Since its inception in 2015, the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ Coding Arkansas’ Future initiative has provided hundreds of educators from across the state with the professional development they have needed to prepare to teach computer science.
While that has mostly taken place either in person or through live video sessions, educators preparing for the computer science Praxis test in the near future will have an opportunity to do so through a web-based, self-paced version of the initiative’s Computer Science Praxis Prep Course.
The Praxis is an exam that measures an educator’s overall academic skills as well as subject-specific content knowledge. Educators must meet qualifying scores on various Praxis tests in order to earn their license in their teaching area..
Many of the educators who participate in Coding Arkansas’ Future have spent their teaching careers in other disciplines. Teaching computer science wasn’t something they had considered because the majority of Arkansas schools did not offer computer science courses. Legislation passed under the leadership of Gov. Asa Hutchinson during his two terms have required school districts to offer computer science courses, initially in high schools and later in middle schools. That meant districts had to find or produce educators qualified to teach those courses. ASMSA helped fill the void of computer science professional development with Coding Arkansas’ Future.
Daniel Moix is director of the STEM Pathways program and Coding Arkansas’ Future at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts. He welcomes those who pass the computer science Praxis test into “Club 528.” The 528 refers to the computer science area designation for their license.
ASMSA hosted a Compute Science Praxis Prep course for educators in March, both on-campus and virtually. The two-day boot camp prepared educators for the types of questions they would likely see on the Praxis test. So far, 14 of the participants have been notified that they earned passing scores on the Praxis.
“We are so proud of these educators,” Moix said. “Passing this test takes considerable individual effort. Many of the participants worked nights and weekends to get ready, checking in with us frequently for help on topics that they found difficult.”
Approximately 40 percent of Arkansas educators who have passed the computer science Praxis have had some form of professional development through ASMSA’s Coding Arkansas’ Future, Moix said.
Carole Anderson, a vocational business teacher at Bauxite High School, is one of those who earned a passing score on the test after attending the March boot camp. She had previously twice taken the test, missing out on the passing score by a couple of points. Anderson said she had also previously taken a weeklong training course through the state before taking the previous tests.
“[The state training course] was good because it covered everything on the test. The only problem is they didn’t spend enough time on algorithms and problem solving,” Anderson said.
Anderson spent five Saturdays working with Lori Kagebein, a computer science specialist in Coding Arkansas’ Future. She was ready to take the Praxis again, but it was delayed six months by COVID-19. By that time, she had forgotten the tips needed to pass the test, she said.
“I signed up for Daniel’s boot camp and scheduled my test for the next day after the camp,” she said. “I was the annoying teacher on the front row who tried to answer everything and didn’t care what others thought in the room. I was determined to pass. I wrote down everything, went over every detail of every problem, and studied well into the night.
“Daniel covered every detail of how to work the problems. His tips on working problems were the little details I needed to pass. My score went up 20 points. I could not have passed the test without Daniel and Lori’s boot camp.”
Katie Williams said she had also taken the test several times before attending the Computer Science Praxis Prep course at ASMSA. Williams is computer science teacher at Hot Springs Junior Academy.
“The ASMSA program provided me with opportunities I never had in the past,” Williams said. “The opportunity to be successful in a field I had an interest in but no knowledge of where to start. Daniel and Lori have been amazing and supportive the entire way through. No matter how many times it took, they were there every step of the way, never giving up. They made it fun and informative with all the information you need to be successful.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Moix and Kagebein had to change their approach at presenting the various programs. While the yearlong cohorts have included some distance education by video, preparing a whole session to do both in-person and remote presentations simultaneously offered some challenges.
“It is challenging to design a multi-day professional development experience that serves in-person and remote learners equitably,” Moix said. “We built the course in such a way that participants, regardless of location, interact and collaborate through the learning management system. As a result, they kept in touch and kept learning long after the workshop officially concluded.”
Moix and Kagebein have used that experience to develop a web-based, self-paced version of the Computer Science Praxis Prep course. Participants who complete all modules of the course with 70 percent mastery will qualify for 30 hours of Arkansas Department of Education-approved professional development credit. The educators will be able to complete the course at their own pace but must finish it by June 30, 2022, in order to earn the professional development credit. The course will be offered at no cost to the participant thanks to funding from ADE.
To learn more about and to register for the web-based Praxis course, visit https://asmsa.me/Praxisselfprep. Registration is open for Coding Arkansas’ Future’s 2021-22 programs, including Computer Science Plus Year 1 and Year 2 as well as several Lunch and Learn Video Conferences. Boot camp for Year 1 and Year 2 is set for July 26-30. For more information and registration on those offerings, visit https://asmsa.me/cafcourses21-22.
Moix said these kind of opportunities are important as the demand for computer science teachers continues to increase in Arkansas. The Computer Science Education Advancement Act of 2021 that was passed by the Arkansas General Assembly this year requires that every high school must employ at least one computer science teacher beginning with the 2023-24 school year.
He said funding from ADE and the Arkansas Computer Science Initiative has helped ASMSA to support the state’s growing community of computer science educators by providing classroom curriculum, professional development and ongoing implementation support since the initiative’s creation.