WeTeach_CS and You Can Too: Scaling Capacity in CSEd Statewide

Dr. Carol Fletcher is the Deputy Director and Director of Outreach for the UT STEM Center. In that capacity, she directs several statewide collective impact professional development programs for STEM teachers such as WeTeach_CS, the Texas Teacher Externship project, and the TRC, serving over 10,000 educators annually through 90+ projects involving all 20 Education Service Centers, 40+ colleges and universities, and ~ 800 school districts. She also serves as PI for the 2 NSF research projects focused on broadening participation in computing. The Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance seeks to increase the number and diversity of students in the pipeline to computing and computing-intensive degrees by supporting state-level computing education reforms in 22 states and Puerto Rico. AWSM in CS focuses on increasing participation of young women in high school computing courses.

Carol has been elected to 6 terms on the Pflugerville ISD Board of Trustees since 2001, serving as Board President for five years. She is active in legislative and school finance issues as well as issues related to STEM education and school accountability. Her experiences as a teacher, policymaker, parent and university administrator result in a unique perspective on the challenges and potential solutions our country faces regarding STEM education and workforce development. As a result, she has served in numerous leadership roles that bridge the gap between education, workforce, and policy such as the Chair of the Texas Computer Science Task Force, CS4TX Steering Committee, Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Legislative Advisory Council, the Comptroller’s Financial Allocation Study for Texas (FAST) Advisory Board, the Texas Education Agency’s STEM Educator Standards Committee, E3 College and Career Success Leadership Team, NSF’s Texas Girls Collaborative Project Champions Board, and the UTeach Advisory Board.