Quinn Burke

Quinn is a Senior 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

• Multimedia & digital literacies
• Computational thinking
• Organizational behavior

• 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

• Curriculum & Training Consultant, New York City Department of Education CS4ALL 2.0 (2024-30)                 
  Support NYC public schools’ $80 million relaunch of Computer Science for All (CS4ALL) initiative as it looks ahead to designing and implementing its 2030 CS4ALL Blueprint. 

• National Science Foundation Computer Science for All (2023-26) Award # 2318168
  co-Principal Investigator – Modeling Inclusive Computational Thinking Instruction: Video Cases for Developing Teacher Knowledge 
  ($699,814)

• National Science Foundation Computer Science for All (2022-26) Award #2219350
  Principal Investigator - Districts Helping Districts: Scaling Inclusive CT Pathways
  ($1,779,377)

• College of Charleston (SC) 2018 Distinguished Researcher Award Nomination

• American Education Research Association (AERA) 2015 Outstanding Book Award Nomination

• Roschelle, J., Burke, Q., Ruiz. P., & Santo, R. (2024). "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).
• Burke, Q., Angevine, C., Proctor, C., & O’Donnell, K. (2022). “Credentialing computation: Empowering teachers in computational thinking through educator microcredentials.” In Professional Development for In-Service Teachers: Research and Practices in Computing Education (Eds., C. Mouza, A. Yadav, & A. Leftwich). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
• Burke, Q. & Bailey, C. (2020). "Becoming an “adaptive” expert: Investigating students’ knowledge-transfer and metacognitive activities at college computer science departments and at coding bootcamps." Communications of the Association of Computing Machinery (CACM), 63(9).
• Burke, Q. (2016). "Mind the metaphor: Charting the rhetoric about introductory programming in K-12 schools." On the Horizon. 24(3).
• Burke, Q., O’Byrne, W., & Kafai, Y.B. (2016). "Computational participation: Understanding coding as an extension of literacy instruction." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 59(4),371-75.
• Kafai, Y.B. & Burke, Q. (2014). "Connected code: Why children need to learn programming." Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.