The Arkansas Department of Education Office of Computer Science is pleased to announce the Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year award cycle for the 2022-2023 school year. This award is open to anyone holding an Arkansas Educator’s License, in good standing, and currently working in an Arkansas K-12 public or public charter school. The selection process will seek educators who demonstrate a strong commitment to and substantial impact on the CS initiative in their school and community; rubric will include, but is not limited to, consideration of evidence of direct student, school, community, and state impact; evidence of personal commitment to professional growth; and evidence of commitment to and excitement about the #CSforAR / #ARKidsCanCode Computer Science Initiative.

Five finalists will be selected from the applicants, and each will receive $2,500.00. From that five, one will be selected as the Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year for 2023, and receive an additional $12,500.00 award.

Eligible educators may apply at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ARCSEOY2023 through the end of February 2023.

A complete application will include:

• Responses to requested personal information
• Resume (highlighting professional experience in CS and Education)
• Three letters of recommendation; including one from each of the following
  
  • Principal or other direct supervisor
  • Other teacher or other educator which holds a similar position (does not have to be in the same district)
  • Parent or other community leader outside of education
• One artifact that supports your application; artifacts may include but are not limited to:
  
  
  • Link to a teaching or professional development delivery video (up to 30 minutes) and associated documentation (lesson plan or presentation)
  • Something created or completed for the benefit of your students or school that has a high and/or long-term impact

• Responses to the following six reflection questions (There is a 2,500 character maximum for each question’s response.)
  
  • Question 1: Given unlimited resources, without financial constraints, what would be your ultimate vision for computer science for your student population?
  • Question 2: Reflecting upon your work supporting Computer Science education; what makes you the Arkansas exemplar of a highly qualified and highly motivated educator in this field?
  • Question 3: What do you believe sets you apart from other educators in this field as a leader, supporter, and advocate of computer science education that goes beyond your assigned duties?
  • Question 4: How do you demonstrate, in your classroom environment, the importance of the Computer Science Practices, and which of these would your students say you value the most and why?
  • Question 5: What actions are you taking to increase diversity within your computer science program and what identifiable results can be attributed to these actions?
  •  
  • Question 6: How are you supporting the growth and availability of computer science oriented student pathway opportunities and development within your school?

Only fully complete applications submitted by 11:45p.m. CST on February 28, 2023, will be eligible for consideration. 

All applications will undergo a finalist selection process between March 1, 2023 - March 20, 2023.

The Arkansas Computer Science Initiative Unit will select five (5) finalists based on a rubric scoring system. The five (5) finalists will be announced via Commissioner’s Memo on or before March 31, 2023, and will be eligible to receive a $2,500.00 award.

Between April 1 and April 20, 2023, a panel of reviewers, consisting of members of the Computer Science and Computing Initiative Unit and other external state computer science and education leaders, will select the winner based on a rubric scoring system.

The Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year will receive an additional $12,500.00 award. The selected Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year will be requested to be available for an awards/announcement ceremony.

This is Computer Science Education Week. Arkansas is releasing a new Computer Science related announcement and/or commitment each day of this week. For a full listing of the announcements as they are made, please visit the ADE Computer Science Website at: https://csforar.info/CompSciEdWeek