November 14, 2009

Just What is Computer Science?

Just what is computer science? Is it a science course? Is it a math course? Is it a business course?

These questions pop up more frequently now that states are requiring four years of science and math. In Texas, the AP CS A course counts as a math and is offered by both the math and business departments but this has raised questions about who can teach AP CS A. In Georgia, AP CS A is offered in the business department. Several years ago there was a move to allow only business teachers to teach it, but I asked that all certified teachers be allowed to teach it, and this was approved.

When Georgia started requiring four years of math and science, some of the faculty at Georgia Tech asked that AP CS A be allowed to count as a math or science. As of fall 2008 it was approved that AP CS A could count as a science course. However, this fall the Georgia Board of Regents removed it from the list of approved science courses, but they had not done a formal review of the course. Georgia Tech asked for a formal review of the AP CS A course and we just learned that the Board of Regents will allow the AP CS A course to count as a math or a science course!

But what is computer science, really? Some people claim that it isn't a science, even though the title includes the word science, since it isn't a study of the natural world like biology, chemistry, or physics. But inheritance, which is one of the central ideas in object-oriented programming, was first formally used in the scientific classification of plants. And, these days all of the natural sciences are becoming more and more dependent on computing. One famous biologist has said, "that biology is becoming a branch of computer science".

Some say computer science is a branch of applied math. And certainly many of the people who created and programmed early computers were mathematicians. And, many mathematicians now depend on computers in their work. Computing does include many mathematical concepts, but it also covers many other concepts such as how to design and build computer systems.

Some say it is a type of engineering. My master's degree from the University of Michigan was from the computer science and engineering department. Certainly the creation and testing of software systems includes engineering concepts. But, again computer science isn't just engineering.

Certainly computers are used in business. One reason that Wall-mart has succeeded is that it gathers sales information from all of its stores every night and uses this data to improve operations and lower costs. Nearly all businesses are dependent on computers.

I think that the real truth is that there are connections between computer science and many fields such as science, math, psychology, engineering, and business.

What do you think?

Barb Ericson
CSTA Board of Directors

Posted by cstephenson at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2009

Are Your Students Good Problem Solvers, or Good Mimics?

Recently the topic of Computational Thinking has risen to the forefront of discussions of what our students should learn. Ignoring the facts that computational thinking has different meanings to each of us, I think the root of the discussion focuses on our students' abilities to apply their problem solving skills to realistic problems that may or may not have identified solutions. Can your students do this? I'm not sure that many of mine can.

Many of us learn by mimicking the behavior we want to master. I learned how to play baseball by copying the throwing and batting motions my coach demonstrated until I could reliably throw the ball to a stationary teammate or hit the ball off a batting tee. But I didn't become a good baseball player until I could apply these skills in a game situation where either my target or I were in motion or I faced a real pitcher who was reluctant to throw every pitch down the center of the plate. It took real experience to master these skills and become a baseball problem solver.

Our students learn to program (a basic computer science problem solving skill) by mimicking the programs that we write to demonstrate key concepts. How do they make the transition to problem solvers? Where is their game experience? Why should we expect most of them to be more than mimics who can only solve the types of problems we have demonstrated if we never give them real problems?

These are questions we need to address. If you are tackling these issues in your classroom, then you are on the front lines of computational thinking. Share your ideas. How do you get your students to make the transition? How do you know they are on the right path? Unlike the baseball player, we don't have the luxury of tracking their batting average, fielding percentage or ERA. What are the metrics that we can identify to help measure success? How do we bring our students into the 21st century using knowledge and skills we gained in the 20th century? These questions may not have obvious answers, but they need to be asked. Help me ask them.

John Harrison
CSTA Board of Directors

Posted by cstephenson at 01:35 PM | Comments (1)

October 30, 2009

Computer Science Curriculum in our High Schools

While attending the recent Southern Business Education Association Convention in Huntsville, Alabama, I was struck by the lack of emphasis on computer science and information technology curriculum in our high schools. There we were in Rocket City, home of U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Redstone Arsenal, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and Cummings Research Park. Huntsville is a veritable high-tech city, populated by thousands of professionals in the STEM fields, including computer scientists. The Saturn V Rocket, Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station would be nowhere without computer scientists among other the many other scientists (chemists, physicists, etc). And yet, science in general, and computer science specifically, is really not emphasized in most of our high schools.

