College Board Partnership 

Providing focused and relevant training opportunities is one of the most impactful things College Board could offer to immediately expand the pool of teachers for AP CSP and AP GoPo – the College Board’s Two Codes courses. The College Board will provide support for the following: 

  • Two Codes Virtual Training: Train teachers to successfully lead Two Codes courses; Train administrators and counselors to successfully expand and support Two Codes courses. 

  • Two Codes Learning Communities: Create professional learning communities for administrators, counselors, and course-specific educators who meet regularly throughout the academic year. 

  • Two Codes Collaborative Partnerships: Create partnerships between schools across cohorts so that they can collaboratively problem-solve and share promising practices. 

Forming a Two Codes Team in Your School 

Central to the Two Codes work in Rhode Island is ensuring commitment and engagement from teachers and administrators at the school level.  To support this important work, RIDE and the College Board are establishing Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors.  This opportunity is open to all schools that currently offer AP Government and Politics and/or AP Computer Science or any high school that would like to offer these two courses. 

Two Codes Cohorts 

Rhode Island Two Codes Mentors – Cohort One  

  • Two Codes Teacher Ambassador Teams that participated in the first year of the Two Codes initiative are eligible to continue to co-coordinate and lead their school’s participation in the program. 

  • Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors (Cohort One) will serve as Two Codes Mentors to the incoming cohort of Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors (Cohort Two) and will be responsible for supporting and ensuring Two Codes mentee participation in trainings, learning communities, and other requirements of the program. 

  • Mentors will be responsible for developing and delivering the content for monthly Two Codes Meetings with Teacher Ambassadors  

  • Mentors will be paid a stipend of $1,500 per year.  

  • Target Number of Mentor: ~4-5 

Rhode Island Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors – Cohort Two 

  • One Government/Civics teacher and one Computer Science teacher from a Rhode Island high school will jointly apply to be Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors. 

  • Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors will co-coordinate and lead their school’s participation in the program and be responsible for participating in trainings, learning communities, and other requirements of the program.  

  • Teacher Ambassadors will be paid a stipend of $1,500 per year.  

  • Target Number of Teacher Ambassadors: 10 schools ~16-20 participants 

Scope of Work (Estimated 30 Hours Each) 

Each school’s Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors will be expected to work collaboratively with a Two Codes Mentor to achieve the following: 

  • Serve as a champion, in your school and throughout the state, for expanding AP Government and Politics and AP Computer Science access to students. 

  • Attend all Two Codes meetings and trainings for the duration of the school year 

  • Collaborate with Two Codes school-based partner on a regular basis 

  • Create a school-specific Two Codes Vision document 

  • Establish Two Codes goals for your school and create an action plan to realize these goals 

  • Host information sessions to identify and recruit students to participate in AP Government and Politics and AP Computer Science Principles courses 

  • Follow the Two Codes Shared Principles and implement the lesson plans/project-based learning activities in your classroom 

  • Provide Two Codes Playbook lesson plan and project-based learning feedback and suggestions for improvement 

  • Create lesson plans and/or project-based learning activities tied to the Two Codes shared principles 

  • Document progress toward achieving stated goal 

  • Reflect on learning and share promising practices with the larger Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors community 

  • Continuously evaluate your progress towards meeting your school-specific goal by instituting a Two Codes Cycle of Learning 

Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors: Responsibilities 

Two Codes Vision 

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Each school’s Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors will be responsible for working together to create a school-specific Two Codes Vision document on how Two Codes furthers the school’s goals for its teachers and students. Two Codes Mentors should re-visit and revise their existing vision document and support their mentee(s) in the development of their vision document. 

The vision document should include input from teachers, administrators, students, families, and community members. Plans should include ways to address following questions:  

  1. If AP Government and Politics and/or AP Computer Science Principles are not currently being offered, what is the plan for introducing those courses? 

  2. Do all students have adequate access to high quality civics and computer science coursework, including AP Government and Politics and AP Computer Science? 

  3. Do our students in Two Codes courses match the demographics of our student body?  

  4. Do we have local civic and technology partners that could help further our Two Codes goals?  

  5. Are teachers adequately trained and prepared to teach Two Codes courses? If not, how are we generating this capacity?  

  6. Is our curriculum, in each Two Codes course, engaging to students, relevant to their experiences, and connected to important issues in our community and world? 

Here are some examples of Two Codes Goals: 

  • By the end of the school year, we aim to create an AP Computer Science Principles course for three sections of students (approx. 75 students) and identify and train a current teacher to lead this course 

  • We aim to expand our AP Government and Politics course to double the number of students who take the course and earn college credit in 2021-22 school year. 

  • We aim to ensure our current AP Computer Science courses reach a 50-50 ratio of males to females by the end of next school year. 

Two Codes Collaborative Partnerships 

Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors will be responsible for jointly facilitating the Two Codes Collaborative Partnerships between school cohorts.  These responsibilities include: 

  1. Sharing the Two Codes Vision document with Collaborative Partner school 

  2. Attending inter-visitations (virtual or in-person) with Collaborative Partner school 

  3. Creating meeting agendas for inter-visitations and facilitating these meetings. 

  4. Collecting feedback and implementing revisions in relations to the Two Codes work that arise from these meetings.  

Two Codes Cycle of Learning 

Two Codes Teacher Ambassadors will be jointly responsible for steering the school-specific Cycle of Learning in relation to the Two Codes goal(s). This responsibility includes: 

  • Establishing a Two Codes School Team (Late Summer/Early Fall) 

  • Building a shared understanding of expectations (Fall) 

  • Guiding the goal setting process (Fall) 

  • Collecting and reviewing data on the state of computer science and civics education, including data regarding course access, student achievement, student demographics, and teacher preparation. (Fall) 

  • Building an action plan for achieving the school’s Two Codes goal(s) and implementing changes based on this plan. (Fall/Winter) 

  • Assessing progress toward reaching the goal(s) and revising plan if necessary. (Winter/Spring) 

The Two Codes School Team should include members of the school community who are key decision-makers and/or who are passionate about expanding civics and computer science.  Teachers, administrators, schedulers, guidance counselors, parents, and students are all possible members of the Two Codes School Team.