PD Provider Summits

In-Person Summit

We hope that you can join us for our July in-person PD Provider Summit, on Friday, July 11, during the CSTA Annual conference in Cleveland, OH. We’ll come together to build community, share experiences, and learn about our different approaches to providing PD in the rapidly changing CS Education landscape. We’ll begin with a discussion of the upcoming standards revisions, and hear from PD Committee members how they are planning to adapt their programs for these changes. After the keynote and a break for the provided lunch, we will dedicate time to discuss how providers are creatively adapting their methods in response to research-based practices and changes in education. Want to contribute to the conversation? We encourage you to contribute suggestions for short presentations and birds-of-a-feather breakout sessions on the registration form.

Details

• Date: Friday, July 11, 2025
• Time: 8:00am – 2:30pm ET (breakfast and lunch included)
• Location: Room 26C in Cleveland, Ohio at the CSTA Conference
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development and curriculum at scale
• CS Teacher Standards Alignment: 2a. Examine issues of equity in CS; 2b. Minimize threats to inclusion; 4b. Develop standards-aligned learning experiences

Agenda

Shifting Landscapes

The evolving educational landscape across the United States has presented new considerations for curriculum and professional development (PD) . While the Standards for CS Teachers and CSTA’s core values continue to underscore the importance of equity and inclusion for effective computer science educators, recent shifts in educational policies are impacting how these topics can be addressed in PD. This discussion-based summit offers a timely opportunity for PD providers to share their immediate experiences and emerging strategies for navigating these recent changes while upholding a commitment to equitable practices. We will dedicate time to discuss how providers are adapting their approaches in response to the latest developments. Additionally, we encourage you to contribute suggestions for birds-of-a-feather breakout sessions on the registration form, including any other pressing topics arising from the most recent shifts in our field.

Details

• Date: Friday, May 16, 2025 (rescheduled from April 18)
• Time: 12:00 to 2:00 pm ET
• Location: Zoom (virtual) – link will be shared directly with registrants
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development and curriculum at scale
• CS Teacher Standards Alignment: 2a. Examine issues of equity in CS; 2b. Minimize threats to inclusion; 4b. Develop standards-aligned learning experiences

Agenda

Teaching Impacts and Ethics of Computing

Join us online to hear how professional development providers around the country have taught the ethics and impacts of computing to CS educators and students. We’ll share challenges and successes and exchange ideas for increasing participation and engaging educators.Details

Details

• Date: Friday, January 17, 2025
• Time: 12:00 to 2:00 pm ET
• Location: Zoom (virtual) – link will be shared directly with registrants
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development and curriculum at scale
• CS Teacher Standards Alignment: 1f. Analyze impacts of computing; 4a. Analyze CS curricula; 4b. Develop standards-aligned learning experiences

Agenda

Computing: The Shifting Landscape

Join us online to discuss Computing: The Shifting Landscape as we explore the most recent State of CS Report and investigate updates to CS standards and priorities. We’ll share challenges and successes and exchange ideas for increasing participation and engaging educators.

Details

• Date: Friday, November 1, 2024
• Time: 12:00 to 2:00 pm ET
• Location: Zoom (virtual) – link will be shared directly with registrants
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development and curriculum at scale
• CS Teacher Standards Alignment: 4c. Design inclusive learning experiences

Agenda

Beyond CS Knowledge and Skills

We will meet at the CSTA Annual Conference in Las Vegas on July 16-19, 2024 for a longer, in-person summit. Join us for Beyond Computer Science Knowledge and Skills as we move beyond traditional computer science skill-building in teacher PD. We’ll delve into the critical aspects of teacher identity, equity and inclusion, classroom practice, and professional growth, which are often overlooked keys to unlocking greater professional learning.

Provide networking opportunities to connect, share ideas, and collaborate on initiatives aimed at advancing equity, inclusion, and excellence in education.

