Carol Fletcher, Ph.D.

Expanding Pathways in Computing Directorate

Email: cfletcher@tacc.utexas.edu

Dr. Carol Fletcher is Director of EPIC (Expanding Pathways in Computing) at UT Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) where she oversees research, policy, and professional development projects in STEM and computer science (CS) education. In 2015, she founded the nationally recognized WeTeach_CS professional development program, which has since trained and supported thousands of K12 educators in computer science, computational thinking, cybersecurity, AI, and other frontier technologies. She serves as PI for the NSF Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance and lead author of the CAPE Framework for examining interdependencies and structural barriers in the CS education ecosystem. Carol’s research interests include education policy and collective impact models for promoting systemic improvements in STEM education.

Carol is a former middle school teacher and an elected Pflugerville ISD School Board Trustee from 2001 to 2019. Her experiences as a teacher, policymaker, and researcher bridge the gap between education, workforce, and policy. Additional leadership roles include Chair of the Texas AI in Education Task Force, Chair of the Texas Computer Science Task Force, CS4TX co-founder, the TEA’s STEM Educator Standards & IT Industry Advisory Committees, and numerous NSF funded STEM education grant advisory boards.

Selected Publications

Fletcher, C. L., Warner, J. R. (in press). Leveraging collective impact to scale computer science teacher professional development and certification. In Preparing Teachers to Teach Computer Science: Models, Practices and Policies. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Warner, J. R., Fletcher, C. L., Torbey, R., Garbrecht, L. S. (2019, Apr). Scaling Certification Incentives and Professional Development to Increase Equitable Access to Qualified Computer Science Teachers. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.

Warner, J. R., Fletcher, C. L., Garbrecht, L. S. (2019, Apr). Better data, better progress: Methods for measuring inequities in computer science education. Poster session presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada.

Warner, J. R., Fletcher, C. L., Torbey, R., Garbrecht, L. S. (2019, March). Increasing capacity for computer science education in rural areas through a large-scale collective impact model. In Proceedings of the 50thACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education SIGCSE '19(pp. 1157-1163). New York, NY: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3287324.3287418

Warner, J. R., Fletcher, C. L., Monroe, W., Garbrecht, L. S. (2018, Feb). Growing the High School CS Teacher Workforce: Predictors of Success in Achieving CS Certification. Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Baltimore, MD. doi:10.1145/3159450.3162278

Fletcher, C.L. & Romchand, R. (2018). Preparing Texas Students for the Cyber Economy. Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved from https://utexas.box.com/v/CS-Task-Force-Report-2018

Zintgraff, C., Daza, M. F., Rodriguez Vides, A., Fletcher, C., Kazsuba, J. J., & Webb, J. M. Cultural and historical influences on a project-based learning training program in Medellín, Colombia. In Young, P. (Section Ed.) and Spector, J. M., Lockee, B. B., & Childress, M. (Volume Eds.), Learning, Design, and Technology: An International Compendium of Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Springer.

Areas of Research

• Equity in computer science education
• Evaluating large-scale professional development
• Collective impact models for social change

Memberships

• Texas Computer Science Task Force, Chair
• CS4TX Steering Committee
• Texas Education Agency STEM Educator Standards and IT Industry Cluster Advisory Committee

Current Projects

• WeTeach_CS
• ECEP Alliance
• AWSM in CS
• Project ROCS