Our Study

Our consortium will determine if (multiple) exposures to structured CS education experiences across various subgroups of students’ relate to:

• Motivation (self-efficacy, expectancy-value constructs), interest, and sense of belonging,
• CT knowledge, and
• Intent to pursue CS after high school.

Research Questions

• What, if any, structured CS education experiences early in adolescence predict increases in students’ attitudinal outcomes (i.e., CS interest, self-efficacy, value for CS, and sense of belonging within CS) and CT knowledge later in adolescence?
• Accounting for systemic differences in educational ecosystems, which characteristics relate to students’ decisions to engage CS education experiences during high school and their intentions to pursue CS after high school?
• Explaining relationships across time and within existing systemic differences in educational ecosystems:
  • Which variables explain the relationship between structured CS education experiences early in adolescence and students’ attitudinal outcomes and CT knowledge later in adolescence?
  • Which variables explain the relationship between demographic characteristics (i.e., school and student) and students’ decisions to engage structured CS education experiences/intentions to pursue CS after high school?
  • Which variables influence the strength of the relationship between structured CS education experiences early in adolescence and students’ attitudinal outcomes and CT knowledge later in adolescence?
  • Which variables influence the strength of the relationship between student and school characteristics and their decisions to engage structured CS education experiences/intentions to pursue CS after high school?

Our Study Design

We are pursuing an Accelerated Longitudinal Design over seven years. Data collected for each year of the longitudinal study includes the following:

	2026	2027	2028	2029	2030	2031	2032
Cohort 1	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th
Cohort 2	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th
Cohort 3	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th
Cohort 4	9th	10th	11th	12th
Cohort 5	10th	11th	12th
Cohort 6	11th	12th
Cohort 7	12th

Our Progress

We are currently conducting a two-year pilot study to assess the feasibility of the longitudinal study. Elements of our pilot study include vetting and understanding:

• Research design and integrity (i.e., Evidence of reliability and validity for the data collection instruments, timing of data collection)
• Infrastructure (i.e., Availability and accessibility of necessary facilities and equipment for secure data collection, management, storage, and analysis)
• Legal/ethical considerations (i.e., ethical considerations around participant engagement  (Smith & Harrison, 2009; Thabane et al., 2010), including identification of applicable regulations (e.g., COPPA, SOPPA, GDPR) and whether the project can adhere to these regulations)
• Staffing resources (i.e., Cooperation, support of others (teachers, administrators, local education administration (LEA), consortium members, legal, tech resource administration, graphic designer/marketing and communications))
• Costs (i.e., Participant costs, infrastructure costs)
• Socio-political forces (i.e., Corporate involvement in the consortium when weighed against the needs and trust of the students and communities, shifting priorities among consortium members, including the lead organization)

Our timeline spans ten years, with the timeline below showing estimated annual plans.