UPDATE: Boosting Baton Rouge and Louisiana’s Computational Edge
LSU and Louisiana public schools team up to expand computer science courses and careers with $5M in federal support
Updated 10/09/2019

LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Associate Professor Juana Moreno (front center)
leads an interdisciplinary team of educators, who have garnered $5 million in federal
funding to provide computational skills courses for all middle and high school students
in East Baton Rouge Parish and four rural Louisiana parishes.
Photo Credit: Taylor Gast, East Baton Rouge Parish School System
BATON ROUGE – An interdisciplinary team of LSU faculty and staff, in partnership with
East Baton Rouge Parish School System, or EBRPSS, teachers and administrators have
received an additional $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. These
funds will be used to improve and expand opportunities in computational thinking and
computer science in five public school districts. With a total of $5 million in federal
support, LSU will be able to expand the successful LSU Computing STEM Pathway from
East Baton Rouge Parish to four additional parishes in rural Louisiana—Pointe Coupee,
West Feliciana, Washington and Evangeline.
The initial $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, or NSF, Computer
Science for All program supports the project titled “BRBYTES: Baton Rouge: Bringing
Youth Technology, Education and Success,” which began Oct. 1. With an additional $4
million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the team will also be able to
further develop the curriculum for the 9th grade course, Introduction to Computational
Thinking, and be able to assess its effectiveness over the next five years. This course
integrates teaching the fundamentals of computing and programming while reinforcing
mathematics content in a project-based setting.
LSU was among 41 recipients nation-wide to be awarded the U.S. Department of Education’s
Education Innovation and Research, or EIR, grant. The LSU team scored fifth amongst
the 27 awards granted in the early-phase Science, Technology, Engineering and Math,
or STEM, category of proposals, just behind the Smithsonian Institution, Code.org,
Massachusetts’ Education Development Center and Old Dominion University Research Foundation
in Virginia.
“Everybody on our team is passionate about providing opportunities for all students
in EBRPSS and throughout Louisiana to engage in high-quality computing courses. The
Department of Education award will allow us to study the effect of LSU Computing STEM
Pathway curriculum in student math scores, accumulation of computer science and advanced
math credits, and graduation rates,” said Juana Moreno, associate professor in the
LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy and the LSU Center for Computation & Technology,
who is the principal investigator of both projects.
A recent report by the National Science & Technology Council’s Committee on STEM Education identified
building computational literacy and, in particular, making computational thinking,
an integral part of all education in order to achieve the goals for American STEM
education.
Moreno and her collaborators’ plan encompasses several strategies to grow computational
literacy and computational thinking in public schools. Her team has developed a five-year
plan for introducing computing in all EBRPSS middle and high schools, where every
student takes at least one computing course in grades 6th-12th. To lay the foundation,
they will increase the awareness among principals, counselors and parents about careers
in computing and the importance of equity in the recruiting and advising of students
in this area.
The team will develop new courses and expand existing ones in computational thinking
and computer science for 7th to 10th grade students.
“The LSU Computing STEM Pathway is designed to foster students understanding on how
the ‘Big Ideas in Computing’ are relevant to their lives, so, they are well-informed
citizens in our digitally-driven world,” said Fernando Alegre, LSU Gordon A. Cain
Center research associate and co-principal investigator.
LSU researchers will work closely with EBRPSS practitioners using the Research Practitioner
Partnership model to increase the number of minority teachers who are willing and
ready to teach computing courses as well as encourage the use of culturally responsive
practices and pedagogies to inspire underrepresented groups.
“Our team is committed to promoting equity and to attracting more students from historically
disadvantaged groups into computing fields,” said Lori L. Martin, LSU Department of
Sociology and African & African American Studies professor and co-principal investigator.

Lee High School teacher Katy Ullrich teaches Introduction to Computational Thinking.
Photo Credit: Elsa Hahne, LSU
The East Baton Rouge Parish’s public school system has about 41,098 students of which
85.5 percent are underrepresented minorities and 75.5 percent are from economically
disadvantaged families. In contrast, minorities comprise 56 percent of the overall
parish population.
“We will also examine factors that will influence participation in the BRBytes program,
and how this participation impacts student aspirations and preparedness towards careers
in computing, especially amongst underrepresented and low-income students,” said LSU
School of Education Assistant Professor and co-principal investigator Yu “April” Chen.
Beyond Baton Rouge
“With this federal support, we will offer Introduction to Computational Thinking,
a cornerstone course in the LSU STEM Pathways, in 10 East Baton Rouge public high
schools and seven rural public schools serving about 2,270 students total. The impact
of the LSU STEM Pathways, which besides computing also includes pre-engineering, digital
design and emergent media and biomedical sciences high school courses, will be transformational
for Louisiana,” said Frank Neubrander, interim executive director of the LSU Gordon
A. Cain Center and co-principal investigator on the EIR grant.
The development of the Introduction to Computational Thinking curriculum started four
years ago at EBRPSS Lee Magnet High School. The number of students taking the course
grew from 200 students in 2017-2018 to 400 and now this year, enrollment is close
to 700 students. The Department of Education’s EIR grant will help the educators evaluate
and improve this class within the standards of the U.S. Department of Education “What
Works Clearinghouse.”
In addition, the educators will refine the curriculum to better align it with math
standards and make it more culturally relevant. In order to better serve the distant
rural school districts, the project leaders will offer portions of the teacher training
online.
“LSU is invested in computing education at many levels. In a related project, also
funded by the U.S. Department of Education, we are piloting a new undergraduate course
on computer science teaching methods taken by future teachers. With this course, we
use the Introduction to Computational Thinking curriculum as an example of innovative
curricula developed with the computing for all philosophy in mind,” said David Kirshner,
LSU Gordon A. Cain Center associate director and co-principal investigator on the
project.
“With the continued and expanded partnership with LSU, our teams will further continue
to collaborate to make the East Baton Rouge Parish School System a role model for
computing education in Louisiana. We expect more districts to join us in the near
future as we expand 21st century learning opportunities for our students,” said Ben
Necaise, East Baton Rouge School System associate superintendent and co-principal
investigator.
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Contact Alison Satake
LSU Media Relations
225-578-3870
asatake@lsu.edu
Taylor Gast
East Baton Rouge Parish School System
225-922-5627
TGast@ebrschools.org