Girls Who Code
Product by Girls Who Code
Facts checked: Not yet checked
Our take (not a Learning Standard rating). This label applies to learning-science judgments throughout this overview.
Our take (not a Learning Standard rating)
While The Learning Standard has not yet formally evaluated Girls Who Code, its project-based approach aligns with established principles of active learning and constructionism. It successfully builds community and engagement, but independent learners utilizing the at-home modules may struggle without the explicit instructional scaffolding provided in the formal club models.
Pros
- Employs project-based learning to teach coding concepts through authentic, real-world applications.
- Builds self-efficacy and persistence through collaborative problem-solving in structured club environments.
- Provides free, unplugged and digital at-home activities that introduce fundamental computational thinking without requiring high-bandwidth internet.
Cons
- Lacks built-in spaced repetition to ensure long-term retention of specific programming syntax.
- Self-guided, at-home modules offer limited automated feedback when students write incorrect code.
- Relies heavily on external facilitation from teachers or club leaders to provide necessary instructional scaffolding.
What Do We Know About Girls Who Code?
Girls Who Code is an effective platform for building computational thinking and computer science interest when your child participates in its structured club or summer program formats. Rather than functioning as a standalone drill-and-practice coding app, this organization relies heavily on social learning and project-based collaboration. Your child will not just passively watch videos; they will actively write code to solve problems, which cognitive science shows is necessary for procedural skill acquisition.
Because the core experience centers on instructor-facilitated clubs and cohort-based summer programs, the effectiveness relies heavily on the human mentors leading the sessions. The platform does offer independent, at-home activities, but these lack the adaptive feedback loops found in dedicated software like Codecademy. Without immediate, corrective feedback, novice programmers can easily internalize misconceptions. However, the program excels at building self-efficacy, which is a critical component in STEM retention. By framing coding as a collaborative tool to enact social change or solve community problems, Girls Who Code provides the meaningful context that encourages learners to persist through difficult syntax errors. Parents should view this primarily as a social, project-driven learning environment rather than an automated coding tutor.
How Does Girls Who Code Work?
Girls Who Code utilizes constructionist, project-based learning where students acquire computer science concepts by actively building games, apps, and websites. Rather than progressing through linear, multiple-choice modules, your child engages in open-ended design challenges. In a typical club or summer program setting, a facilitator introduces a core concept, such as loops, conditionals, or variables, using brief worked examples. Students then immediately apply these concepts to their own ongoing projects.
The platform provides structured curricula for these facilitators, outlining pacing, discussion prompts, and technical troubleshooting steps. For students using the at-home resources, the mechanics shift to self-paced tutorials. These digital and unplugged activities provide step-by-step instructions for completing specific micro-projects using block-based languages like Scratch or text-based languages like Python. The platform emphasizes collaborative debugging, encouraging students to review each other's code to find errors, which reinforces their own understanding of algorithmic logic through peer teaching.
Strengths and tradeoffs of Girls Who Code
The biggest strength of Girls Who Code is its ability to foster high engagement through authentic, collaborative projects, while its biggest weakness is the lack of automated, adaptive feedback for independent learners.
From a learning science perspective, the program leverages constructionism effectively. When your child builds a functioning app or website, they engage in active knowledge construction rather than passive consumption. This project-based model provides a strong cognitive framework, allowing students to map abstract concepts like functions and variables to concrete, visible outcomes. Furthermore, the club model incorporates social learning, utilizing peer collaboration to reduce cognitive load when troubleshooting complex code.
However, the reliance on human facilitation means the program struggles with immediate corrective feedback in its self-guided materials. When a student misplaces a semicolon or misunderstands a loop structure at home, the platform does not intelligently diagnose the error. Without this scaffolding, novices can experience high frustration. Additionally, the curriculum focuses heavily on project completion rather than spaced retrieval practice. Students may use a specific Python syntax once for a project, but without systematic review and recall exercises spaced over time, long-term retention of that specific syntax is unlikely.
Who Might Benefit From Girls Who Code?
Girls Who Code is best for students in grades 3 through college who thrive in collaborative, social environments and want to apply computer science to real-world problems. It is highly effective for beginners who might be intimidated by traditional, isolated programming courses, as the club and cohort models heavily prioritize community building and peer support. Your child will benefit most if they have access to a local chapter or can commit to the structured virtual summer programs. It is less suitable for advanced independent learners seeking rigorous, self-paced mastery of specific programming languages without human interaction.
Data Transparency
Meets Data Transparency Standard
Girls Who Code meets our data transparency standard at Level 2 of 3 (Parent control). Level 3 needs the policy to document an API for retrieving their own data and a named export format.
