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

Torbey, R., Fletcher, C.L., McCune, J., Rice, D., Childs, J. (2026). Collective impact at scale: Comparing State-level policy adoption related to broadening participation in computing. In Proceedings of the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V.2., 1551-1552. New York, USA. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3770761.3777271

Jacobson, M.R., Wang, Z., Fletcher, C.L., Carrell, A.L. (2025). Building teacher capacity to integrate computational thinking into primary school instruction: Strategies for designing high-quality and scalable interventions. In Proceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V.1 , 541-547. Njimegen, Netherlands. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3724363.3729038

Haynes, M., Garbrecht, L., Fletcher, C.L, Madrigal, A., Baniahmadi, M. (2025). Strategies for increasing young women’s participation in secondary computer science education. In Proceedings of the 2025 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT) Annual Conference, 317-322. Newark, NJ, USA. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3704637.3734777

Kaur, K., Martin, N.D., Jacobson, M.R., Fletcher, C.L., Carrell, A. L., Childs, J. (2025). No administrator left behind: Insights from the Texas Computer Science Leadership Network. In Proceedings of the 2025 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT) Annual Conference, 367-371. Newark, NJ, USA. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3704637.3734795

Fletcher, C. L. & Warner, J. R. (2022). Leveraging collective impact to scale computer science teacher professional development and certification. In Mouza, C., Yadav, A., & Leftwich, A. (Eds.), Preparing Teachers to Teach Computer Science: Models, Practices and Policies. Information Age Publishing.

Warner, J. R., Fletcher, C. L., Martin, N. D., Baker, S. N., (2022). Applying the CAPE framework to measure equity and inform policy in computer science education. Policy Futures in Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103221074467

Warner, J. R., Childs, J., Fletcher, C. L., Martin, N., & Kennedy, M. (2021). Quantifying disparities in computer science education: Access, participation, and intersectionality. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 619-625. https://doi.org/10.1145/3408877.3432392

Martin, N. D., Garza, E., Wilson Vazquez, A., & Fletcher, C. L. (May, 2022). Scaling professional learning for equitable and inclusive computer science teaching. In Proceedings of the Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT) Conference. Pages: 80-84 | https://doi.org/10.1109/RESPECT55273.2022.00022

Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. T., Dunton, S., Fletcher, C., Childs, J., Jeon, M., Biggers, M., DeLyser, L. A., Goodhue, J., Richardson, D., Peterfreund, A., Guzdial, M., Adrion, R., Ericson, B., Fall, R., & Abramenka, V. (2022). How to change a state: Broadening participation in K-12 computer science education. Policy Futures in Education, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103221123363

Fletcher, C.L., Warner, J.R. (2021, February). CAPE: A Framework for Assessing Equity throughout the Computer Science Education Ecosystem. Communications of the ACM, 64(2), 23-25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3442373

Torbey, R., Martin, N. D., Warner, J. R., & Fletcher, C. L. (2020). Algebra I Before High School as a Gatekeeper to Computer Science Participation. SIGCSE’20: Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp 839-844. Portland, OR, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3328778.3366877

Current Projects

  • WeTeach_CS
  • ECEP Alliance
  • Texas CS Pipeline Initiative
  • AI Literacy for Innovation, Growth, and Networking (ALIGN)

Areas of Research

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

Memberships

  • Texas AI in Education Task Force, Chair
  • Texas Computer Science Task Force, Chair
  • CS4TX Foundation Board Member
  • Texas Education Agency STEM Educator Standards and IT Industry Cluster Advisory Committee