Details

• Date: Tuesday, July 16, 2024
• Time: 11:00 am to 4:00 pm PT
• Location: Summit 211, Caesars Forum, Las Vegas, NV
• Cost: Free, including lunch!
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development and curriculum at scale
• CS Teacher Standards Alignment:
  • 2 – Equity and Inclusion
  • 3 – Professional Growth & Identity
  • 4 – Instructional Design
  • 5 – Classroom Practice
• Objectives:
  • Engage in interactive sessions featuring expert presenters to gain valuable insights, strategies, and best practices to enhance teacher professional development initiatives.
  • Join collaborative discussions and reflective exercises, fostering the application of summit insights to their respective professional development programs.
  • Reflect on how identity-inclusive computing tenets are incorporated within teacher PD.
  • Develop familiarity with the CSTA’s Standards for CS Teachers and the CSTA PD Alignment Rubric, with emphasis on how teacher standards 4 and 5 improve outcomes for both teachers and students. 

Agenda

Incorporating UDL and HLPs in CS Teacher PD – Part 2

In our next CS PD Provider summit on Friday, April 12, we will continue conversations from our January summit, where Dr. Maya Israel presented on applying universal design for learning (UDL) and high-leverage practices (HLPs) to CS teacher PD. (You can catch up by watching the recording or viewing resources from this summit.)

A panel of PD providers will share their range of experiences with planning, developing, and implementing UDL and HLPs specifically in their CS teacher PD programs. Dr. Israel will facilitate a discussion to help us understand their best practices, processes, and next steps for making PD more accessible and effective. We will challenge you to consider how you can take one action to incorporate UDL and HLPs in your upcoming PD.

As always, we’ll end with an open-ended birds of a feather (BOF) session, and incorporate lots of time to meet and greet with fellow providers. We hope to see you there!

Details

• Date: Friday, April 12, 2024
• Time: 12:00 to 2:00 pm ET
• Location: Zoom (virtual) – link will be shared directly with registrants
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development and curriculum at scale
• CS Teacher Standards Alignment: 4c. Design inclusive learning experiences

Agenda

Incorporating UDL and HLPs in CS Teacher PD – Part 1

As PD and curriculum providers, you may already be well versed in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and High Leverage Practices (HLPs) as ways to support the needs of all learners, including those with disabilities*. However, have you thought carefully about how you use these strategies within teacher professional development? Doing so is important to both support learner variability among the diverse teacher audience in PD and to model the instruction practices that they should in turn implement in their classrooms.

Please join our next CSTA PD Provider Summit on Friday, January 19, 2024, where Dr. Maya Israel from the University of Florida will present on incorporating UDL and HLPs in your CS teacher PD. She will share her team’s vast experience and resources and prompt conversation among providers to share the strategies they already use and discuss new ideas they have. 

As always, we’ll end with an open-ended birds of a feather (BOF) session, and incorporate lots of time to meet and greet with fellow providers. We hope to see you there!

Details

• Date: Friday, January 19, 2024
• Time: 12:00 to 2:00 pm ET
• Location: Zoom (virtual) – link will be shared directly with registrants
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development and curriculum at scale
• CS Teacher Standards Alignment: 4c. Design inclusive learning experiences

Agenda

Hosting Equity-focused PD in the Current Political Climate

The last few years have seen many parts of the United States pass laws limiting or outlawing curriculum and PD that include DEI topics. Yet, equity and inclusion are essential to the knowledge and skills of effective CS teachers, as delineated in the Standards for CS Teachers and in one of CSTA’s core values. This has created a complicated landscape in which providers must decide how to create PD aligned to their current political landscape. In this summit, several PD providers will share their own experiences and strategies navigating the current context while maintaining a focus on equity. As always, we will have plenty of time for discussion with other providers, including on other topics of interest, so please add your suggestions for birds-of-a-feather breakouts in the registration form.

Details

• Date: Friday, October 6, 2023
• Time: 12:00 to 2:00 pm ET
• Location: Zoom (virtual) – link will be shared directly with registrants
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development and curriculum at scale
• CS Teacher Standards Alignment: 2a. Examine issues of equity in CS; 2b. Minimize threats to inclusion; 3e. Leverage community resources; 3f. Participate in CS professional learning communities

Agenda

Resources

• Directory (bottom of this page)
• DIY music instruments
• Join the CSAccess working group
• Inclusion and Education: Textbooks and Inclusion (2020)

Evolving with Changing Times

For our 5th annual CSTA Provider Summit we invite you to join old friends (and yes, some new friends!) to look ahead to the new horizons of the CS education movement and how that impacts providers. As always, you’ll have plenty of time to connect with your peers at other providers to build community and share ideas, and we’ll also have three excellent presentations to spur reflection and conversation. 