27 of 35 checks passed
Level 1 · Basic protections
Does not sell data or target ads at students, limits sharing, and lets parents see and delete their child's data.
Level 2 · Parent control (meets the standard)
Families can get their data out, know who processes it, and know how long it is kept.
Level 3 · Direct data access
Families or schools can pull their own data through an API, in a stated format.
Not documented: an API for retrieving their own data, a named export format
View all 35 checks
Parent Access8/8
Does the policy mention parents specifically?
“Protecting children’s privacy is especially important to us - we’re educators and parents ourselves, after all.”
Can parents view their child's data?
“you may access, review, correct, or delete any of your child’s Personal Information in the Club Service by emailing privacy@girlswhocode.com with the same email used to create your parent account.”
Can parents modify their child's data?
“you may access, review, correct, or delete any of your child’s Personal Information in the Club Service by emailing privacy@girlswhocode.com with the same email used to create your parent account.”
Can parents delete their child's account?
“if for some reason you ever want to delete your account (or your child’s account, if you are their parent), you can do that at any time by contacting us as set forth above.”
Is there a dedicated Children's Privacy section?
“This Children’s Privacy Policy explains our information, collection, disclosure, and parental consent practices with respect to information provided by children in relation to our Clubs Services”
Does it reference COPPA compliance?
“Girls Who Code follows the U.S. FTC’s COPPA rules for parental consent, including, where applicable, the use of which is commonly referred to as “school consent” if a school or Facilitator elects to utilize Girls Who Code in the classroom.”
Does it reference FERPA compliance?
“may be kept after deletion of a Clubs Student Account as we are required to retain these at the direction of the school (e.g., for legal compliance reasons such as maintenance of “Education Records ” under FERPA or “Student Data ” under state student privacy laws or equivalent international laws).”
Is parental consent required for child accounts?
“For an Outside School Clubs Child User, a parent must set up an Outside School Club Child Account. A parent will first need to create a parent account. We then seek to obtain parental consent in order to proceed with creating their child’s Outside School Club Child Account.”
Data Portability3/5
Can users access their personal data?
“If you are a user of GWC, you may request access to all your Personal Information we have on file by contacting us as set forth above.”
Can users download/export their data?
“You also have specific rights of access, deletion, correction and data portability regarding your Personal Information under the CCPA and other applicable U.S. state data privacy laws.”
Is there a self-service data access tool?
“If you have registered for an account on GWC, you may update, correct, or delete some of your profile information or your preferences at any time by logging into your account on GWC and accessing your account settings page.”
Is a specific data format mentioned for export?
The policy does not name any format for exported data.
Is there an API for data access?
The policy does not describe an API for users to get their own data.
Data Minimization2/6
Is data collection itemized?
“When Club Student Users set up their own Club Student Account, we ask Club Student Users to provide their country of residence, date of birth, name, unique username or email, and password.”
Can the app be used without a real name?
The policy says student names are collected, including first names supplied by teachers.
Can the app be used without an email?
The policy says student email addresses may be collected from students, parents or teachers.
Does it state collection is limited to what is necessary?
“Girls Who Code collects the minimal amount of information from Clubs Student Users and Outside School Learner Users necessary to register for a Clubs account on the Clubs Services.”
Is IP address anonymized or truncated?
The policy says IP addresses are deleted after six months but does not say they are anonymized or truncated.
Is location tracking explicitly excluded?
The policy rules out requesting precise location from students but says it uses IP-based location data.
Third-Party Protection7/7
Does it explicitly state no selling of data?
“First and foremost, you should know that GWC does not sell or rent any of your child’s Personal Information to any third-party for any purpose – including for advertising or marketing purposes.”
Are third-party providers named?
“We also collect information (name, date, time) via Yesware for School Club Administrators and Community Partners that allows them to schedule check-ins with Girls Who Code staff.”
Are providers contractually restricted?
“We will contractually require that these Clubs Service Providers process Personal Information in accordance with our instructions and consistent with this Clubs Privacy Policy.”
No-targeted-advertising commitment?
“Additionally, Personal Information collected from Club Student Users, Outside School Minor Users, and Outside School Club Child Users is never used for Behaviorally-Targeted Advertising to Club Student Users, Outside School Minor Users, or Outside School Club Child Users by us or any third-party.”
Is AI/ML data sharing addressed?
“We do not knowingly permit our service providers to use personal information for their own AI training or for any other independent purposes.”
Child-specific sharing restriction?
“We do not disclose any Personal Information about children to third parties, except to service providers necessary to provide the Club Service, authorized school personnel (such as Teacher Facilitators), as directed by the child's or Minor’s school or as directed or approved the child’s parents”
Cookies/tracking limited or opt-out?
