Announcing Our 2023 Commitment to CSforALL
By Julie Barrows
At the 2023 CSforALL Summit, VHS Learning announced our most recent plans to further our commitment to expanding student access to computer science (CS) education. The seventh annual CSforALL Summit, which took place October 25-27, 2023, brought together hundreds of organizations and education professionals for high-level conversations with national thought leaders highlighting strategies for equity, removing barriers to access, and building meaningful computer science engagement for all students.
The theme of this year’s CSforALL Summit was exploring ways to Strengthen the CS Movement through Equity. 119 organizations made commitments. Notably, 81 organizations are prior CSforALL commitment-makers, and 10 of those organizations—including VHS Learning—have made annual commitments since the implementation of the CSforALL Commitments model. CSforALL commitments are new, specific, and measurable actions aimed at advancing the goal of rigorous and inclusive computer science education for all US youth and are designed to grow support and momentum for a sustainable K-12 computer science education system in and out of school. With the support of CSisElementary, CSforALL also opened the commitment process to school-based organizations this year, announcing 288 additional commitments from elementary school-based organizations.
VHS Learning’s 2023 CSforALL commitment
For our 2023 CSforALL commitment , VHS Learning, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, will provide AP® Computer Science Principles or AP® Computer Science A to 60 students in schools that do not offer either course. The students who participate will enroll in the courses by spring 2024.
This is the second time that VHS Learning and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education have partnered to make a CSforALL commitment. In 2021, our organizations collaborated to develop a statewide initiative to make AP® Computer Science Principles available at no charge to high school students across the state.
Our CSforALL commitments over the years
Since the inception of CSforALL in 2016, VHS Learning has made annual commitments to help further the movement by launching partnerships and courses that support computer science access for all. This movement is important to us because we believe every student deserves equitable access to computer science education.
Our other past commitments have included the development of new course offerings and certificates, including AP® Computer Science Principles in 2016, Introduction to Computer Science Principles and Java Programming in 2017, a 15-week cybersecurity course in 2018, and Python Programming in 2022. In 2020, we created a partnership with the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) to offer free enrollments in our AP® Computer Science Principles course to high school students in rural areas.
Why VHS Learning makes CSforALL commitments
Here at VHS Learning, we’re proud to make commitments to CSforALL year after year. We continue to support this movement because, with a high-quality and comprehensive CS education, students gain valuable and marketable skills that prepare them for college, their careers, and other future endeavors. Plus, computer science education equips students with widely applicable critical thinking skills that support ongoing learning and opportunities throughout their lives. (Read 4 reasons why we make commitments to CSforALL.)
As a long-time supporter of CSforALL, we are proud to be a part of the movement to improve CS education nationwide. We believe all students deserve equal access to educational opportunities that help them prepare for the future. We look forward to partnering with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education once again, while continuing to advocate for improved CS education and access for students everywhere.
