Forecasting a significant drop in federal funding, CSTA is moving to a new Unified Membership model this month.
Under Unified Membership, educators will no longer be able to join CSTA national and local chapters like CSTA Washington for free. To join CSTA and one or more of its local chapters, educators must pay an annual fee of $50 – the same as the current CSTA+ membership. Other educators can still receive bulletins and other communications like the Connector but will be unable to access other benefits that they currently receive from CSTA and CSTA Washington for free.
No other similar organization has supported a free membership model as robust as CSTA and its local chapters have over the last two decades. And CSTA’s $50 Unified Membership dues are still much lower than those of similar organizations. Under Unified Membership, members will receive benefits far beyond the annual $50 dues, including free and discounted access to the CSTA annual conference, national and local Washington products and services, professional development, seminars, networking events, and Washington state clock hours.
The exact details of Unified Membership within CSTA and CSTA Washington are still under construction. What does all of this mean for you?
If you are already a paid CSTA+ member, you are AWESOME! Thank you! Your CSTA+ membership will automatically roll over to the new Unified Membership. Let us know how we can better support you in your CS teaching journey.
If you have been a member of CSTA for over a year but have not yet considered paid CSTA+/Unified Membership, please consider upgrading now. It would help us greatly in CSTA’s vision of “Every student is prepared for a world powered by computing.”
If you are still curious whether CSTA is right for you, please indicate your interest via this Google form. CSTA Washington will contact you when the switch to Unified Membership has been completed. We are currently arranging a variety of promotions to encourage you to become unified members of CSTA and CSTA Washington.
Any questions? Comments about how we can better serve you as CSTA Washington? Please contact washington@csteachers.org.
Why does the computer love spring cleaning?
... Because it is the perfect time to clear out all the bugs!
March 2025 Issue
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Physical Computing Workshop on Mar 15
Inventing with Code: Sparking Creativity Through Physical Computing.
FREE for all educators thanks to the support of ESD121!
Washington CSTA is partnering with Puget Sound Educational Service District (ESD 121) to present our 3rd annual Physical Computing Workshop on Saturday, Mar 15 from 9:30 AM - 2:30 PM.
Similar to last year, we will have separate tracks for Elementary/Middle (micro:bit) and for Middle/High (Odyssey Board - Arduino compatible platform designed for K-12 education). Attendees will receive a kit, lunch, and four Washington state STEM clock hours. For more info, register here.
Bellevue College CS Ed PD on Sat Apr 26
FUTURE: Foundations for Understanding Technology, Uniting Resources for Educators
FREE for all educators thanks to the support of Bellevue College!
Bellevue College Computer Science and CSTA Washington are teaming up on a professional development event to provide K-12 educators with valuable resources, networking opportunities, and insights into Computer Science education.
Educators of all grade levels are encouraged to attend. Three Washington clock hours are available. To find out more and to register (free registration available until Mar 17), see event registration.
Washington CSTA Open Membership Meeting - Mar 5
Interested in learning more about the new CSTA Washington and the work that we do? Please join us for our quarterly open meeting. In addition to our normal business of reviewing status and planning for future events, we will be discussing Unified Membership, the work of the chapter development committee, updates from the CSTA Chapter Leadership Summit, and ideas for improving chapter finances. To register, click here.
What Happened? 404 Website Update
Along with Unified Management, CSTA is moving to a new association management system (AMS) with a website redesign. While the new AMS promises to be a great improvement, all content on the old AMS and website must be manually recreated in the new AMS and website. Except for CSTA Washington's home page, much of CSTA Washington’s current content and URLs will not survive the site redesign. Links published in previous CSTA Washington communications may 404 after the site redesign goes live.
This is the last Connector issue using the current AMS. The Connector will go on hiatus and not publish an April 2025 issue as we switch over and investigate how to publish a high-quality bulletin using the new AMS.
Please consider donating to CSTA Washington (previously CSTA Puget Sound). Your donation will help support our work throughout Washington, including the Connector, Washington CS education metric dashboards, local professional development and networking opportunities for CS educators, and providing Washington clock hours. 100% of your donation (except credit card processing fees) stays local and supports CS educators in Washington.
The bill mandates: (a) the state board of education consider how to incorporate CS into their revised graduation requirements, (b) the board develop a report on district needs in meeting the requirement, and (c) OSPI update the CS learning standards.
The Chapter Development Committee (CDC) has begun work on the three objectives that the interim board has tasked - regional representation, board structure, and social media/membership.
The CDC met two times during February and is continuing their work on the tasks that the interim board has asked it to consider. The CDC expects to have a draft list of recommendations by mid to late March, and its final list by mid to late April.
