WHO WE ARE

BRBYTES is a Research Practitioner Partnership
between the East Baton Rouge Parish School System (EBRPSS)
and Louisiana State University (LSU)

“It was about equity and fairness.” - on making sure all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status, would have the chance to learn coding and computer science, thus gaining access to some of the fastest-growing and highest-earning careers.

Juana Moreno BRBytes team leader

BRBYTES was formed to design, study and support a pathway of computational thinking and computer science courses for 7-12th grade students. Our partnership also intends to provide a role model for deployment of computing education in Louisiana. In addition to developing and implementing computing courses for students, BRBytes is committed to supporting teachers and developing a community of computer science teachers in Louisiana.

OUR GOALS

Increase principal, counselor and parent awareness about careers in computing and the importance of equity in the recruiting and advising of students in the area of computer science

Increase the number of minority teachers from the existing pool of teachers who are willing and ready to teach computing courses

Encourage the use of culturally responsive practices and pedagogies to inspire traditionally underrepresented groups to enter the field of computer science

Increase student engagement in computing courses and their preparedness for further computing programs

Promote student awareness and aspirations towards computing careers starting in middle school

Provide the workforce needed for current businesses in Louisiana and attract more businesses to the state by offering an outstanding pool of computer-trained and ready employees

OUR HISTORY

BRBYTES TIMELINE

Building Research to Boost Youth
Technology Education and Skills

IDEATION

2015

A partnership between EBRPSS and the LSU Cain Center was formed to create curricula and academic support structures for Liberty High School, a college preparatory STEM high school. This partnership served the East Baton Rouge.
The LSU Cain Center created 3 high school STEM graduation pathways (biomedical, digital media and pre-engineering.) These pathways followed the model pioneered at Liberty High. Dr. Juana Moreno partnered with the LSU Cain Center to add computing as a fourth pathway option. BRBYTES was formed as a Research Practitioner Partnership (RPP) with EBRPSS with the specific purpose of bringing computing education to all the middle and high schools in EBRPSS.

PATHWAYS

2017
EXPANSION

2018

BRBYTES expands to 8 parishes
Led by Dr. Moreno, the interdisciplinary BRBYTES team receives $1 million in grant funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the project "BRBYTES".

NSF Funding

2019

*OCT 2019 The BRBYTES project receives an additional $4 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education to further develop the BRBYTES curriculum and assess its effectiveness over the next 5 years.
EXPANSION

2020

BRBYTES expands to 14 parishes.
Expands to 22 parishes. This year the program doubled the number of students enrolled from 2000 to almost 4000.

Expansion

2021

*winter 2021 Commits to reaching an additional 3,000 elementary school students in EBR by Summer 2022.
Beyond

2022

In the long term, BRBYTES intends to serve as a role model for the deployment of computing education in Louisiana.

OUR FOCUS

Reach
BRBytes is developing and implementing courses in schools across the Louisiana state that will train students in these fields to prepare them for future careers.
Emphasis
In addition, though the curriculum focuses on computer science and computational thinking, it does so with emphasis on mathematics to improve student understanding of Algebra 1 and Geometry.