Communications of the ACM
Computer Science Is Where the Jobs Are, But Schools Don't Teach It
Credit: WPClipart
California prides itself as being home to Silicon Valley, but the state's high schools are not doing enough to prepare students for careers in computing, says Dan Lewis of Santa Clara University. While California high school enrollment has risen 15 percent since 2000, the number of classes on computer science or programming fell 34 percent, and the number of teachers assigned to those courses fell 51 percent. When it comes to curricula, computer science doesn't count toward California high school graduation requirements or toward the admission requirements in math or science for admission to the University of California. That has to change if California ever hopes to make computer science a priority for students or a priority for schools when determining course offerings based on limited budgets.
Schools have no state or federal curriculum standards to follow for computer science — not as part of Common Core, nor in the Next Generation Science Standards. When teachers are assigned to teach computer science, California has no computer science certification to insure that they have the appropriate content knowledge. Today only 175 of California's 1,325 public high schools offer the advanced placement (AP) course in computer science. More than half of the students are Hispanic or Latino, yet they make up less than 8 percent of those who take the AP exam in computer science. African-Americans represent 6.7 percent of high school students, but they are only 1.5 percent of those taking the AP exam.
From San Jose Mercury News
View Full Article
No entries found