The ACT Report highlighted research that demonstrates what we know: the education system impacts life chances more than any other system. The tech industry should therefore intervene earlier to make high quality Computer Science (CS) education available for all children, not just those in affluent areas or attending well funded school districts. But due to a chronic shortage of CS teachers — especially from underrepresented communities — expanding CS education isn’t currently realistic. Taking a systems thinking approach, one of the highest leverage points that would improve access to CS education is the development of more CS teachers. Snap has set out to do this by investing in training a thousand teachers each year in CS literacy and integrating CS concepts across all areas of instruction. This has been made possible by provision of a $10 million endowment from Snap: $5 million to Georgia State University, and $5 million to California State University Dominguez Hills. This program is made possible through Snap’s relationship with CSforAll. 

Georgia State University (GSU) 

In 2022, due to Snap’s investment, GSU — which graduates about 400 teachers every year — taught computer science to about half of them. GSU is now closer to its goal of teaching all 400 teachers computer science every year. Of its 2022 intake, half of the teachers were Black or African American, a third were White, and 10% were Hispanic or Latino.
 

California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) 

Snap’s investment impacts about 600 undergraduate and 400 graduate students in the CSUDH college of education, of which 50% are first generation college students and 87% are students of color.

Both investments of $5 million created endowments at each institution to lay the basis for long-term work. This means the two programs will be funded in perpetuity, and will have a reliable source of funds to continue this critical work.