Computer Science Education Act Introduced

On September 23, 2011, In Computing Education, Diversity in Computing, Policy, By MelissaNorr

Following the theme of computing taking over the Hill this week, Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) and Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced the Computer Science Education Act (CSEA) yesterday. In the House, the bill is co-sponsored by Representative Bob Filner (D-CA), Representative James Langevin (D-RI), and Representative Silvestre Reyes (D-TX).

The bill is designed to ensure quality courses and teaching in computer science and computational thinking at the K-12 level. This includes assessing current computer science courses, creating teacher preparation programs, reviewing teacher certification, and implementing computer science standards, as well as addressing other issues at the state and district level.

The CSEA is supported by Computing in the Core, a coalition started to increase the presence of computing in K-12 education and of which CRA is a member. More information on the legislation can be found here.

 
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American Innovation, a day in the House

On June 16, 2011, In Computing Education, By Max Cho

(Editor’s note: We’re pleased to have Max Cho, CRA’s Tisdale Fellow, working at CRA World HQ this summer. Max is a student at Yale with a keen interest in the intersection of technology and policy and will be posting frequently on the blog!)

This morning I attended the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology hearing on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education.

One of the hearing’s themes was how to motivate students to study science. Motivation’s a tricky business, especially for young students: the payoffs are distant, and high-level thinking tasks have a negative correlation between payoff and effective learning. For whatever reason, engineering, while perceived as a worthwhile and high paying profession, isn’t motivating enough students to pursue it to meet industry demand.

At a subsequent briefing on university research and federal grants, one of the speakers mentioned that most scientists said the most important factor that inspired them to pursue research was excellent undergraduate research opportunities. Not the promise of fame or fortune, but of passion and opportunity. While this kind of anecdotal evidence is exactly that, it’s worth keeping in mind how federal grant monies can inspire young people: not by dangling a benjamin in front of their nose, but with the excitement of discovery.

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On the Value of a Computer Science Education

On November 10, 2010, In Computing Education, CRA, By Peter Harsha

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a great piece today describing the importance of an education that includes computational thinking, and lamenting the fact that more students aren’t becoming computer scientists. The whole piece is worth reading, but here’s a great snippet from the conclusion, which encapsulates much of the message groups like Computing in the Core and the CS Education Week effort are trying to get across to education policymakers everywhere:

Computer science exposed two generations of young people to the rigors of logic and rhetoric that have disappeared from far too many curricula in the humanities. Those students learned to speak to the machines with which the future of humanity will be increasingly intertwined. They discovered the virtue of understanding the instructions that lie at the heart of things, of realizing the danger of misplaced semicolons, of learning to labor until what you have built is good enough to do what it is supposed to do.

I left computer science when I was 17 years old. Thankfully, it never left me.

Read the whole thing.

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