Outlier is a research and evaluation group at UChicago STEM Education | University of Chicago. Outlier is working to support the computer science (CS) education community’s efforts to spread quality CS learning opportunities to all learners. Our current CS education efforts include National Science Foundation-supported research projects that focus on making computing more accessible for high school students with learning disabilities through a researcher-practitioner partnership, identifying the supports and barriers to bringing introductory CS to high schools, and providing instruments for measuring implementation of CS materials and the factors that influence that implementation. We have also engaged in a range of evaluation efforts with groups such as Code.org, Google, and TechCorps to examine elementary, middle and high school computer science efforts across the country and globe that aim to broaden participation in CS. Some of our CS education work also includes collaboration with curriculum developers and professional development experts in other groups within UChicago STEM Education. Through all of our research and evaluation work with K-12 schools and districts, post-secondary schools, after school programs, informal institutions and out-of-school organizations, we combine traditional and innovative approaches to generate usable, actionable findings.
