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Cleveland Computer Science Programs Get $1 Million Boost

Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District received a National Science Foundation grant to fund computer science training initiatives.

(TNS) -- CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District have received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to expand a computer science training program.

The CSforAll initiative seeks to train high school teachers in the main concepts of computer science to ensure that all students in the district can receive training in the discipline.

A key focus of the program funded by the three-year grant is to ensure that the courses are available to every student, regardless of learning ability or demographic constraints, CSU said. The grant will provide the team support to enhance a pilot project funded by the Cleveland Foundation.

The CSforAll project began in 2016 and has trained a corps group of teachers through a professional development and support program led jointly by CSU's Washkewicz College of Engineering and the College of Education and Human Services.

Currently, about one-third of the Cleveland school district's high schools include computer science curricula, and the initiative will expand training to the remaining high schools in the district, CSU said.

In addition, CSU has partnered with the Microsoft TEALS program, which places volunteer software engineers inside classrooms to help teachers deliver computer science curricula; the RITE Board, which is a consortium of leading IT organizations focused on building the IT workforce in the region, and BioEnterprise, whose Health IT Convening Group is helping grow the pipeline of future experts in computer science and data science.

"Computer science is fundamentally re-defining how we live in society and every student will need to be well versed in the discipline to properly meet their educational and career goals," Nigamanth Sridhar, a professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science, said in a statement.

"Computer science drives knowledge, innovation and careers in diverse fields beyond those typically thought of as STEM," Tim Sisson, K-12 STEM content manager at CMSD, said in a statement. "Our scholars will need experience in computer science to have access to opportunities and guide decision making throughout their lives."

Grant funds will be used to study the program and its impact and data will be used to inform how the courses can be scaled across the state.

The CSforCLE project is part of a national network of projects. The CSforALL Consortium is a collaborative community of more than 400 partner organizations, and the national hub for the Computer Science for All movement.

©2017 Advance Ohio Media, Cleveland Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.