Contact: mousedevelopment@mouse.org

New York, NY - This school year, thousands of New York City public school students are becoming mobile-app designers as a result of a broadly expanded partnership between the NYC Department of Education's (NYC DOE) Division of Instructional and Information Technology (DIIT) and Mouse.org, the New York City-based organization that prepares historically excluded youth for roles in tech to build an inclusive and equitable future.

In collaboration with the NYC DOE, Mouse.org is proud to announce the second year expansion of their signature DIIT Design League program. Through this program, middle and high school teachers across the city are bringing Design League into their classrooms, guiding student teams as they create meaningful original apps to help others in their communities.

Offered in all five boroughs of New York City, this in-school and after-school computer science enrichment program is funded by and developed in partnership with the Division of Instructional and Information Technology of the New York City Department of Education. The expansion of the DIIT Design League Partnership comes after rigorous review, testing, and evaluation — including a preliminary pilot involving nearly 1,000 students who participated in the program this past year.

“Design League is an unparalleled opportunity for students from Black, brown and immigrant backgrounds to gain hands-on experience in STEM and computer science,” said Larry Lieberman, CEO of Mouse.org. “We are delighted that DIIT is expanding this one-of-its-kind program to many more students this school year.”

Over 3,000 middle and high school students are covered by the expanded program, more than tripling the nearly 1,000 the students reached at 17 schools last year. The program involves over 120 teachers. Another notable aspect is that we are serving several District 75 schools, which provide instructional support for students with significant developmental and cognitive challenges.

New York City Council Member Ben Kallos, member of the Committee on Education and valued supporter of Mouse programming said, “After the unprecedented disruptions of the past 18 months, New York City public school students are in desperate need of educational enrichment services. As a software developer myself it is great news to see that even more students will now have access to an innovative, mutual aid-centered Design League curriculum. "Mouse.org has done wonderful work in my district, expanding STEM and computer science-related education to so many children. I fully support this expanded partnership between the NYC Department of Education and Mouse.org. I cannot wait to see the wonderful results in children's lives."

Mouse Design League is a comprehensive 25-hour STEM program for middle and high school students that teaches students highly sought-after human centered design and user interface and user experience (UI/UX) skills using the professional design tools such as Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, and Google Apps.

At the end of the program, teams of students will have created an app prototype, which will be eligible for entry into the 2022 Emoti-Con competition, a prestigious youth tech fair that Mouse organizes each year.

City Council Member Debi Rose, Chair of the Committee on Youth Services shared this about Mouse’s high impact programming: "Computer science is vitally important to students in the digital age. I believe the expansion of this tech skills program in all city schools represents an incredibly valuable component of the academic opportunities we offer to our middle and high school students. This is an exciting program and it’s wonderful that more than 2,000 students will benefit from the Design League curriculum. I am pleased to continue to support this program."

Extensive teacher training is built into the program. Multi-day education modules run by Mouse experts prepare teachers to lead the Design League program in their classrooms. Mouse educators meet with teachers throughout the school year, both in groups and one-on-one, to supervise implementation, review student progress, provide coaching, and troubleshoot when challenges arise.

An important feature of this program is that it can be offered as an in-classroom course with supplemental after school program activities, depending on the circumstances of individual schools.

About Mouse.org

Founded in 1997 in New York City, Mouse.org is a youth development nonprofit that strives to achieve racial justice and equity in computer science education and tech employment. Schools across the country use our high-quality online learning resources while our hands-on work continues to focus on the thousands of students Mouse.org trains in low-income neighborhoods of New York City.

42 Accepted Schools

Manhattan
 1. High School for Environmental Studies
 2. PS/MS 161 Pedro Albizu Campos School
 3. PS/IS 187 Hudson Cliffs
 4. MS 319 Maria Teresa Mirabal School
 5. High School for Media and Communications
 6. High School for Health Careers and Sciences

Bronx
 7. PS/MS 29 The Melrose School
 8. MS 301 Paul L. Dunbar
 9. Bronx International High School
 10. IS 206 Ann Mersereau
 11. Bronx Academy for Software Engineering
 12. Crotona International High School
 13. Bronx Health Sciences High School
 14. Explorations Academy High School
 15. IS 318 School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology through the Arts
 16. P721 The Stephen D. McSweeney School
 17. PS 811 The Academy for Career and Living Skills

Brooklyn
 18. Bedford Academy High School
 19. MS 582 The Magnet School for Multimedia, Technology, and Urban Planning
 20. The Park Slope Education Complex at MS 88
 21. MS 246 The Walt Whitman Middle School
 22. Brooklyn School for Music & Theatre
 23. It Takes A Village Academy
 24. Academy for Conservation and the Environment
 25. IS 171 Abraham Lincoln
 26. JHS 218 James P. Sinnott Magnet School for Health and Health Careers
 27. Vista Academy
 28. Liberty Avenue Middle School
 29. PS 95 The Gravesend School
 30. P77K

Queens
 31. IS 5 The Walter Crowley Intermediate School
 32. JHS 185 Edward Bleeker
 33. MS 379 College Point Collaborative
 34. JHS 217 Robert A. Van Wyck
 35. MS 358 The Magnet School for S.T.E.A.M. Exploration and Experiential Learning
 36. IS 145 Magnet School of Innovation and Applied Learning
 37. The Young Women's Leadership School of Astoria

Staten Island
 38. IS 7 Elias Bernstein
 39. IS 27 Anning S. Prall
 40. IS 75 Frank D. Paulo
 41. New Dorp High School
 42. Staten Island School of Civic Leadership