The committee is still actively looking for one or two more members, specifically from the Olympic Peninsula and/or the southern/Vancouver region. If you are interested, or know another educator from this area who may be interested, please contact the CDC at
The time commitment is about 1-2 hours a week to review and comment on documents and discussions,
plus three or four 45-minute online committee meetings.
The committee work will end in April.
No prior board or committee experience is necessary, just your experience in the region and your willingness to serve.
Check out the CSTA Washington Virtual Community
The Washington CSTA virtual community provides a gated forum for chapter members to interact with each other. Our chapter community is by far the most active CSTA local chapter community and one of the most active of all CSTA communities. See what it is all about by checking out one of the popular current threads:
You must login with your CSTA credentials to view this content.
Teacher Spotlight: Maya Donnelly
Maya Donnelly, a technology and robotics teacher in the Pasco School District, has been an educator and robotics coach for nearly 30 years. She specializes in physical computing, robotics, coding, and cybersecurity, and holds three teaching credentials, including ESL. She has taught at elementary, middle school, high school, and college levels, led summer robotics camps, and partnered with regional and national organizations on STEM initiatives. Her mission is to ensure all students, regardless of background, have access to computer science education.
CS Courses 2024-25
Maya teaches both in-person and online, covering technology and robotics for K-8 students.
In-Person: Three daily elementary technology courses (Grades 1-5), with 22-25 students per class.
Online: 2-3 K-8 robotics and CS courses per day, where students borrow robotics kits through STEM grants.
Extra-Curricular STEM Activities and Initiatives
Maya coaches three First LEGO League robotics teams (30 students in Grades 4-5), with sessions three times a week.
Impact & Achievements in CS Education
Helped expand robotics programs across Pasco School District, where over 20 elementary and middle school teams now compete annually.
Advocated for widespread CS integration in all middle and high schools, with elementary STEM programs incorporating computer science.
Played a role in professional development efforts, training 60+ educators in CS instruction with plans to train 30 more.
How can CSTA Washington Better Support CS Teachers in the Mid-Columbia Area
"I hope that CSTA Washington will advocate for the Computer Science Education and will collaborate with key local educational institutions like Washington State University, Columbia Basin College, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to provide regular outreach opportunities for CS educators in the Mid-Columbia area. Unfortunately, the impact of budget cuts has created a gap in professional development opportunities, especially in remote areas like the Tri-Cities. I believe it takes a village to raise a generation of cyber-aware students, and I would love to see more workshops, community events, and summer camps focused on teaching the basics of cybersecurity and computer science. By partnering with local educational leaders and industry professionals, we can create valuable learning opportunities to help both educators and students grow their skills
and stay ahead in an ever-evolving field."
2024 Congressional App Challenge Winners
Over the past few weeks, participating Washington congressional districts announced the winners of the Congressional App Challenge for 2024 in their district:
The Congressional App Challenge is hosted by Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from May through October each year for middle school and high school students within their districts to encourage them to learn to code and inspire them to pursue careers in computer science. Students can pre-register for the 2025 Congressional App Challenge and start coding their apps now.
Data Corner: Growth in Middle School Computer Science
The 2022-23 K–12 Computer Science Education Data Summary Report published by OSPI shows that the percentage of Washington schools teaching computer science rose from 37.5% in 2018-2019 to 44.2% in 2022-23. Most of this increase came between 2020-21 to 2022-23. "School" is defined as any school teaching at least one grade between 6th and 12th grades.
The CS Education Enrollment 2018-23 visualization on the CSforAll Washington data site provides further insight by providing analysis of the percentage of schools offering CS by school type. High schools were defined as a school with two grades with highest being 11 or 12. Middle schools were defined as a school with two grades between 6-8.
This breakdown illustrates the tremendous growth in middle school CS education in Washington since 2018-19. The percentage of middle schools offering CS rose 9.2% from 38.2% in 2018-19 to 47.4% in 2022-23. Meanwhile, the percentage of high schools offering CS rose only 3.1% from 55.9% to 59.0%.
Further, the percentage of students in middle school enrolled in CS rose 1.9% from 8.0% in 2018-19 to 9.9% in 2022-23. Meanwhile, the percentage of students in HS enrolled in CS rose 1.1% from 7.6% to 8.7%,
Rubber Duck Spotlight: Back In Action
The first set of the new green CSTA rubber ducks have arrived in time for spring.
The duck made its first public appearance at the CSTA Washington Meetup South of the Lake with foundry10 on February 4.
So many ducks found new homes as Washington CSTA attended SIGCSE (above) and hosted a booth at NCCE 2025 Mar 26 -28 in Seattle. (right)
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The CSTA Washington Connector is a monthly newsletter containing relevant information, upcoming events, learning, and connection opportunities for local CS Educators. Previous issues can be viewed by following the "News" tab on our homepage. If you have any comments about the current edition or ideas for future editions, please email washington@csteachers.org.
