a discrete mathematics course and a programming course as a way to expose students to multiple methods of inquiry and to strengthen the links between the two courses. Since students typically take Discrete Mathematics and a programming course simultaneously, this is an opportunity for them to analyze a problem from multiple perspectives during a single semester. We describe how we have accomplished this using a relatively new problem that is easily stated and has a surprising solution that defies intuition. In the programming course, students experienced a design/empirical approach to the problem by implementing simulations of various solutions and collecting experimental results. By adjusting the emphasis of the programming assignment, we show that it can fit naturally into a range of programming courses, i.e. courses on introductory programming, data structures, and object-oriented techniques. In the Discrete Mathematics course, students analyzed solutions using tools from counting, probability, and calculus. We observed that by linking the two courses using a common problem, our students were more cognizant of inquiry methods and student engagement increased.