What a shame, I thought as I gazed in wonder and amazement at the rockets and space shuttles on display and watched an IMAX movie about man's exploration on the moon. All made possible by scientists, including computer scientists. It is gratifying to know that the U.S. Space and Rocket Center sponsors camps for young people (and adults!) to encourage budding scientists to become interested in careers related to space exploration and discovery. So what are we doing to encourage high school students to become interested in careers in computer science?

CSTA has taken an active role in helping schools offer a sequenced program of study in computer science for students grades K-12 with the release of the ACM K-12 Model Curriculum. Sample activities are even provided for each level of the curriculum. Also, the Los Angeles Unified School District has produced The Exploring Computer Science Curriculum, which is available on the CSTA website. Both of these initiatives provide outstanding curriculum resources to encourage the teaching of computer science, which ultimately will encourage students to pursue careers in computer science. Yet we still do not see an overwhelming computer science presence in our high schools. Is the issue the current emphasis on rigorous standards for high school graduation? If that were the case, surely computer science would be at the table and we would have computer science taught in every high school. I have seen that topic addressed in other CSTA blog posts. Is the issue funding? I suppose that is possible. However, many of our industry partners are addressing the funding issue. For the past several years, I have worked with two industry partners who work to provide high quality, affordable training and curriculum for our high school teachers: Oracle and SAS, both addressing the funding issue.

Oracle provides free training for teachers and is making an effort to deliver the face-to-face training to teachers in convenient locations, not far from home (there is also an online component to the training). The Oracle curriculum is free for schools. The curriculum is delivered electronically from the Oracle server so the school system needs only to have computers and high speed Internet access for the students to access the Oracle curriculum and learn a high skill, high wage, and high demand skill, specifically database design and programming. Oracle offers certification exams at a reduced price for both the students and the teachers. Yet, the Oracle curriculum has been slow to be accepted in many school systems. Even in cities where Oracle software is widely used by business and industry, the schools are slow to include Oracle Database Design and Programming in their curriculum offerings, if they offer it at all.

SAS also offers free training for teachers and free curriculum for the students. SAS provides a free textbook written specifically for high school students and offers online support for both teachers and students. Teachers are required to attend one week (40 hours) of face-to-face training. SAS holds the training at their Cary campus, but they are willing to deliver the training to any location that has 10 or more teachers to be trained. The schools are provided with the SAS software. SAS certification exams are available to both teachers and students for a reduced fee. SAS Programming for High Schools will provide students with a high skill, high demand, high wage education in the information technology area. Again, we see an industry partner addressing the funding issue. And again, even in cities where SAS is widely used, the high school course is slow to be integrated into the school systems.

Apparently, the issue is not really the lack of funding. Yet it is imperative that we prepare the next generation for careers in computer science and information technology. In the Spring 2009 issue of the Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Benjamin Wright states that "Employment in combined IT occupations is expected to increase by more than 800,000 jobs over the 2006–16 projections decade." Mr. Wright also states that "a study by the Association for Computing Machinery finds that even though offshoring may increase, prospects for IT workers in the United States will be strong". Mr. Wright does note that demand for computer programmers is expected to decline by 4% over the same decade but that this is the only IT area projected to decline. The jobs will be there. CSTA is working to provide the computer science and information technology curriculum. Now we need the students. I am working in my little corner of the world to recruit these students. What are we doing to encourage our students to study computer science and information technology?

Resources:
ACM K-12 Model Curriculum and Los Angeles Unified School District Exploring Computer Science Curriculum
http://csta.acm.org/

Oracle Academy
https://academy.oracle.com/

SAS Programming I for High Schools:

http://www.sas.com/corporate/community/sas-programming.html

Occupation Outlook Quarterly, Spring 2009 issue:

http://www.asiaing.com/occupational-outlook-quarterly-spring-2009.html

Deborah Seehorn
CSTA Board Member

Posted by cstephenson at 04:56 PM | Comments (1)

October 28, 2009

My Voice

I look forward to it every couple of months. I've been receiving the CSTA Voice since I
became a member back in 2005. For years, being a member of CSTA meant getting my
newsletter, filling out my end-of-year renewal form, and responding to the occasional
survey. Sure, I felt like I "belonged," but I left the advocacy up to the professionals. Life
was good.

