Corrected: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of basketball star Chris Bosh.
Computer science education is getting something of a fresh look from state and local policymakers, with many starting to push new measures to broaden K-12 students鈥� access to the subject.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now have policies in place that allow computer science to count as a mathematics or science credit, rather than as an elective, in high schools鈥攁nd that number is on the rise. Wisconsin, Alabama, and Maryland have adopted such policies since December, and Idaho has a legislative measure awaiting final action.
At least eight more states are in the process of reviewing proposals for similar legislative or regulatory changes.
鈥淭he amazing thing is not only the level to which policy changes are increasing, but the diversity, both regional and political,鈥� of where it鈥檚 happening, said Cameron Wilson, the chief operating officer for the computer science advocacy group Code.org. 鈥淭hese are red states and blue states, and they鈥檙e all embracing this.鈥�
In January, Texas lawmakers approved legislation that would allow students to take a computer science course to satisfy a foreign-language requirement鈥攁 move that alarmed some computing advocates, who say it denies computer science鈥檚 deep roots in math and science. Several other states, including Kentucky and New Mexico, are considering a similar approach.
In addition, some large urban districts are getting in on the action. The Chicago and Broward County, Fla., systems are finding ways to bring computer science courses to more students and schools in the next academic year.
There鈥檚 widespread agreement that the recent surge in public interest around computer science education was partly triggered by a hip, well-financed marketing campaign by Code.org. The year-old nonprofit sponsored December鈥檚 Hour of Code, an initiative to get 10 million students to spend at least one hour learning computer-programming skills. According to Code.org, more than 20 million students participated.
A data point frequently cited by Code.org is that by 2020, there will be 1.4 million jobs in the computing field, but just 400,000 college computer science majors to fill them. The group also says that only 10 percent of high schools in the United States currently offer computer science鈥攖hough other computer science advocates indicate that鈥檚 just a best guess.
鈥淲e know for sure it鈥檚 really low, but we don鈥檛 have an exact number,鈥� said Chris Stephenson, the executive director of the New York City-based Computer Science Teachers Association, a group that advocates increased access to computer science in K-12 education.
According to recent state data from the College Board, which administers the Advanced Placement program, not a single student took the AP computer science test in Wyoming in 2013. Just one student took the exam last year in Mississippi, and 11 students took the test in Montana.
Barbara J. Ericson, the director of computing outreach and a senior research scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, examined the same data and found stark inequities in the racial and gender profiles of test-takers.
For instance, in 2013, no African-American students took the exam in a total of 11 states, and no Hispanic students took it in eight states. Fewer than 20 percent of test-takers overall were female, and three states had no female test-takers.
Alison Derbenwick Miller, a vice president of the Oracle Academy, a philanthropic arm of the information technology giant Oracle that provides computer science curricula to schools and teachers, called access to computer science 鈥渁 social-justice issue.鈥�
鈥淚n the future, students who don鈥檛 have an understanding of computing and computer science won鈥檛 be able to get good-paying jobs because those jobs just won鈥檛 exist,鈥� she said.
Code.org estimates that 60 percent of STEM-related jobs are currently in computing.
Laying the Groundwork
Proponents of teaching computer science鈥攚hich the CSTA defines as the study of computers and algorithmic processes, including hardware, software, and programming鈥攕ay they鈥檝e been working behind the scenes to broaden access at the high school level for more than two decades.
鈥淭he interest we鈥檙e seeing now is a culmination of a lot of people working really hard for a lot of years,鈥� said Ms. Derbenwick Miller.
Groups, such as the Association for Computer Machinery and Computing in the Core, have been laying the foundational policy work and raising awareness about computer science education.
The NSF began investing in computer science curricula a few years ago as part of an effort to get 10,000 computer science teachers in 10,000 high schools by 2016. Then a year ago, Code.org, funded by a list of corporate donors including Google and Microsoft and co-founders Hadi and Ali Partovi, kicked off its campaign with a video featuring basketball star Chris Bosh, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and musician will.i.am, among other celebrities, explaining the importance of learning to code. The Code.org video went viral, and it has been viewed more than 11 million times on YouTube.
