Aspirations in Computing Educator Award Reviewer Instructions

Reviews for 2023-24 applications will open on December 1st, 2023!

Before you begin to review applications, please take a look at some helpful tips and steps below.

The Aspirations in Computing (AiC) Educator Award identifies exemplary formal and informal educators who play a pivotal role in encouraging 9th-12th grade women, genderqueer and non-binary students to explore their interest in computing and technology. Rather than being a teaching award, this award honors those who work inside and/or outside of classroom spaces to advocate for gender equity in computing by providing educational opportunities that are inclusive to--and supportive of-- women, genderqueer, and non-binary students. The award recognizes these educators for their efforts to promote gender equity in computing. Since 2011, more than 600 formal or informal educators have been recognized with the AiC Educator Award.

As a volunteer reviewer, you are helping identify AiC Educator Award recipients who are working to embody at least one of the following qualities in their efforts to promote gender equity in computing:

Broadening participation: Educator is actively broadening the participation of students who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) and marginalized genders (women, genderqueer, or non-binary) in computing/technology.
Sustained Impact: Educator demonstrates sustained impact over time.
Leadership: Educator demonstrates leadership within and outside their classroom/organization.

Special consideration is given to applicants that demonstrate adversity (such as barriers to accessing resources or support) in their current learning or educational environment.

Each application is reviewed by a minimum of three different reviewers and the scores are averaged to achieve a final score. The final slate of Award recipients is selected at the discretion of NCWIT and the local Affiliate committees.

Each application is scored on a 100-point scale: 5 of the available points are based on the multiple-choice and checkbox parts of the application and are automatically pre-scored. These items include the applicant’s school/organization/institution type and their student’s access to technology. You do have access to the applicant’s answers to the multiple-choice sections of the application for reference. The remaining 95 points come from qualitative short answers that you score.

Important Tips

Read the applicant's entire application before you start to score the applicant. Applicants are scored based on qualities exhibited in their entire application, rather than how well they answer each question.
We recommend you score and save a "draft" of at least three applications before submitting them to give you an overall sense of the quality of the applications. It will also allow you to score relative to other applicants.
Applicants are allowed to provide links to work examples. This is optional and should be reviewed to inform your overall scoring decisions when provided.
Applicants are formal or informal educators. Informal educators include but are not limited to counselors, mentors, or coaches. They may work for non-profits or with FIRST Robotics, or run after-school programs. Formal educators are considered teachers in schools and may teach subjects other than computer science, such as mathematics or engineering.

Scoring Notes

The detailed scoring rubric is embedded in the online scoring system. You should consult the rubric and applicant scoring guide as you score. A few additional items to note:

Assess an application based on the degree of compelling details in their responses throughout the application, not their writing skills.
In the essays, some special HTML and Unicode characters are displayed in our system, e.g. & and &039.a Reviewers are instructed to not penalize students for the special characters, as this is a limitation of the aspirations.org system's ability (inability) to display those characters correctly. These special HTML codes should not be considered applicant typos.

Qualitative Questions

You are reading and scoring the following qualities based on the four free-response questions. The free-response questions are short essay questions with a suggested length of 100-250 words. The scoring guidelines are embedded on-screen and below.

Since this is a holistic rubric, you should look for the following qualities to be exemplified throughout the entire application, not only in one specific essay response.

1. Evidence of Adversity

Does the applicant face adversity in their teaching or learning environment? We are looking to acknowledge applicants that are honest about their access to resources and support, and any obstacles they face in the teaching environment.

This question is scored on a scale of 0-2 with a weight of 2.5. The maximum amount of points an applicant can receive for this question is 5 points. A score of 5 will reflect that the applicant provides evidence of a high level of adversity in their teaching environment. It is expected that about ⅓ of applicants will receive a score of zero for this question.

2. Broadening Participation

Is the Educator actively working to broaden the participation of students who are of marginalized genders (women, genderqueer, or non-binary students) and who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color in computing/technology?

This question is scored on a scale of 1-5 with a weight of 6. The maximum amount of points an applicant can receive for this question is 30 points. A score of 30 will reflect that the applicant provides compelling details about how they are specifically broadening participation of students who are of marginalized genders and who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color in computing/technology.

3. Sustained Impact

Does the Educator demonstrate a sustained impact over time on CS education?

This question is scored on a scale of 1-5 with a weight of 6. The maximum amount of points an applicant can receive for this question is 30 points. A score of 30 will reflect the applicant clearly and compelling details how they have maintained a sustained impact on their students over time.

4. Leadership within their classroom or team

Does the Educator demonstrate leadership within their classroom or team?

This question is scored on a scale of 1-5 with a weight of 3. The maximum amount of points an applicant can receive for this question is 15 points. A score of 15 will reflect the applicant clearly describes with compelling detail the leadership opportunities in CS Education that they demonstrate within their classroom or team.

5. Leadership outside their classroom or team

Does the Educator demonstrate leadership outside their classroom or team?

What to do with the "Optional Information" question:

Applicants are asked, “Do you have anything else you want to share with us that is not covered in the questions above? Please feel free to include URLs, list of other awards won, or social media links that enhance our understanding of the amazing work you are doing in CS Education.” This is an optional question for applicants. If an applicant leaves this question blank, it should not be held against them. For applicants that do respond, please use it to inform your overall assessment of the application.

Reviewer Comments

Please take a moment and assess the overall application of each applicant, under “Provide Your Review Comments Based on the Entire Application.”

In this section, please add anything you think might be beneficial for NCWIT and the regional Affiliate committee in the selection process. Your comments are extremely valuable and help with the selection of Award recipients. Anything you can share, even why you scored an application the way you did, is appreciated.

These comments, and your scores, are only visible to the selection committee at the local and national level; they are NOT visible to applicants.

Questions? Contact [email protected].

The AiC Educator Award is generously sponsored by AT&T.