That changed a couple of years ago when my school administration decided that we no
longer needed a Computer Science department. I kept my job, and for the most part,
taught many of the same courses after being merged with the Science department, but I
felt that I had been stripped of my identity as a Computer Science teacher. Following the
merger, enrollment numbers in my classes were the lowest ever. Fewer and fewer students
were aware of the staggering demand predicted for careers in the computing field in just a
few years. Why was my message not being heard?

I saw in the Voice that teachers from 19 states had been chosen to attend a leadership
workshop where they would develop advocacy plans for their respective states. My state
was not listed. There I sat, isolated, with a wilting Computer Science program at a school
with no CS department, in a state lacking a CS certification area (much less a graduation
requirement). Not only was my voice not being heard, but I had no idea what to say or how
to begin.

The one thing I could depend on in those days was my CSTA Voice. When I read that there
was a second leadership workshop and that my state was included this time, I turned in my
application and wished for the best. A few months later, I was at a conference center in
Chicago, surrounded by 50 other educators who wanted what I wanted -- to further the
teaching of computing in our schools.

The workshop was a 3-day menagerie of brainstorming, note-taking, networking, planning,
and occasional sight-seeing. We learned about stakeholders, partnerships, outreach
strategies, and most importantly that we are all in this together. We worked with
representatives from states facing issues similar to our own, and we discussed ways to
make those situations better. The most important thing I left Chicago with, though, was my
voice.

The CSTA Leadership Cohort Workshop taught me that I have a voice. I found that I am
surrounded by allies, resources, and solutions free for the asking. With just a little effort, I
was able to organize a CSTA chapter in my own state! Representatives from higher
education, industry, and K12 schools are now working together to identify long term goals
for the future of computing education in our state, and I started this conversation!

If you can hear my voice, know that this is something that you can achieve, too. Put down
your newsletters. Close your web browsers. Get out there and start organizing! If a mild-mannered computer scientist can start this discussion in a state with fewer than 13 schools offering AP Computer Science, imagine what you can achieve in your own back yard.
---
Daniel Moix has taught Computer Science at the Arkansas School for Mathematics,
Sciences, and the Arts since 2003. He was recently elected President of the Arkansas
chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association. His favorite color is #6495ED.

Posted by cstephenson at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2009

Members Build Membership in CSTA

Have you ever wondered about the other members of CSTA? Questions like "Where are the other members?" or "Who are the other members?"

One of the best ways to grow membership in an organization is by word of mouth. In the last fourteen months, CSTA has grown from 4700 members to our current 7300 members. Yes, our membership has grown by 50% and continues to grow! This couldn't be done without the continued support and work of our current members. Thank you to everyone who has recruited new members to CSTA!

Our new local chapters are also playing a major role CSTA's growth. Not only do these chapters carry out the work of CSTA on a local level (providing a community of learners, offering professional development, sharing resources) they also help to build membership by making people aware of the benefits of belonging to CSTA. So, a thank you is also due to the members who have taken the time to organize and charter local chapters in their states. For a list of local chapters and contacts see:

http://csta.acm.org/About/sub/CSTAChapters.html

While a large portion of CSTA membership is located in the US (80%), our International membership Is also growing. In fact, it has increased 35% in the same fourteen month period. India leads the way in International growth with 221 members added within the last fourteen months for a total growth of 50%.

Keep up the great work and keep recruiting.

Dave Burkhart
CSTA Membership Chair

Posted by cstephenson at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2009

Webinars for Professional Development

I have given webinars this fall using WebEx (http://try.webex.com) and Elluminate (http://www.elluminate.com/). I used WebEx during a webinar for Pearson on Alice and Media Computation, and I used Elluminate during a webinar on Greenfoot.

With both WebEx and Elluminate you use a browser to go to the url for the webinar. You have to download some software and then you are ready to be part of the webinar. With WebEx you also have to dial in to a conference call to hear and participate in the audio. With Elluminate you can use a microphone to participate in the audio and just your computer's sound card to hear the audio. With both you can have a text chat and can see the presenter's screen and powerpoints.

I found Elluminate better for the presentor. With Elluminate I could share my screen and still see the participants text chat window which made it easier to see participant's questions. And, webinars can be recorded, which means that they are available long after the actual webinar has finished. But, I don't know, though, how effective a webinar would be for longer than an hour.

