The Upper Adams School District in Adams County, Pennsylvania, is a small, rural public school district, which includes the Boroughs of Arendtsville, Bendersville, and Biglerville, and the Townships of Butler, Menallen, and part of Tyrone.
Each Borough has an elementary school configured according to grade levels. Biglerville Elementary, the primary center, houses all students in Kindergarten, First, Second, & Third Grades. Arendtsville Elementary and Bendersville Elementary are intermediate buildings, housing Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Grades. Beginning with Seventh Grade, all students attend the Upper Adams Middle School in the Borough of Biglerville. At the beginning of 9th Grade, students are members of the Biglerville High School, also located in the Borough of Biglerville. High school students may choose to attend Cumberland Perry Area Vocational Technical School for vocational training.
The Upper Adams School District currently offers computer science courses/experiences at the secondary level (7-12) in our 1:1 computer environment at the middle and high school. At the secondary level, students have the opportunity to learn a few coding languages as well as take courses that develop their competencies with infrastructure and other software. There are no computer science experiences for any students in grades K-6. Beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, the Upper Adams School District plans to begin a process that will provide introductory experiences that will lead to success at the secondary level in computer science content and related experiences to our intermediate level (4-6) students.
During the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years, the Upper Adams School District will be providing professional development opportunities to all of our fourth–grade teachers to assist them in better instructional planning, integration, and curriculum design for computer science content and experiences at a developmentally appropriate level. This will provide a direct link to upper grade level experiences. Since the intermediate level services only grades 4–6, providing these foundational experiences at the fourth–grade level will enable development of capacity building as the students move through the building into fifth and sixth grade. Both teachers and students will be able to capitalize on previous knowledge and ideally build on those fourth– grade experiences as they continue their academic journey in fifth and sixth grade. Fourth– grade teachers will also become mentors and local “experts” on computer science experiences for their colleagues in the building.
In addition, the development of a comprehensive (K–6) computer science curriculum will be goal of the 2019-2020 school year with the implementation of that curriculum taking place during the 2020-2021 school year. The curriculum will be based on the computer science framework as well as the ISTE Standards. While the initial infusion of financial resources will be taking place at the Intermediate School Level (Grades 4–6), the curriculum will address all computer science needs at the K–6 level.
Utilizing this framework for professional development, we will be expanding access to students in grades 4–6 to high–quality computer science experiences, will increase the number of educators in our school district prepared to deliver developmentally appropriate computer science experiences, and increase participation of students in computer science education. We will be investing in computer science resources at these grade levels to expand opportunities for these students with the ultimate goal of creating a designated (K-6) Computer Science Teacher/Coach to both classroom teachers and students as a comprehensive program.
Our mission in the Upper Adams School District is to provide challenging and inspiring educational opportunities, empowering each student to be a responsible and productive individual. When students graduate from the Upper Adams School District our vision is to have them college and career ready.
