About the Computational Thinking Institute

The concept for the Computational Thinking Institute was born from Institute members involvement in the kick-off events of the United States President Obama's CS4All Initiative in 2016. After years of work to help address the unanswered needs in K-12 Computer Science education that were identified as a part of that initiative, the Computational Thinking Assessment was first created in 2019, with significant revisions in 2020, and 2022.

The Computational Thinking Assessment now stands as an independent, low-stress, empowering means for evaluating mainly middle school and high school student progression in any Computer Science or similar curriculum, with an emphasis on being easily interpreted by students, parents, and teachers alike, regardless of their Computer Science background.

The Unanswered Need

There are numerous sets of recommended learning objectives related to computer science, including the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and others. Although many education programs may say they comply with CSTA or others, they do not provide any 3rd party assurance, nor similar objective measurement of how well their students achieve these learning objectives.

Additionally, many education programs or educational kits (toys, robotics, etc) focus on programming fundamentals & syntax that lacks the skillset to develop the students’ creative mindset and problem-solving ability. This is further emphasized by many programs' focus on replication of what is shown, versus an application of concepts to new problems and activities that target the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Taking the lack of measurement along with the apparent disconnects with CSTA's intended goals and their educational program implementation, and then combining this with the fact that as K-12 Computer Science education is relatively new, many parents, even teachers, find it challenging to determine which program should be pursued / are better in what ways.

As a result, schools and parents find it challenging to make arguments for (or against) various programs. Similarly, parents are not sure if their students are progressing well/ learning anything worthwhile, and whether they should keep their child in a program, even if that program may target CSTA goals well.

It is important to note though, that there are high school level annual exams, like an Advanced Placement (AP), that can help with some of these issues. However, they provide only a one-time singular grade on what a student knows after a year’s long training, as compared to offering regular objective assessment feedback that can help a student learn and aid instructors in helping their students too. Furthermore, there are few such options that target the critical career opinion forming ages of middle school. Finally, there also appears to be a disparity between K-12 CS programs and what colleges & industry deemed as key skills, especially in key Computational Thinking areas such as challenge definition, performance definition, communication and other skill areas.

The Assessment Path into Higher Education

Based upon a wide variety of educational standards including CSTA, NGSS, AP, over 80 college computer science curriculums, as well as numerous K-12 computer science programs.
Targets a wider age range from early middle school through high school
Can be split into smaller, more digestible exams taken at any time throughout a program
Doesn’t focus on a single grade but tracks students’ cumulative progression across 10 topics areas using an experience point strategy
After a period of time, students can retake parts they had problems with to demonstrate growth
Utilizes gamification strategies to encourage student further growth
Awards stars, ribbons, and certificates that can signifying student overall achievement, and are worthy of including in any college application.
Offers educators indicators on student misconceptions or confidence issues
Provides easy to interpret regular feedback to students, parents, and educators who may have very limited personal experience in computer science / computational related topics

Key Computational Thinking Assessment Advantages

Certificates

Advancement Feedback

Founder & Future

The Computational Thinking Assessment offers an independent, objective means to measure a student’s learning and achievements in this field, not with a singular grade, but a means of continually evaluating a student’s progressive advancement across over 250 skill objectives along 10 different Computational Thinking skill areas

Skill Areas

The assessment questions can be arranged to fit to a Computer Science educational program's curriculum, and can be taken all at once, or preferably as a series of smaller exams to provide more regular feedback, and less "big exam" stress.

With every exam, the assessment's simple to interpret but meaningful feedback provides students, parents, and educators with a closer look into a student’s progression and a means of motivating students to continue their educational journey. Students may take and retake parts of the assessment to demonstrate how much they have grown, identify where confidence issues or misconceptions may lie, all while earning cumulative points instead of grades. Upon earning enough points in a skill area, students are awarded ribbons to recognize their accomplishment, and students can even earn a certificate signifying their overall achievement, and worthy of including in any college application.