Many teachers are having a hard time getting the funds to attend professional development events, so webinars might be one way to still get professional development at a low cost. And, the National Science Foundation would like to have 10,000 teachers teaching the new Advanced Placement Computer Science course currently being developed by 2015. Training that many teachers is a major logistical problem that webinars might help solve.

Have you participated in webinars? If so, what did you think of them?

Barb Ericson
CSTA Board of Directors

Posted by cstephenson at 12:14 PM | Comments (3)

September 10, 2009

Using GameMaker to Spark an Interest in CS

In my work with middle school students, I feel that it is my responsibility to expose my students to as many topics as possible. It is my hope that by exposing them to a variety of topics, these students will find some that interest them to continue with during high school and even beyond.

Last spring, I was introduced to GameMaker. This application is a great way to integrate computer science and the making of games. GameMaker allows students to create games in a manner similar to Scratch. GameMaker uses a drag and drop method to create the code for students to make their own games. Just like Scratch, GameMaker has its own community environment in the form of a Web site. In the Web site, one can find tutorials, documentation, a wiki and other resources. Best of all, GameMaker is a free download and can be downloaded from:

www.yoyogames.com.

I think that GameMaker is a great resource to use to get students interested in computer science and to introduce them to the art of reading code and learning about other computer science concepts. I would love to hear about your experience with GameMaker or other introductory computer science applications.

Dave Burkhart
CSTA Board of Directors
K-8 Representative

Posted by cstephenson at 04:13 PM | Comments (1)

September 09, 2009

New Podcast on Building a CS Program in Middle School

For the past year or so I've been visiting with interesting computer science educators and professionals in order to bring to you cool classroom strategies and interesting CS topics to ponder. The CSTA Snipits podcasts:

http://csta.acm.org/Communications/sub/Podcasts.html

are a result of those experiences.

Tracking down and scheduling a visit with these individuals can be quite a challenge. Maybe that indicates why they are so interesting to talk with. They are some of the busiest and most involved individuals you might ever meet.

During the CS & IT Symposium and NECC 2009 I managed to corner several podcast guests. We met in a semi-quiet (!) corner of the main hall of NECC, in the dining room staging area, in a frigid annex in a hotel, and on the curb sitting on packed luggage moments before the Metro was to arrive.

All of these visits were well worth the effort. I learned so much about what is happening around the country and know you will find the stories inspiring as well. I hope you will enjoy the conversations and find cool ideas you can put to work for your students.

One of the latest podcasts is my conversation with Michelle Hutton. Michelle is a founding member and current president of the Computer Science Teachers Association. She teaches computer science at the Girls' Middle School in Mountain View, CA. The Girls' Middle School is a 6-8th grade all-girls school where CS in mandatory for all students. Michelle used the ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science to build an exciting three-year program with interesting projects and serious CS learning.

Listen in on our conversation about how CS became a required course and details on CS education in the middle school.

CS in the Middle School with Michelle Hutton
Medium: MP3
Listening Time: 7 min.

Pat Phillips
Editor, CSTA Voice
Host, CSTA Podcasts

Posted by cstephenson at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2009

Time For Another Paradigm Shift

Unstructured code (BASIC), structured code and procedural programming (Pascal), object-oriented code (C++ or Java). We've all been through one or more of these paradigm shifts. Each has had its own challenges which we have overcome. Now is the time for a paradigm shift in our K-12 education progression. Every student should be expected to take a basic computer science course where he or she can learn to "think like a computer scientist" as described by Dr. Jeannette Wing in her article Computational Thinking published in the March 2006 issue of the Communications of the ACM. Dr. Wing makes a convincing case that computational thinking is "For everyone, everywhere".

In the article, Dr. Wing states:

"Computational thinking is a grand vision to guide computer science educators, researchers, and practitioners as we act to change society's image of the field. We especially need to reach the pre-college audience, including teachers, parents, and students, sending them two main messages:

Intellectually challenging and engaging scientific problems remain to be understood and solved. The problem domain and solution domain are limited only by our own curiosity and creativity; and

One can major in computer science and do anything. One can major in English or mathematics and go on to a multitude of different careers. Ditto computer science. One can major in computer science and go on to a career in medicine, law, business, politics, any type of science or engineering, and even the arts."

So how do we make this shift and where do we find time in students' schedules for another course? State and local school boards are adding graduation requirements in an attempt to better prepare our students for life after high school. Virginia has increased the number of credits required to earn the “advanced” diploma from 24 to 26 and requires each high school student to take the course "Economics Education and Financial Literacy." In light of the current economic conditions, one can hardly argue with this worthy objective, but shouldn't we be developing their problem-solving and logical thinking skills, also?

