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Standard 2 from the CSTA Standards for CS Teachers deals with Equity and Inclusion and to anyone in the tech industry or CS education, the gender gap is obvious.  Starting a Girls Who Code club on your campus or within your district is a meaningful step that you can take right now to help bring more girls into CS.  

Our CSTA chapter (Greater Los Angeles) would like to share a recording of our recent meeting on how to start a club and about all of the resources that they provide.  Here is the link to our meeting recording and slides. 

Additionally, here are some details and links directly from Girls Who Code.

If anyone would like to reply here with their own experiences with Girls Who Code on your campus or with a commitment to starting up a club, we'd love to hear about it!

Thanks for reading!

- Mitch and the Greater LA Chapter

Hi - My name is Coletha Browning. I am a special education teacher in Northern California. This is my 5th year running an after-school Girls Who Code club. I teach at a k8 school in Sacramento. I facilitate two clubs, 3 through 5 and 6 through 8, although my oldest students are in 7th grade. Facilitating two Girls Who Code clubs has been one of the best experiences of my teaching career. Before I make this response about me, I will share my why for loving Girls Who Code. They provide curriculum.  No experience is necessary. I believe the stipend this year was $500 dollars, per club (up to two clubs - I got two stipends), but the amount changes based on the available funds annually. In addition to the stipend, they provide free SWAG (teeshirts, stickers, notepads). My kids love it. I have boys in my club. My principal wants whatever we offer to be inclusive. The boys understand that the focus is on girls but that they are welcome to join the club.

Girls Who Code encourages facilitators and club members to pick a unique name. My school's name is Bannon Creek, so we are Creekside Coders featuring Girls Who Code. It's a long name, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I teach at a Title 1 school. More than 70% of our students are considered low-income. I love being able to expose our students to coding and STEM that they otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to in school. Many districts around me are embracing computer science and adding it as a high school elective. Although our students have Chromebooks, our transition to CS is still very slow. One of our five high schools has an engineering class where the students do some coding, but their focus is on CAD and other areas of engineering that aren't necessarily focused on just coding. Another one of our high schools offers business courses, but no real CS programs. I  have used my club funds over the past few years to purchase devices (I have a bunch of tiny Sphero robots). I have a 3D printer, and we have a few STEM toys. All of this wouldn't have been possible without Girls Who Code. 

The impact on me as an educator has been huge. My story is a little different from most here. I am a special education teacher. This is my 16th year in education. It's hard to believe it's been that long. Seems like I just started this gig yesterday. To top it off, it is my second career, although I have been doing this much longer than I have done anything else. I am a resource teacher at my school. I push into classrooms to support students with IEPs, and I pull students out to provide small-group instruction as needed. I returned to school in the Fall to earn a credential in general education. Next fall, I will teach in a general education classroom, hopefully at my current school. I already have the blessing of my current principal. I have an undergraduate degree in Information Technology, so I will be able to add a CS authorization once I clear the general education credential.

I look forward to the Commission creating a clear path to a single subject credential in CS one day. We could then finally join other states that already have single-subject credentials in this area. I want to teach computer science all day, one day in the future. The brightest part of the week for me is Mondays and Tuesdays when my clubs meet.    

Hi - My name is Coletha Browning. I am a special education teacher in Northern California. This is my 5th year running an after-school Girls Who Code club. I teach at a k8 school in Sacramento. I facilitate two clubs, 3 through 5 and 6 through 8, although my oldest students are in 7th grade. Facilitating two Girls Who Code clubs has been one of the best experiences of my teaching career. Before I make this response about me, I will share my why for loving Girls Who Code. They provide curriculum.  No experience is necessary. I believe the stipend this year was $500 dollars, per club (up to two clubs - I got two stipends), but the amount changes based on the available funds annually. In addition to the stipend, they provide free SWAG (teeshirts, stickers, notepads). My kids love it. I have boys in my club. My principal wants whatever we offer to be inclusive. The boys understand that the focus is on girls but that they are welcome to join the club.

Girls Who Code encourages facilitators and club members to pick a unique name. My school's name is Bannon Creek, so we are Creekside Coders featuring Girls Who Code. It's a long name, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I teach at a Title 1 school. More than 70% of our students are considered low-income. I love being able to expose our students to coding and STEM that they otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to in school. Many districts around me are embracing computer science and adding it as a high school elective. Although our students have Chromebooks, our transition to CS is still very slow. One of our five high schools has an engineering class where the students do some coding, but their focus is on CAD and other areas of engineering that aren't necessarily focused on just coding. Another one of our high schools offers business courses, but no real CS programs. I  have used my club funds over the past few years to purchase devices (I have a bunch of tiny Sphero robots). I have a 3D printer, and we have a few STEM toys. All of this wouldn't have been possible without Girls Who Code. 

The impact on me as an educator has been huge. My story is a little different from most here. I am a special education teacher. This is my 16th year in education. It's hard to believe it's been that long. Seems like I just started this gig yesterday. To top it off, it is my second career, although I have been doing this much longer than I have done anything else. I am a resource teacher at my school. I push into classrooms to support students with IEPs, and I pull students out to provide small-group instruction as needed. I returned to school in the Fall to earn a credential in general education. Next fall, I will teach in a general education classroom, hopefully at my current school. I already have the blessing of my current principal. I have an undergraduate degree in Information Technology, so I will be able to add a CS authorization once I clear the general education credential.

I look forward to the Commission creating a clear path to a single subject credential in CS one day. We could then finally join other states that already have single-subject credentials in this area. I want to teach computer science all day, one day in the future. The brightest part of the week for me is Mondays and Tuesdays when my clubs meet.