“GWC will respond to Opt-out Preference or Global Privacy Control Signals. This signal will apply to the browser.”
Deletion & Retention5/5
Can users delete their account?
“You can, of course, delete your account at any time.”
Self-service deletion mechanism?
“If you are a Teacher Facilitator, Outside School Club Facilitator, School Club Administrator, Community Partner, or parent using the Club Services, you may also delete your account by logging into your account and accessing your account settings page.”
Specific data retention timeline?
“We delete Club Student Users’ Accounts if they’re inactive for more than twelve months.”
Auto-deletion of inactive accounts?
“We delete Club Student Users’ Accounts if they’re inactive for more than twelve months.”
Post-deletion handling described?
“Even if you delete your account, keep in mind that the deletion by our Club Service providers may not be immediate and the deleted information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time.”
Advertising2/4
Advertising model explicitly disclosed?
“We also do not place any third-party advertisements in Club Student User or Outside School Learner User logged-in areas of the Club Service.”
Free from third-party advertisements?
The policy bars third parties from placing ads in logged-in areas, but says GWC may itself show contextual ads for third-party educational products and services.
Children excluded from ad targeting?
“Information collected from Club Student Users and Outside School Learner Users (including Personal Information and information collected automatically) is never used or disclosed for Third-party advertising.”
Ad-free option available?
The policy says contextual ads may be shown and does not offer an ad-free option.
Meets Data Transparency Standard
The reviewed policy met our data transparency standard. This result describes the policy disclosures we assessed. Actual practices and legal compliance were not verified.
About this evaluation: Based on automated analysis of 9.23.25 GWC Final Children's Privacy Policy Update.docx, 9.23.25 Final GWC Clubs PP Update.docx and [FINAL] GWC-Led Privacy Policy (Jan 2026) against 35 policy-disclosure questions, including questions adapted from the Common Sense Privacy Program's published evaluation questions. TLS is not affiliated with Common Sense Media, and this is not a Common Sense rating. Quoted text is copied from the policy; unquoted notes are our summary. Results describe what the policy documents, not the company's actual practices. Privacy policies can change: this review reflects the version we analyzed and does not determine legal compliance.
Sources and review method
TLS combines product information and editorial analysis to explain how Girls Who Code works, its tradeoffs, and the questions to ask before choosing it. Product features, an instructional rationale and evidence of learning outcomes are different kinds of information.
Formal Learning Standard assessment: not yet completed. Data Transparency findings are reported separately and do not establish learning effectiveness. Read our methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions About Girls Who Code
Is Girls Who Code free?
Yes, the at-home activities, coding clubs, and high school summer programs are generally free to access or participate in. However, individual schools or community organizations hosting the physical clubs may have their own internal administrative costs or requirements.
Is Girls Who Code good for high school students?
Yes, the program offers specialized virtual summer programs and college preparation resources specifically tailored for high school students. These cohorts focus on intermediate computer science concepts and career readiness, utilizing project-based learning to build professional digital portfolios.
What does Girls Who Code teach?
Girls Who Code teaches foundational and intermediate computer science concepts, including algorithmic thinking, loops, variables, and debugging. Students learn both block-based coding like Scratch and text-based languages such as Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through applied project design.
Girls Who Code vs. Codecademy: Which is better?
Girls Who Code is better for social, project-based learning and building long-term STEM engagement through mentorship and community. Codecademy is superior for independent, self-paced learners who need immediate, automated feedback and spaced repetition to master specific programming syntax efficiently.
Has The Learning Standard evaluated Girls Who Code?
TLS has not yet completed a Learning Standard evaluation of how well Girls Who Code teaches. Its privacy policy has been reviewed for Data Transparency and reaches Level 2, Parent control.
Is Girls Who Code COPPA compliant?
The reviewed privacy policy references COPPA. A policy reference alone does not establish COPPA compliance. Policy review note: The policy says it follows and voluntarily aligns with COPPA.
Is Girls Who Code FERPA compliant?
The reviewed privacy policy references FERPA. A policy reference alone does not establish FERPA compliance. Policy review note: The policy cites FERPA compliance for keeping education records.
Does Girls Who Code have a children's privacy policy?
The reviewed policy includes a dedicated children's privacy section. Policy review note: There is a dedicated Children's Privacy Policy.
Does Girls Who Code sell student data?
The reviewed policy states that the app does not sell data. This is a policy statement; actual data practices were not verified. Policy review note: GWC says it does not sell personal information.
Can you delete your data from Girls Who Code?
The reviewed privacy policy describes account deletion. We have not tested the deletion process. Policy review note: Users can delete their accounts.
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