The Colorado School of Mines (CSM), in partnership with the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), proposes a project to improve the skills of existing computer science (CS) teachers, share best practices in CS pedagogy, and positively change the diversity of students in existing and new CS courses in Colorado. The project -- called C-START (Colorado: STrategic Approach to Rally Teachers) -- will create high-quality professional development (PD) opportunities, empower, and support more than 50 high school teachers, enabling them to teach a progression of CS courses, from the introductory level through Advanced Placement (AP) CS. These opportunities will leverage recent efforts for K-12 CS PD and best practices in broadening participation in computing developed by the BPC-A Alliances and other NSF Broadening Participation in Computing projects.

More specifically, C-START will:

-- Create two academic certificates for CS teachers at the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences at UNC,
-- Incorporate computational thinking skills into the educational technologies requirement at UNC,
-- Re-energize the only CSTA Chapter in Colorado,
-- Introduce an undergraduate Service Learning course at CSM that will engage students in K-12 CS education, and
-- Develop a tiered mentoring program for high school teachers who teach CS.

The effectiveness of C-START's approach will be measured by teacher outcomes: Does engaging in C-START have a positive impact on high school teachers' CS content knowledge, confidence that they can teach CS, attitudes toward CS, and knowledge in engaging underrepresented students in CS? Lastly, C-START will be sustainable, in order to ensure the PD opportunities and planned support for teachers will continue after the grant period ends.