Computer Science for All (CSforAll: Research and RPPs)

Overview

<p>This program aims to provide all U.S. students the opportunity to participate in computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) education in their schools at the preK-12 levels. With this solicitation, the National Science Foundation (NSF) focuses on researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) that foster the research and development needed to bring CS and CT to all schools. Specifically, this solicitation aims to provide high school teachers with the preparation, professional development (PD) and ongoing support that they need to teach rigorous computer science courses; preK-8 teachers with the instructional materials and preparation they need to integrate CS and CT into their teaching; and schools and districts the resources needed to define and evaluate multi-grade pathways in CS and CT.</p> <p>This program supports researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) with the goal of building knowledge from research and development to support efforts that aim to provide opportunities for all students to participate in CS and CT formal STEM learning at the elementary, middle, and high school grade levels. Proposals will be funded in three “strands” that foster design, implementation at scale, and research: </p> <ul> <li>For the high school strand, the focus is on preparing and supporting teachers to teach rigorous CS courses;</li> <li>For the preK-8 strand, the focus is on designing, developing, and piloting instructional materials that integrate CS and CT into preK-8 classrooms; and</li> <li>For preK-12 or preK-14 pathways strand, the focus is on designing pathways that support school districts in developing policies and supports for incorporating CS and CT across all grades and potentially into introductory levels at community or four-year colleges and universities.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Proposals may be submitted in the following size classes:</strong> <br>Small proposals (maximum of $300,000 for up to 2 years) are designed to support the initial steps in establishing a strong and well-integrated RPP team that could successfully compete for a Medium or Large proposal in the near future; <br>Medium proposals (maximum of $1,000,000 for up to 3 years) are designed to support the modest scaling of a promising approach by a well-defined RPP team; and <br>Large proposals (maximum of $2,000,000 for up to 4 years) are designed to support the widespread scaling of an evidencebased approach by a RPP team that builds on prior collaborations.</p>