http://www.nsf.gov/cise/funding/cpath_faq.jsp

Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education, “CPATH,” is a program created and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, a federal government agency. The recognition of the importance of a revitalized computer science education is the impetus behind the NSF program, sponsored by the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Division(CISE). CISE has formulated CPATH to transform undergraduate computing education on a national scale with the goal of meeting the challenges and opportunities of a knowledge society where computing is essential to economic competitiveness and social welfare.

SRI International’s Center for Science, Technology, and Economic Development is undertaking a project to provide technical support to and objective evaluation of Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH), a program created and funded by the National Science Foundation. The recognition of the importance of a revitalized computer science education is the impetus behind the NSF program, sponsored by the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Division (CISE). CISE has formulated CPATH to transform undergraduate computing education on a national scale with the goal of meeting the challenges and opportunities of a knowledge society where computing is essential to economic competitiveness and social welfare. Accomplishing this goal requires upgrading undergraduate computing education to keep abreast of the rapid changes in computing, pedagogy, and the needs of students and industry. Ensuring that the CPATH program is on track to reach these goals is a key part of the evaluation being conducted by SRI International.

The evaluation and monitoring project being undertaken is designed to be conducted over a five year period, with a base year of planning and designing a project monitoring system and a rigorous evaluation protocol, with four following years implementing and managing the project monitoring tool and conducting the evaluation and supporting NSF in its efforts to showcase the program. The project has three major components:

1. Design an objective external evaluation for the CPATH program based upon state-of-the-art evaluation tools and methods. This part of the project will conduct professional evaluation of the awards themselves as well as comparing the progress within the institutions conducting CPATH projects with others that do not have external government support. This part of the project will include a series of site visits to view and evaluate the CPATH activities in their home institutions.
2. Provide capacity building and technical assistance to the institutions that have received CPATH awards to ensure that they are able to track and monitor the progress of their activities, and to help diffuse good practices and lessons learned from these projects to other parts of the computer science education field.
3. Serve as a central information hub about CPATH and the CPATH awardees, collecting and making available information about undergraduate computer science and evaluation of these activities; and collecting data on the transformation of undergraduate computer science in the United States.

For information, contact Dr. Caroline S. Wagner at SRI International, 703-247-8478