Computing Education for the 21st Century

Program Title
Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21)

Synopsis of Program:
The Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21) program aims to build a computationally savvy 21st century workforce that positions the US to demonstrate a leadership role in the global economy. Innovations in computing and more broadly, information technology (IT), drive our economy, underlie many new advances in science and engineering, and contribute to our national security. Projected job growth in IT is very strong.
The CE21 program seeks to reverse this troubling trend by engaging larger numbers of students, teachers, and educators in computing education and learning at earlier stages in the education pipeline. While interventions in primary education are within scope, the CE21 program focuses special attention on activities targeted at the middle and high school levels (i.e., secondary education) and in early undergraduate education.
The goals of the CE21 program are to:
· Increase the number and diversity of K-14 students and teachers who develop and practice computational competencies in a variety of contexts; and
· Increase the number and diversity of early postsecondary students who are engaged and have the background in computing necessary to successfully pursue degrees in computing-related and computationally-intensive fields of study.
The program seeks to increase computational competencies for all students, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, disability status, or socioeconomic status, and regardless, too, of eventual career choices. By promoting and enhancing computing K-14 education, the CE21 program seeks to increase interest in computing as a field in its own right, and also to better prepare students for successful careers in other computing-intensive fields.
In addition, all CE21 projects must make contributions in one or more of the following areas:
· Design, develop and study the effectiveness of new instructional materials and interventions;
· Design, develop, and evaluate the impact of pre-service and in-service efforts and strategies that enhance K-14 teaching expertise in computing; and/or
· Implement and test promising computing education interventions at scale.
CE21 will fund three types of proposals.
· Type I proposals will contribute to the research base on the effective teaching and learning of computing, draw on partnerships of informed and committed stakeholders, and create and study the effectiveness of new instructional materials and interventions and/or strategies to develop K-14 teaching expertise. Type I proposals typically describe smaller scale efficacy studies.
· Type II proposals will contribute to the research base on the effective teaching and learning of computing, draw on partnerships of informed and committed stakeholders, and create and study the effectiveness of new instructional materials and interventions and strategies to develop K-14 teaching expertise. Type II proposals demonstrate implementations at scale, where the interventions to be taken to scale have already proven effective in smaller-scale efficacy studies (studies that may or may not have been funded by NSF).
· Planning proposals support the establishment of new partnerships and collaborations necessary to develop Type I or Type II proposals.
In the aggregate, CE21 awards will contribute to our understanding of how diverse student populations are engaged and retained in computing, learn its fundamental concepts, and develop computational competencies that position them to contribute to an increasingly computationally-enabled workforce.

Award Information:

Anticipated Type of Award: Standard Grant or Continuing Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: 20 to 30 annually.
Anticipated Funding Amount: $25,000,000 (pending availability of funds)

Due Date:
Due Dates
Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):
April 27, 2011 Last Wednesday in April, Annually Thereafter Type I and Type II proposals ONLY.

· Full Proposal Target Date(s):

February 22, 2011 Last Tuesday in February, Annually Thereafter

Planning proposals ONLY.

July 28, 2011 Last Thursday in July, Annually Thereafter

Planning proposals ONLY.

***Principal Investigators and Sponsored Research Offices are advised to submit well before the deadline to avoid any unexpected submission problems.
For additional information, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503582&WT.mc_id=USNSF_39&WT.mc_ev=click