• Shana White of the Kapor Center will present new resources to help us design curriculum and PD with a culturally responsive sustaining focus. 
• Jen Manly of CSTA will share ways she uses social media to reach a new generation of teachers and students. 
• Dianne O’Grady-Cunniff of the Maryland Center of Computing Education will lead an interactive session on using LLMs to spur creativity when designing CS materials. 

Throughout we’ll have mini-presentations to share important updates on new initiatives from CSTA and beyond, and as always we’ll end with a birds-of-a-feather so you can meet with peers and discuss whatever’s most important to you. CSTA is happy to provide free snack boxes to enjoy at home to keep your energy up! We hope you’ll join us for good conversations, good friends, some exciting topics, and a chance to look ahead to what’s next in CS education.

Details

• Date: Friday, July 14, 2023, following the 2023 CSTA Annual Conference
• Time: 11:00 to 2:30 pm ET (8:00 to 11:30am PT)
• Location: Zoom (virtual)
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development and curriculum at scale
• Goals: Build community, share best practices, solve collective challenges, and exchange ideas.
• CS Teacher Standards Alignment: 4b. Develop standards-aligned learning experiences, 4c. Design inclusive learning experiences, 3e. Leverage community resources, 3f. Participate in CS professional learning communities, 3a. Pursue targeted professional development

Agenda

Responsible Provider-ing in the Face of AI Hype

The last several months of excitement around AI technology has us providers facing many questions from teachers, education leaders, students, and parents. Should the education system be evolving (or rapidly pivoting?) to incorporate AI? Where do these topics belong in the already overpacked curriculum? Should newly-developed tools be rapidly ushered into classrooms, and is this even feasible? As curriculum and PD providers, you have the opportunity and responsibility to help influence these conversations in ways that help bring exciting new topics to classrooms while thinking critically about the technical, ethical, and logistical concerns that come with introducing any new topic. Join us for a presentation on how other providers have approached these questions before and have an open conversation with other providers about how they’re reacting to AI hype. As always we’ll end with an open-ended BOF and incorporate lots of time to meet and greet with fellow providers. We hope to see you there!

Details

• Date: Friday, April 21, 2023
• Time: 2:00 to 4:00 pm ET
• Location: Zoom (virtual)
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development at scale
• Goals: Build community, share best practices, solve collective challenges, and exchange ideas.
• Focus: Responsible Provider-ing in the Face of AI Hype 
• CS Teacher Standards Connections: 1e. Develop programs and interpret algorithms, 1f. Analyze impacts of computing

Agenda

Resources

• Slides & collaborative notes (embedded below)
• from Dianne: What educators want to know about AI
• from Charlotte: aiEDU.org: Challenges, AI in 5 minutes, Warmups, AI Toolkits
• from Sarah: AI4All Curriculum, Scratch Face Sensing, Calypso for Cozmo
• #csk8 podcast episodes with Charlotte & Sarah
• AI4K12: Guidelines

Responding to Results from the CS Teacher Landscape Survey

Details

• Date: Friday, February 3, 2023
• Time: 2:00 to 4:00 pm ET
• Location: Zoom (virtual)
• Cost: Free
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development at scale
• Goals: Build community, share best practices, solve collective challenges, and exchange ideas.
• Focus: What can we learn from the results of a landscape survey of PreK-12 CS teachers? How might we use data from this landscape survey to best support teachers in our programs?

Agenda

Resources

• CS Teacher Landscape (Kapor Center and CSTA)
• Slide Deck and Collaborative Notes (embedded below)

Better Integrating Identity-Inclusive Computing in PD

Details

• Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022
• Time: 12:30 to 4:30 pm CT
• Location: McCormick Place West, Chicago, IL (room W184bc)
• Cost: Free, with lunch provided!
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development at scale
• Goals: Build community, share best practices, solve collective challenges, and exchange ideas.
• Focus: Standard 2. Equity & Inclusion: How do we better integrate tenets of identity-inclusive computing education in our (curriculum + PD) programs?

