CS4ALL: EQUITY INITATIVES

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Supporting CS4All Equity Initiatives 

Computer Science for All Initiative New York City (CS4All NYC), with whom TYTHE has collaborated since 2015, is a 10-year, $80 million plan to bring computer science (CS) education to each of NYC’s 1.1 million public school students. You can read more about our original case study here.

TYTHE originally worked with them to support the collaborative development of the CS4ALL NYC Blueprint with NYC teachers, a detailed resource that aligns with the New York State K12 Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards. Once this tool was completed, CS4All shifted its focus to scaling this work across every single New York City public school, and TYTHE shifted with them. As part of this shift, the team developed the CS4All equity initiative that prioritizes breaking down gender and racial barriers by focusing on female, Black, and Latinx students and paves the pathway to greater diversity and equality for tech jobs in the workplace.

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OUR STRATEGY

TYTHE’s goal for this project was to be a thought leader and capacity-builder with CS4All across all of their equity initiatives. Throughout our collaboration, we were not only creating content, but also looking for opportunities to build DOE staff capacity. TYTHE worked in tandem with the client to identify opportunities to support their vision, programs, and team with the specific aim of ensuring scalability across the city and measuring success and impact. This required the TYTHE team to increase our own learning around Culturally Responsive Sustaining Education and build our racial literacy skills. Through coaching and capacity-building, specifically through the lens of stakeholder engagement, we ensured that CS4All team members’ perspectives and expertise was utilized. 

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THE OUTCOME

Strategic Planning: Theory of Change & Initiatives 

This partnership culminated with a completed CS4ALL Equity Theory of Change and supporting materials to bolster CS4All’s work across all stakeholders, particularly when it came to organizational change management. The client specifically wanted to focus on being less reactionary, identifying immediate needs, and building towards long-term goals. The Theory of Change will also help them improve their articulation of their plans for the ongoing growth and sustainability to teachers, leaders, and other stakeholders in a way that supports buy-in and investment.

Programs & Events: Stakeholder Engagement 

Over the last three years, TYTHE has supported CS4All Equity in the planning and leading of 21 events, connecting with more than 1,500 educators. In our role as coach, we helped ensure mutually beneficial experiences for stakeholders, speakers, and CS4ALL team members. These events ranged from an in-person, full-day conference about why women are important in CS to discussions with key leaders, such as Colson Whitehead, on the power of teachers of color in CS. 

Communications: Equity Website & Remote Learning Guide 

As the initiative grew over the years, the CS4All team sought new ways to archive their resources, share their initiative, and be a thought leader in CR-SE. TYTHE codesigned a website, complete with a platform for ongoing education and engagement. Additionally, we designed a series of materials featured on the site such as guides and workbooks. While all of these resources were shared across the CS4All network, several were mandatory for use by every CS4All educator.

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Client: NYC Department of Education

Collaborators: Hillary Clark, Kristina Drury, and Hans Callenbach 

Year: 2018-2022