Friday, May 25, 2018

Can We Get there (#CSforAll) From Here?

When I was in high school (I graduated in 1971 so this was a while ago) there was a computer in the building. If you got an A in Calculous as a junior you could take the computer class as a senior. With 5,000 students in the school and only one computer teaching computer science to everyone was not an option. We’ve come a long way since then and lack of computers is seldom the problem. And yet, not every high school student takes or even has the option to take computer science. The obstacles today are different.

Some of the problems are the old chicken and egg problem. Not enough teachers so we can’t offer the courses. Not enough courses so there is no incentive to prepare teachers to teach it.

Some of the problems are perceptual. Administrators don’t see the need or the demand. Other people see a need for other things first. Or don’t see the need at all. There are assumptions that may or may not be correct about “room in the schedule” or “it costs too much.” We see all of those things debated over and over again. Sometimes the path to getting computer science education for everyone feels like this:


We as a computer science education community are taking several paths. Cities like New York City are moving to put CS education as an option in all schools. Not quite the same as everyone taking it but access is an important first step. It is coming with in-service professional development as well. It’s all great.

Several states are moving in the same direction at the state level. Kudos to Arkansas which is doing outstanding work for example.

The questions then include two important ones: What is the step from CS for many to CS for all? What is the sustainability path?

There are a lot of ideas out there. One is that if we get more universities to require CS for there students CS will move down to more high schools the way things like calculous have in the past. That could help a lot.

The teachers who are being trained now as in-service will be retiring. Some soon, some not so soon. Those teachers will have to be replaced and there is no guarantee that the funding we as seeing today will be around in the future. Perhaps legislatures will declare victory and move on to other things. Clearly we need pre-service education for teachers to be the CS educators of tomorrow.

We’re starting to see some interest in actually doing pre-service CS education but we’ve got a long way to go. And don’t forget the shortage of schools who want/need to hire CS educators. Is there enough pull from schools or push from requirements that schools offer CS to make this preparation worth the interest of schools of education? I hope so but you never know.

Let’s not forget the looming teacher shortage in general either. While teachers in many states are actively pushing for better compensation and other changes to make teaching a better (for various definitions of better) experience the field has a bad rap in many quarters. There is a lot to be said for taking ones CS knowledge and going into industry.

I’m still optimistic. Some days VERY optimistic. My own state of New Hampshire is slowly but surely moving in the right direction. We’ll get to CS for many in the next few years. CS for all is still going to be a big step.

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