The Computer Science Teacher Association (CSTA) also
initiated a series of professional development courses for computer science teachers, and promotes research and practice for computer
science education at the K-12 level through an online repository (see details at http://csta.acm.org/About/sub/CSTAChapters.html). In
addition, http://www.code.org, which was launched in 2013 and has collaborated with several private companies, including Google and
Apple, is making a concerted effort to increase the participation of underrepresented students in computer science by expanding such
courses in more schools (details at https://www.code.org/). Namely, several projects have been launched recently among the STEM education
communities to improve computer science education at the K-12 level, but a range of stakeholders in the U.S. K-12 communities are
not yet fully aware of the importance of promoting computer science education at the K-12 level (Stephenson, 2009; Stephenson, Gal-Ezer,
Haberman, & Verno, 2005). Thus, little attention has been paid to research on the effects of taking computer science courses at the K-12 level
on student learning outcomesdparticularly STEM major choices.