Family & Community Engagement
Supporting Research
Code.org (2022). Computer Science access report data. Retrieved from Code.org/yourschool/accessreport.
Family Night: Coding
This hour-long special will encourage children, ages kindergarten through fifth grade, and their families to get excited about computer science together. Computer science is an exciting and growing field that impacts the world in countless ways. A large part of computer science is computer coding. If you do not know much about computer coding, you will not want to miss this special. Children and their families will not only learn about coding and the exciting careers that that depend on it, they’ll also be invited to participate in hands-on activities that will help to introduce the basic principles of coding.
CS is Elementary
PaTTAN is pleased to invite every elementary school in Pennsylvania to participate in National Family Code Nights, a free live-stream family learning event for any K-5 school. Even when in-person school gatherings may be impossible, any K-5 school community can share this wonderful learning experience, in which each K-5 child pairs up with a parent or other older partner to do their very first hour of coding, together! No experience needed! It’s great fun, proven in thousands of schools nationwide, and now provided via a live-stream to any school. Schools just select their date at CSisElementary.org, and distribute a provided invitation to families. That’s it! Family members, teachers and educators then join the live-stream from home or school to enjoy an important, delightful experience. A live prize drawing for a Home Robotics Bundle from Wonder Workshop will be featured at each National Family Code Night. So visit CSisElementary.org, pick the Date you want your school community to attend, and give your school community a learning experience they’ll love and value.
Does your elementary school teach computer science (CS)?
Don’t see your school?
Families recognize the value of a quality computer science education. Nine in ten parents say they want their children to learn CS or believe that schools should offer CS classes. But only one in four school principals say their schools offer computing programming/coding classes.
Engage families and community members in recruitment. Let families and community members know about CS course offerings and highlight the importance of all students accessing CS. Encourage families to share success stories of how their children were positively influenced by CS learning. Consider the following resources.
For further information, please explore our
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Computer Science (CS) is growing in importance in our schools and for a good reason. Pennsylvania had an average of 15,552 open CS jobs each month in the year 2022. Additionally, the average salary for those jobs was $89,590. As educators and administrators we need to realize this and take action to fill this gap. One of the most important ways we can do this is to get families and community members on board. We know from experience and many studies that when a child has parent involvement in their education they achieve higher, CS is not the exception. However, CS can be intimidating to families and families need to feel encourage and confident. That is where you come in.
Family members are trusted messengers and can encourage other families and community members to support and expand CS education. For further information, please explore our Family Toolkit.
Table of contents for subpages:
Parents’ Involvement for CS
In order to provide the best and most current resources and information, we continually revise our CSinPA Toolkits. You can contribute to the toolkit by submitting your questions, revisions, or resources using this form.