Teach for America to Offer Nanodegrees
Teach For America plans to offer scholarships for students to complete Udacity's Intro to Programming nanodegree program.
The
scholarship program is an expansion of Teach For America's computer
science initiative, which was launched in 2015 with the support of
AT&T and the National Science Foundation. AT&T's philanthropic initiative, AT&T Aspire,
will contribute $900,000 to the initiative over the next two years. In
addition to the Udacity nanodegree scholarship program, the funds will
support professional development for teachers and continuation of the Exploring Computer Science program.
This
school year, the scholarship program will enable up to 50 students of
Teach For America teachers to complete the Udacity nanodegree, which
teaches students how to make a web page, build a simple game, create a
movie website, reverse engineer a web app and complete a final project
geared toward a specific computer science career goal.
According
to information from Teach For America, "only one in four schools nationwide
offer CS classes, leaving many students — particularly students of color
and those from low-income communities — without the foundational skills,
exposure to teachers with CS backgrounds and hands-on learning
experiences to pursue CS in college and career."
In addition to
the scholarship program, the expansion of Teach For America's computer
science initiative will provide Teach For America teachers with
computer science curriculum and professional development. Collectively,
these teachers serve 2,500 students across the Bay Area, Dallas-Fort
Worth, Kansas City, New York, Rio Grande Valley, South Carolina
and Washington, D.C.
The new funding from AT&T Aspire will
also provide continuing support for the Exploring Computer Science
program, which works to increase and enhance computer science
educational opportunities for female students and students of color in
the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
Teach For
America is an organization that works with communities to expand
educational opportunities for children living in poverty. Teach For
America and AT&T are members of the CSfoAll Consortium.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].