CSEd Relative Participation KPI Washington 2023-24

Education administrators, teachers, and advocates should use the following CS Education relative performance KPI (key performance indicators) (KPI) in the dashboards and reports in Washington CS and CTE Education Analytics 2023-24 to compare the state of computer science education in ESDs, districts, and schools in Washington of varying sizes and demographics:

Gender Relative Participation
Race Relative Participation
Income Relative Participation
ELL (English Language Learner) Relative Participation
SWD (SWD Relative Participation

Relative Participation KPI are equity measures that show how well CS education is distributed among demographic groups. Just as the Participation Rate metrics allow for comparison of educational organizations with different population sizes, the relative participation KPIs allow for comparison of educational organizations with varying participation rates and student demographics. The dashboards and reports in this blog post track the following relative participation KPI:

Information from the 2024 State of CS Education report (herein 2024 national report) will be used to calculate these relative participation KPI nationally. While the 2025 State of AI and CS Education Report does not provide information to allow us to calculate these relative participation KPI nationally, the 2024 State of CS Education report does.

Calculating the relative KPI nationally vs. Washington results in the following table:

	National	Washington
Gender Relative Participation	50.6%	49.2%
Race Relative Participation	72.7%	93.1%
Income Relative Participation	54.4%	95.6%
ELL Relative Participation	60.9%	101.2%
SWD Relative Participation	63.0%	85.7%

100% means that computer science education is evenly distributed between the demographic groups.

Washington does very well compared to national data except for the Gender Relative Participation metric. However, Washington educational organization should only compare themselves to the data using the OSPI CS Education report. The national data from the 2024 report looks only at high school data and has a much narrower definition of a CS course than Washington data. Future analysis of Washington data should look at the extent to which these metrics change between high school and middle school for a better comparison with national data.

While this table allows rough comparisons for Washington educational organizations, the table contains rounding uncertainties that may result in different KPI if numbers from different places in the reports were used. The national data has similar rounding uncertainties. Numbers would be different if detailed raw data were available

Gender Relative Participation

Gender Relative Participation is defined as follows:

\text{Gender Relative Participation} = \frac{\text{CS Participation Rate for Girls}} {\text{CS Participation Rate for Boys}}

The CS Participation Rate for Gender X / Non-Binary students is not included in this calculation.

Gender Relative Participation can also be calculated indirectly as follows:

\text{Gender Relative Participation} = \frac{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are girls}} {\%\ \text{all students who are girls}} \right) }{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are boys}} {\%\ \text{all students who are boys}} \right) }

To calculate national Gender Relative Participation, page 67 of the 2024 national report provides the following chart showing what percentage of CS students were male, female, or non-binary

Participation in HS CS by Gender from 2024 State of CS Ed report page 67

To calculate the national Gender Relative Participation Rate using this data, we also need to know the percentage of students nationally who were boys/girls/non-binary. While the 2024 national report does not provide this data, it is available from calculations on NCES CCD data files: 48.7% girls, 51.2% boys, 0.1% unspecified.

This provides national Gender Relative Participation for 2023-24 at

\frac{\left(\frac{32.5}{48.7}\right)}{\left(\frac{67.5}{51.2}\right)} = 0.506 = 50.6\%

To calculate this data for Washington, we look at the Gender tab of the CS Education in Washington Demographic Drilldown 2019-24 dashboard and look up the CS Participation Rate for girls (5.8%) and the CS Participation Rate for boys (11.8%) for SY 2023-24

This provides the Washington Gender Relative Participation for 2023-24 at

\frac{5.8}{11.8} = 0.492 = 49.2\%

Race Relative Participation

Race Relative Participation is defined as follows:

\text{Race Relative Participation} = \frac{\text{Combined CS Participation Rate of Group A}} {\text{Combined CS Participation Rate of Group B}}

In the above equation:

Group A consists of Black/African American, Hispanic/LatinX, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and Native American students,
Group B consists of White and Asian students
Two-or-more and Not Provided/Other students are not included in this calculation

Race Relative Participation can also be calculated as follows

Race Relative Participation = (% CS students who are in Group A / % all students who are in Group A) / (% CS Students who are in Group B / % of all students who are in Group B)

\text{Race Relative Participation} = \frac{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are in Group A}} {\%\ \text{all students who are in Group A}} \right) }{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are in Group B}} {\%\ \text{all students who are in Group B}} \right) }

To calculate the national Rate Relative Participation, page 60 of the 2024 national report contains the following chart:

Participation by Race/Ethnicity from 2024 State of CS Education Report

Using this chart and the alternate calculation method, the national Race Relative Participation Rate is:

((17 + 20 + 1 + 0.3)/ (15 + 29 + 1 + 0.4)) /((13 + 45)/(5 + 45)) = 72.7%

\frac{ \left( \frac{17 + 20 + 1 + 0.3} {15 + 29 + 1 + 0.4} \right) }{ \left( \frac{13 + 45} {5 + 45} \right) } = 0.727 = 72.7\%