We expect students to take a proscribed sequence of mathematics courses, science courses, and social science courses. We should provide a sequence of computer science courses, and expect every student to take the first course. The Computer Science Equity Alliance, jointly sponsored by UCLA and the Los Angeles Unified School District developed an introductory course. Other states are pursuing similar efforts. It is time for us to work together behind the ACM model curriculum to effect this change. This is a change we need.

John Harrison
CSTA Board of Directors

Posted by cstephenson at 08:42 PM | Comments (1)

September 01, 2009

Assessing Impact in Computing Education

I spend much of my time thinking about reforming computer science education in Los Angeles. My goal is to make computer science courses accessible and engaging for students who have not traditionally participated in computing. To this end, I have been part of a dynamic team (the Computer Science Equity Alliance) that has developed a new course which introduces students to the foundational knowledge of computer science. In the professional development which is coupled with this course, a dynamic community of teachers, expert practitioners, and university faculty come together to build individual and collective knowledge about computing topics and the instructional strategies needed to engage diverse students in computer science. We piloted this course the first year in seven schools and enrolled 300 students. This fall, the course will be offered in 20 schools in the Los Angeles Unified school district.

However, measuring the impact of this effort has different meanings for different national and local stakeholders. Thought the mere existence of this course when there were no courses before is a measure of success itself, the computer science education community wants to know more about the impact of this course on high school students.

When informed about this effort or other K-12 initiatives in computing, many leaders of computer science education often seek measures of longitudinal effectiveness:
* Do these students take other computing courses?
* Do the students pursue a major in computing?
* Pursue advanced degrees?
* Work in the computing industry?

Other STEM educators believe the way to measure the impact of a foundational computing course is to measure mathematics and science achievement skills of students participating in the course, and compare these scores to non-computer science takers. They want to know, does learning about foundational knowledge in computing raise test scores in related subjects?

While these questions are important, I resist the urge to rely on this type of data to measure the success of our mission to broaden participation in high school computing. Our goal is for all students to develop an understanding of the computing discipline, not to train them to enter the pipeline and become computer scientists. Just as reforming algebra education does not set its goal as more math majors, computing education at K-12 should not be judged on higher education enrollment patterns. There are just too many confounding variables in play in decision-making at the college level. And while we anticipate that developed computational thinking skills might transfer to tackling problems in other STEM subjects, focusing on test scores in math and science reflects an unfortunate belief that computing is only important for its positive impact on achievement disciplines, rather than a discipline itself.

Instead, I believe the best data will come from looking at enrollment patterns over time (increases by gender, race, English language learner status); how many students continue to more advanced courses when offered at their school, interviewing teachers about their experiences teaching computing to Los Angeles students, and collecting pre- and post-class survey data from computing students about their perception of the importance of computer science, their interest in the subject, and their motivation to pursue further study. For us, this triangulation of data will most truly assess the effectiveness of a foundational course for broadening participation in high school computer science.

A student response elucidates this perspective: "I'm still paving my path to become a professional musician, but now I can use what I've learned from this computer science class to further that career, using codes for websites, banners, playlists, etc." Though not pursuing computer science as a profession, the knowledge of computing will influence this young person's life goals. For me, a course that offers such opportunities is the goal in itself.

Joanna Goode
CSTA Board of Directors

Posted by cstephenson at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2009

Qualifications for Teaching AP CS

I got a panicked e-mail from a local school in August that they didn't have an Advanced Placement Computer Science A teacher for fall. They were planning to use the retired teacher who had taught it the year before, but he had an injury right before school and so wouldn't be able to teach it. They had a teacher who has taught Beginning Programming in Java, and he had signed up for College Board AP Summer Institute in Texas, but that was cancelled. They had the common misconception that a College Board Summer Institute somehow certifies a teacher to teach AP CS, so they were worried that they wouldn't be able to offer the course at all.

All you must do in order to teach an AP CS A course is pass the audit. Of course, to effectively teach an AP course you should have a good understanding of the material and the topics to be covered. A College Board AP Summer Institute is one way that you can learn the material, but you can also take classes at local institutions, or learn from on-line resources.

