Pose: phase II: open data exploration tools for k-12 education

The National Science Foundation awarded Concord Consortium Inc. $1,231,452 on August 1, 2026, through the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to build an open-source ecosystem around the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP), a browser-based environment enabling K-12 students to engage in data inquiry without programming.

Concord Consortium will coordinate community development and governance practices to strengthen CODAP's long-term growth and reliability. The work includes collaborating with educators, curriculum developers, code contributors, and researchers to guide software improvements, enhance documentation, and expand opportunities for community contributions of datasets, plugins, data-based activities, and research. By strengthening support for curriculum designers and coordinating ecosystem development, the project will establish a stable, flexible platform for teaching foundational data science skills across K-12 settings, addressing the lack of age-appropriate tools for younger learners as data science expands in school programs nationwide.

The award period runs from August 1, 2026, through July 31, 2028, with performance at Concord, Massachusetts. No sub-recipients are planned.

Abstract

The growing importance of data science in k?12 education has created a strong need for tools that help students explore real data in simple, age-appropriate ways. Many states and schools are adding data science to their programs, yet most existing tools were designed for adults and are too complex for younger learners. The common online data analysis platform (codap) offers a visual, intuitive approach that helps students build data skills from an early age. With millions of users and broad adoption by teachers and researchers, codap already plays a key role in supporting data focused learning. Building an open-source ecosystem (OSE) around codap will expand access to effective data tools, strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) education, and help prepare students nationwide for data-driven careers. This pathways to enable open-source ecosystems (pose) project creates a sustainable, community-supported ecosystem for coadap, an open-source, browser-based environment that allows students to engage in data inquiry without programming. The OSE works with educators, curriculum developers, code contributors, and researchers to guide software improvements, enhance documentation, and expand opportunities for collaboration and contributions of datasets, plugins, data-based activities, and research. By coordinating community development and governance practices and by strengthening support for curriculum designers, the effort ensure codap?s long term growth and reliability. The resulting ecosystem will provide a stable, flexible platform for teaching foundational data science skills across k?12 settings. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.