To calculate this data for Washington, we look at the Race/Ethnicity tab of CS Education in Washington Demographic Drilldown 2019-24 to create the following table of race/ethnicity student population percentages and CS participation rates:

	% Student Population	CS Participation Rate
Black/African American	4.5%	8.8%
Hispanic/LatinX	24.8%	8.4%
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	1.3%	9.0%
Native American/Eskimo	1.3%	7.2%
White	49.2%	8.0%
Asian	7.9%	15.6%

Using this table, the Washington Race Relative Participation Rate for SY2023-24 is:

\frac{ \left( \frac{ 4.5 \times 8.8 + 24.8 \times 8.4 + 1.3 \times 9.0 + 1.3 \times 7.2 }{ 4.5 + 24.8 + 1.3 + 1.3 } \right) }{ \left( \frac{ 49.2 \times 8.0 + 7.9 \times 15.6 }{ 49.2 + 7.9 } \right) } = 0.931 = 93.1\%

Income Relative Participation

Income Relative Participation is defined as follows:

\text{Income Relative Participation} = \frac{\text{CS Participation Rate for Low\text{-}Income Students}} {\text{CS Participation Rate for Non\ Low\text{-}Income Students}}

The terms “low-income” and “free-and-reduced lunch (FRL)” or “economically disadvantaged” are considered to represent the same demographic in these studies.

Income Relative Participation can also be calculated as follows

\text{Income Relative Participation} = \frac{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are Low\text{-}Income}} {\%\ \text{all students who are Low\text{-}Income}} \right) }{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are not Low\text{-}Income}} {\%\ \text{all students who are not Low\text{-}Income}} \right) }

Page 62 of the 2024 national report provides the following chart:

Participation by Economically Disadvantaged Students 2023-24 from 2024 State of CS Report

Using this chart and the alternate calculation method, the national Income Relative Participation Rate is

\frac{\left(\frac{38}{53}\right)}{\left(\frac{62}{47}\right)} = 0.544 = 54.4\%

To calculate this data for Washington, we look at the Income tab of CS Education in Washington Demographic Drilldown 2019-24 and look up the CS Participation Rate for Low-Income Students (8.6%) and the CS Participation Rate for Non-Low-Income Students (9.0%) for SY 2023-24

This provides the Washington Income Relative Participation for 2023-24 at

\frac{8.6}{9.0} = 0.956 = 95.6\%

ELL Relative Participation

ELL (English Language Learner) Relative Participation is defined as follows:

\text{ELL Relative Participation} = \frac{\text{CS Participation Rate for ELL Students}} {\text{CS Participation Rate for Not\ ELL Students}}

ELL Relative Participation can also be calculated as follows:

\text{ELL Relative Participation} = \frac{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are ELL}} {\%\ \text{all students who are ELL}} \right) }{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are not ELL}} {\%\ \text{all students who are not ELL}} \right) }

Page 63 of the 2024 national report provides the following chart:

ELL Participation from 2024 State of CS Education report

Using this chart and the alternate calculation method, the national ELL Participation Rate is

\frac{\left(\frac{7}{11}\right)}{\left(\frac{93}{89}\right)} = 0.609 = 60.9\%

For Washington, the ELL tab of CS Education in Washington Demographic Drilldown 2019-24 has the CS Participation Rate for ELL Students (9.0%) and the CS Participation Rate for Non-Low Income Students (8.9%) for SY 2023-24.

This provides the Washington Income Relative Participation for 2023-24 at:

\frac{9.0}{8.9} = 1.012 = 101.2\%

SWD Relative Participation

SWD (Students With Disabilities) Relative Participation is defined as follows:

\text{SWD Relative Participation} = \frac{\text{CS Participation Rate for SWD}} {\text{CS Participation Rate for Non\text{-}SWD Students}}

SWD Relative Participation can also be calculated as follows:

\text{SWD Relative Participation} = \frac{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are SWD}} {\%\ \text{all students who are SWD}} \right) }{ \left( \frac{\%\ \text{CS students who are not SWD}} {\%\ \text{all students who are not SWD}} \right) }

Students with Disabilities are those students with IEPs. The OSPI 2023-24 K–12 Computer Science Education Data Summary Report does not provide data on Students with 504 Plans.

Page 64 of the 2024 national report provides the following chart:

Using this chart and the alternate calculation method, the national SWD Participation Rate is

\frac{\left(\frac{10}{15}\right)}{\left(\frac{90}{85}\right)} = 0.630 = 63.0\%

For Washington, the SWD tab of CS Education in Washington Demographic Drilldown 2019-24 has the CS Participation Rate for SWD (7.8%) and the CS Participation Rate for Non-SWD (9.1%) for SY 2023-24

This provides the Washington SWD Relative Participation for 2023-24 at:

\frac{7.8}{9.1} = 0.857 = 85.7\%

To see the descriptions and calculations for other KPI listed in KPI for CS Education in Washington 2023-24, see the following posts:

CSEd Availability KPI Washington 2023-24 (CS Available School Percentage, CS Available Student Percentage)
CSEd Participation KPI Washington 2023-24 (CS Participation Rate, CS Participation Rate for Students with Access)