Sustaining K-8 Computer Science Instruction with Indigenous Communities

The Wind River Elementary Computer Science Collaborative is a research-practice partnership (RPP) among three school districts serving Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone communities on the Wind River Reservation, the Wyoming Department of Education, BootUp PD, and the American Institutes for Research. The purpose of the Collaborative is to support development and sustainability of K-8 computer science (CS) education through professional development, capacity-building, and connections to the school and broader communities. Since 2019, the Collaborative has engaged elementary and middle school educators and explored how to build sustainability of CS education in Indigenous communities. In this report, we share strategies our Collaborative used to foster sustainable CS instruction in our fourth and fifth years of implementation. We share teacher and student survey results that suggest progress toward sustainability, including increases in teacher self-efficacy and evidence of developing CS identities in students. We use teacher feedback and interviews to reflect on key features of the RPP's structure that supported sustainability and share future steps we plan to take to address continued challenges.