Quinn Burke

Quinn is a Deputy Director of Computational Thinking and Learning Pathways at the national education non-profit Digital Promise in Redwood City, CA. His research at Digital Promise examines the effectiveness of different activities by which to introduce students to programming and how computational thinking (CT) can support core curricula coursework. His research has been supported by a number of state and federal grants, including awards from the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education. He has written numerous articles around integrating computing into the school day, as well as co-authored two books on K-12 coding and digital gaming through MIT Press.

• Computer science education research
• Research practice partnerships (RPPs)
• Research methods in design-based research

• Data science
• Multimedia & digital literacies
• Computational thinking
• Organizational behavior

• Convening Member, DataScience4Everyone: K-12 Data Science & Literacy Learning Progressions. (2024).

• Convening Member, Reimagining Computer Science (CS) Pathways. Bridge to Postsecondary Computer Science National Science Foundation (DRK-12 #2101547; 2023-24).

• Advisory Board, TeachAI (2023-Present).

• Advisory Board, National Science Foundation (Small Business Innovation Research #2052404)    EcoSystemOne Virtual Reality Platform (2020-21).

• University of Pennsylvania, EdD in Learning Sciences, 2012
• Columbia University, MA in English Literature, 2003
• Boston College, BA in English, 1999

• Senior Director, Computational Thinking & Learning Pathways, Digital Promise Global
• Computational Thinking Research Director, Digital Promise Global
• Senior Research Scientist, Digital Promise Global
• Associate Professor, College of Charleston
• Head Grant Writer/Curriculum Consultant, Digital Network Group
• English Department Chair & Teacher, Maritime Academy Charter High School

• National Science Foundation Computer Science for All     
  10/25- 9/29 Principal Investigator – From Pathways to Progressions: Empowering Districts to Equip K-12 Computational Thinkers with Data Science and Machine Learning Foundations 
  (Award # 2524353)

• Robin Hood/ New York City Fund for Public Schools
  4/25- 6/27 PI – NYCPS Office of Student Pathways: CS4All 2.0 – Literacy & Math Curricula Integration 

• National Science Foundation Computer Science for All     
  10/22- 9/26 Principal Investigator – Districts Helping Districts: Scaling Inclusive CT Pathways (Award # 2219350)

• Jacob, S., Prado, Y., & Burke, Q., (submitted). Computational and AI literacy: Lessons learned from computer science education.  For inclusion in Journal of Computer Science Integration, https://jcsi.redlands.edu/.
• Dunbar, K., Burke, Q., Coenraad, M., & Rangel, A.(2025).  Why?, what?, how?: Teacher and administrator perspectives on district-wide computational thinking pathways. Computer Science Education, 1–37. 
• Roschelle, J., Burke, Q., Ruiz. P., & Santo, R. (2025). Towards CS/CT pathways: Creating guidance documents as district leadership development. Policy Futures in Education, Special Issue of Equity in 21st Century Computer Science Education (Eds., J. Childs, A. Leftwich, and J. Flapan).