Agenda

Resources

• Slide Deck (embedded below)
• Graphic Organizer (AiiCE Tenets)
• BOF Discussion Sign-up
• Alliance for Identity Inclusive Computing Education (AiiCE)
• State of CS Report (Code.org, CSTA, and ECEP)
• CS Teacher Landscape (Kapor Center and CSTA)
• CSTA Guidelines for Accessibility of PD & Meetings
• AccessComputing

Designing for Accessibility

As a community, we have an important need to improve accessibility in K-12 CS education, and curriculum PD providers play a critical role in enabling teachers to meet their students’ needs. Come learn about designing for accessibility from a leading expert, UW Professor Emeritus Dr. Richard Ladner, and then engage in breakouts to discuss and learn from each other on this topic. We will also organize Birds of a Feather (BOF) sessions for informal conversation about common areas of interest. This event will be held in Zoom, is free to attend, and is completely virtual. See the agenda below for more information.

Details

• Date: Friday, May 13, 2022
• Time: 2:00 to 4:00pm ET (11:00am to 1:00pm PT)
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development at scale
• Goals: Build community, share best practices, solve collective challenges, and exchange ideas.
• Focus: Indicator 2e. Use accessible instructional materials from the CSTA Standards for CS Teachers: Evaluate tools and curricula and leverage resources to improve accessibility for all students.

Agenda

Resources

• Slide Deck and Collaborative Notes (embedded below)
• Teacher to Teacher accessibility in CS video series:
  • Teaching CS to Blind and Visually Impaired Students  |  Slides
  • Teaching CS to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students  |  Slides
  • Teaching CS to Students with Learning Disabilities  |  Slides
  • Teaching CS to Neurodiverse Students  |  Slides

Empowering Teachers as Instructional Designers

Details

• Date: Friday, January 14, 2022
• Time: 2:00 to 4:00pm ET (11:00am to 1:00pm PT)
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development at scale
• Goals: Build community, share best practices, solve collective challenges, and exchange ideas.
• Focus: Standard 4. Instructional Design from the CSTA Standards for CS Teachers. 

Agenda

Resources

• Slide Deck and Collaborative Notes (embedded below)
• CSTA Standards for CS Teachers
  Standard 4. Instructional Design: Effective CS teachers design learning experiences that engage students in problem solving and creative expression through CS, using pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). They plan to meet the varied learning, cultural, linguistic, and motivational needs of individual students in order to build student self-efficacy and capacity in CS.Effective CS teachers:
  • 4a. Analyze CS curricula for implementation in their classrooms in terms of CS standards alignment, accuracy, completeness of content, cultural relevance, and accessibility.
  • 4b. Design and adapt learning experiences that align to comprehensive K-12 CS standards.
  • 4c. Use Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP), and other techniques to support all students in successfully accessing and engaging with content.
  • 4d. Design learning experiences that make connections to other disciplines and real-world contexts.
  • 4e. Plan opportunities for students to create and share open-ended and personally meaningful projects.
  • 4f. Plan activities that use evidence-based, CS-specific teaching strategies to develop students’ conceptual understanding and proactively address student misconceptions in CS.
  • 4g. Develop multiple forms and modalities of assessment to provide feedback and support. Use resulting data for instructional decision-making and differentiation.

Aligning to CS Teacher Standards & Incorporating Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Practices

Details

• Date: Friday, July 16, 2021
• Time: 2:00 to 5:00pm ET (11:00am to 2:00pm PT), directly following the CSTA Conference
• Audience: People who design PK-12 computer science professional development at scale, including but not limited to those programs accredited by the CSTA PD Committee
• Goals: Build community, learn best practices, and exchange ideas, to collectively improve as PD providers
• Focus: CSTA Standards for CS Teachers + related resources for PD Providers, Kapor Center’s Culturally Responsive-Sustaining CS Education Framework, and learning from one another

Agenda

Resources

• Slide Deck and Collaborative Notes (also embedded below)
• Main Session Recording (also embedded below)
• CSTA Standards for CS Teachers
  • Resources for PD Providers
• Kapor Center’s Culturally Responsive-Sustaining CS Education Framework
  • Core Components
  • Equitable CS initiative
  • CS Teacher Landscape report
  • Shana’s example lesson series on identity / video version
• Application to join the CSTA PD Committee (select committees, then PD)