Jane Margolis was honored this week at the White House as a Computer Science Champion of Change.

Since 1994 Jane has worked as a researcher with the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) studying why so few African American, Latino, and female students are learning computer science. Her research led to the writing of the book Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing which showed students in the most underserved schools, with high numbers of African-American and Latino students, are often denied learning opportunities and then too often dismissed as not interested or capable.

Through National Science Foundation funding support from the “Into the Loop” project, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) teachers and UCLA computer science experts collaborated to write the Exploring Computer Science (ECS)  curriculum and teach it in LAUSD high schools. The “Teachers Are Key” project places its focus on supporting LAUSD high school teachers through professional development, coaching, and building a teaching community. Over the past two years more than 14,000 students enrolled in an ECS course in California.

ECS is approved by the University of California Office of the President as a “g” elective and as a Career Technical Education (CTE) course. It is now taught throughout California and the nation providing an important introduction to the following topics:

• Human Computer Interaction
• Problem Solving
• Web Design
• Programming
• Computing and Data Analysis
• Robotics

The UCLA computer science experts have supported K-12 education by participating in the writing of the Model CTE Standards for the Information and Communication Technologies sector and by conducting a study and reporting in 2012 ways computer science education could be improved in California.

I extend my heart-felt thanks and appreciation for all Jane and her team has done to help transform K-12 computer science education in California!

Together Everyone Accomplishes More