The University of Arkansas (UA) proposes a multifaceted program - called TACT (Training Arkansas Computing Teachers)- to certify high school teachers to teach computer science (CS). Arkansas has recently become the first state in the nation to require that all public high schools offer CS courses. This has left schools scrambling to comply as prior to June 2015, only 6.4% of them offered CS. In addition, the state had no process in place to certify CS teachers. While online CS courses will help most Arkansas high schools comply with the new legislation, the literature suggests significant benefits to face-to-face instruction. To meet the immediate and ongoing demand for well-trained and CS certified high school teachers, and to better prepare Arkansas' high school students for computer-related professions, the UA College of Engineering (COE) propose a multifaceted program that will develop both in-service and pre-service high school teachers to be certified to teach Computer Science (CS) Principles. The in-service component will rapidly address the immediate demand and the pre-service component will prepare an ongoing pipeline of CS teachers.

The project will use a dual track approach. Pre-service professional development will be developed through the Arkansas UTeach program using curricula developed at the University of Texas at Austin's UTeach Institute in Austin, TX. In-service teachers will be prepared through UA's Advanced Placement Summer Institute (APSI). In both cases the curricula will be based on the Thriving in Our Digital World CS Principles course developed at the University of Texas, Austin. The effort will be evaluated, assessing both teacher and students outcomes, and comparing student outcomes against their peers who worked online. These findings will contribute to the CS education literature, helping to clarify how effective solely online CS instruction in high school populations relative to face-to-face instruction. In addition, TACT experiences refining the components of this multifaceted teacher preparation program will help inform additional scaling efforts specifically based on Thriving in Our Digital World, and it will help inform policymakers more generally considering statewide mandates on CS education.