The recent economic recession also turned the public鈥檚 attention to preparing students for future employability.
Those factors created 鈥渁 perfect storm,鈥� said Ms. Stephenson of the CSTA. 鈥淎ll of a sudden, [computer science] reached the level of public consciousness, and legislators started to pay attention.鈥�
Washington state appeared to kick off a new round of policy activity in May 2013, when Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, signed a measure allowing students to earn a math or science credit toward graduation by taking a computer science course. Several other states quickly followed suit, including Wisconsin, Alabama, and Maryland, according to Computing in the Core.
David L. Evans, the executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, declined to comment on whether his group supports or opposes particular policies that allow computer science to count as a math or science credit. He said only, 鈥淪chools and districts should be encouraged to offer their students the best courses that will prepare them for college and the workforce, and that includes computer science courses.鈥�
However, he said, 鈥渋t shouldn鈥檛 be an either-or proposition to take computer science or another core course.鈥�
The 404,000-student Chicago district announced in January that it would add computer science as a core subject rather than an elective. The 263,000-student Broward County district in Florida is adding curriculum and courses on computer programming at 38 schools.
Texas took a different tack鈥攁s part of a larger piece of legislation, lawmakers included a provision that would allow existing computer science courses to fulfill a foreign-language requirement.
Ms. Stephenson, who has devoted her career to improving computer science education, said the Texas brand of legislation is 鈥渧ery worrisome,鈥� mainly because it perpetuates the misconception that coding is the same as computer science.
鈥淎 coding language is just a tool in computer science; it鈥檚 not the course itself,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like saying that because multiplication is part of the tool set of math, all you learn in math is multiplication.鈥�
Mr. Wilson of Code.org is adamantly against such legislation, too. It 鈥渃an hurt both computer science and languages,鈥� he said.
A similar bill has passed the Kentucky Senate, but still needs to clear the House. New Mexico is also considering comparable legislation. And U.S. Rep. Tony C谩rdenas, D-Calif., introduced federal legislation in December that would designate programming languages as 鈥渃ritical foreign languages.鈥�
鈥淭his is wildfire,鈥� Ms. Stephenson said of the coding-as-foreign-language proposals. 鈥淲e understand why they鈥檙e trying to do this, but go the other route. Make it count as a math or science credit.鈥�
In Kentucky, foreign-language advocates have pushed back on the proposed legislation, in part out of concern that it would reduce students鈥� options in learning languages.
David P. Givens, the Republican state senator who sponsored the bill, said that he, too, would prefer to have computer science fulfill a math or science requirement, but that the state already has stringent course requirements. 鈥淚t鈥檚 as much a time-constraint challenge as anything,鈥� he said.
Hurdles Ahead
Even with legislation to broaden access to computer science moving forward, hurdles in school implementation remain. First, there鈥檚 the issue of finding qualified teachers.
鈥淢ost states don鈥檛 allow teachers to be certified just as computer science teachers,鈥� said Ms. Stephenson. 鈥淪o either they force teachers to get a secondary endorsement, or they let anybody teach the course.鈥�
States end up dealing with what Ms. Ericson of Georgia Tech calls a 鈥渃hicken-and-egg problem": Teacher-certification programs won鈥檛 train teachers because there鈥檚 no state computer science certification, and the state won鈥檛 create a certification program because there鈥檚 no teacher training for it.
Among teachers who are proficient in computer science, turnover can be a problem, said Ms. Ericson. They often leave the classroom for more-lucrative jobs in industry.
And student interest can鈥檛 be taken for granted either.
鈥淪urprisingly, we train teachers and they get excited to go back and teach, and they can鈥檛 get enough students,鈥� said Ms. Derbenwick Miller. 鈥淥n the ground, there鈥檚 a lot of work to be done.鈥�
