Project

Evaluation of the Educator Workforce Investment Grant in Computer Science

participants in Season of CS event looking at laptop together

Through the Educator Workforce Investment Grant in Computer Science (EWIG: CS), the state of California has funded a statewide effort designed to increase educator capacity to deliver computer science education.

At the center of this effort is Seasons of CS, a year-round computer science professional learning program for California educators, as well as a network of advocates employed at the county-level called CS Champions.

AIR has partnered with the EWIG: CS lead agencies to serve as the external evaluator for the grant. To inform its evaluation approach, our team organized a set of research questions around the four components of the CAPE framework, which highlights:

Capacity to deliver;
Access to;
Participation in; and
Experiences with computer science education.

Through an ongoing series of research activities that includes surveys of workshop participants and CS Champions, focus groups of CS Champions, and district-level case studies that examine CS course availability and participation, AIR is helping leaders in California better understand the efforts to expand CS education to more students.

Final Report and Key Findings

The final report from the EWIG:CS project highlights the major takeaways across all evaluation efforts by summarizing results in five areas: (1) educator professional learning participation, (2) educator experiences with professional learning, (3) the development and reach of CS champions, (4) shifts in teacher practice, and (5) changes in student access to computer science education.

View the full final report.

View an overview of the findings.

Explore our annual reports, case studies, and reports on surveys and focus group findings.

Findings About Educator Professional Learning Participation

Key Finding #1: Summer of CS served 1,394 educators from 2023 to 2025, many of whom had no prior experience with teaching computer science.

Findings About Educator Experiences With Professional Learning

Key Finding #2: Survey respondents and focus group participants reported positive impressions about Summer of CS workshop content, format, quality, and usefulness.

Key Finding #3: Survey responses revealed a positive and statistically significant change in participants’ confidence in teaching computer science between the beginning of Summer of CS workshops in 2024 and their return to the classroom 1 year later.

Key Finding #4: Survey responses revealed a positive and statistically significant change in participants’ beliefs about who can and should do well in computer science between the beginning of Summer of CS workshops in 2024 and their return to the classroom 1 year later.

Findings About the Development and Reach of CS Champions

Key Finding #5: CS Champions articulated a shared understanding of their role and perceived their activities as pivotal to increasing teacher participation in computer science professional learning.

Key Finding #6: EWIG: CS succeeded in creating a community of computer science education advocates across California.

Findings About Shifts in Teacher Practice

Key Finding #7: Summer of CS workshop participants delivered computer science instruction when they returned to their classrooms.

Key Finding #8: The primary format of computer science instruction was the integration of content into another subject area; this was especially true in the elementary grades.

Findings About Changes in Student Access to Computer Science Education

Key Finding #9: Case studies revealed a consistent decrease in computer science availability and enrollment that aligned with the COVID-19 pandemic and otherwise found inconsistent patterns of growth.

Key Finding #10: Integration of computer science into other subject areas was a key strategy for expanding access to more students.

Key Finding #11: Hispanic and Black students and women were underrepresented in computer science courses relative to their population in the district.

Key Finding #12: Interview respondents described EWIG: CS as playing a vital role in building computer science capacity by exposing teachers to concepts, tools, and instructional materials.

Evaluation of the Educator Workforce Investment Grant in Computer Science

Final Report and Key Findings

Related Documents

Annual Reports: Educator Workforce Investment Grant in Computer Science

Case Studies (January 2026)

Reports on Surveys and Focus Group Findings