Vision, Mission & CSEd Pillars

Vision: Every Brooklyn public school student gets the opportunity to learn to code, along with an education in broader computer science concepts such as cybersecurity and data science, at school. We will achieve this goal in the course of seven years, three years ahead of the New York City wide target.

Mission: Be an advocate for Brooklyn school communities – teachers, students, parents, administrators, and their surrounding neighborhoods – in their school specific roadmaps to introduce, expand, and fortify computer science education. Concretely, CodeBrooklyn…

  • Connects Brooklyn schools to teacher professional development and computer science curriculum that is peer-reviewed, classroom relevant, academically rigorous, and standards aligned, especially those made available through the NYC DOE
  • Directs financial support through funding sources such as Borough President Capital Budget funding grants (applied to and administered by the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office) that provide schools needed infrastructure for computer science and STEAM
  • Helps keep school communities updated on additional private and public sources of funding to support computer science education programs
  • Advocates for Brooklyn schools with the NYC Department of Education; provides local Brooklyn on the ground “eye, ears, and arms” to complement and bolster the NYC DOE’s 10 year CS4ALL program
  • Promotes efforts to build enthusiasm for computer science programs among school stakeholders (teachers, students parents, etc.), including and especially by supporting Computer Science Education Week activities (e.g., Hour of Code)
  • Encourages the Brooklyn business community to support efforts to expand computer science in Brooklyn public schools both with financial support as well as through volunteering opportunities
  • Identifies new opportunities to support and be inclusive of girls, students of color, students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and other traditionally underrepresented communities in computer science, technology, and the sciences overall

In support of this vision and mission, CodeBrooklyn believes there are five pillars to successfully expand computer science in Brooklyn:

  • Professional Development. Funding and access for teachers to attend computer science education training (this is the core purpose of the New York City CS4ALL Program within the Department of Education).
  • Curriculum. Schools should use standards based, peer reviewed, Common Core aligned curriculum (i.e., teachers and schools should not feel compelled to create their own curriculum from scratch).
  • Community Engagement and External Support. School buildings should be technology community hubs for events like hackathons and adult continuing education in IT and computer science. The schools’ SLT and PTA/PTO/PAs, along with the district CECs, are partners and essential stakeholders, supporting and advocating for CS. They are the local control and voices who advocate for their children.
  • Champions. Every school has computer science champions, both parents and teachers.
  • Infrastructure. Schools have the computer equipment (e.g. laptops, devices such as Raspberry Pis), along with network (wired and wireless LAN; WAN) and electrical infrastructure, needed for computer science instruction.