I am helping the person who has taught only Beginning Programming in Java teach the course. It meets Monday – Friday for 50 minutes each day, but I am only coming Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday the students work on the computer to complete assignments. I am posting my materials at:

http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/1043.

Georgia Tech just received a NSF grant to retrain unemployed IT workers to be high school computing teachers and pair them up with existing computing teachers during the first year of teaching. So, my co-teaching this course helps me see how this will work.

There are 28 students in the class. As we often see in an AP CS A course the majority are white and male. There are nine females and three African Americans in the course. This course is in marked contrast to the Business Essentials course just before it that is 75% African American. The school is actually very diverse with 41.2% White, 35.3% Black, 12.3% Hispanic, 8.2% Asian and 3.3% other racial groups.

One of the things I would like to do this year is recruit a more diverse class for next year. I also would like the school to offer at least two sections for AP CS A next year. I expect demand for AP CS A to increase greatly in Georgia in the next few years since it counts as one of the four years of science starting with students who were freshman in 2008-2009.

Barb Ericson
CSTA Director

Posted by cstephenson at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

August 26, 2009

Issues Old and New

Monday August 17th was *our* first day officially back with classes starting Thursday and, as usual, the new school year is raising many issues, some new and some not so new.

Like many CS educators, I am trying to learn how to do a number of new things at once. I will be teaching a course in C++ this fall, so I have been spending a lot of time in that world. But I am also trying to learn how to program the Google Android mobile phone, and that's done in Java (with a lot of XML files to specify colors, formats, and display). It's not easy switching back and forth from one to the other.

I am also working with an industry consortium here and with some of the local school districts in defining and advertising their IT and CS curricula. It's an old story, and a hard sell. As a discipline we suffer from the riches of too many job opportunities. The school administrators seem to want to go for the numbers count rather than quality, and thus emphasize all the things you can do with as little educational effort needed as is possible. As one of the corporate collaborators points out, though, upper management won't be coming from the group that didn't go to college or university.

A recent study of "persistence" puts university computer science students at the absolute bottom for retention from the first to the eighth semester at university. The 38% persistence for CS is worse than engineering, business, social science, and other science majors. What are we doing wrong? Are we getting the wrong set of students coming into our programs? Are they coming in not properly informed? Are we at the universities doing a bad job? Probably some of all of the above. This was a study over 17 years, so it's not *just* the dot com boom or the dot com bust. There is something clearly different about computing.

The more I see and think of these issues, the more I realize how important it is that we are clear in our message, and how the Level I, II, and III courses present that message. Computing technology is everywhere (the word I picked up from the CS & IT symposium this summer was "everyware"). But how do you distinguish those who are simply users of the technology from those who might know how to construct the next version of the software? In becoming universal, the IT business has become extremely broad, and it's hard to convey the breadth to prospective students. I keep going back to the nature of the Level II course, which would cover some of the major applications to which computing is put, and then look a little deeper into the technology necessary to make those applications actually work.

And this takes me back to programming the Android phone. A phone, with a complete browser capability built in, and that can also be programmed for games. It's very slick, and to make this work there must be a great deal under the hood that the better students, who might become computer science majors, need to be aware of even if they never actually program an Android. It is enough that they know of and understand the existence of these layers of software that distinguish a modern mobile device from a paperweight.

Duncan Buell
CSTA Board of Directors

Posted by cstephenson at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2009

Capturing Students' Interest in Computer Science

Hardly a day goes by without one of my e-newsletters posting a feature about special programs designed to interest students (particularly young students) in pursuing a career in Computer Science and/or the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. As a lifelong educator with a love of the STEM disciplines as well as of computer science, this is so gratifying to me! We certainly need to interest students in all of these career fields..all students, but particularly female and minority students.

One such summer opportunity for young people is a camp in South Florida that teaches elementary school children the basics of robotics and computer programming (two of my most favorite subjects). The camp is taught by a former high school physics teacher who hopes to better prepare the students for high school science. What a great way to interest these young people in science and computer science! And elementary school children are certainly not too young to develop such an interest.

A similar opportunity took place at McKinley Technical High School in Washington, D.C. This summer enrichment program involved middle and high school students who developed programming and modeling for a prototype of an educational computer game called Immune Attack 3.0. The group of students had used the video game to learn last summer. This summer the students were using their programming and modeling skills to help update the game. Again, what a great way to interest young people in Computer Science by making science and computer science more fun and engaging through the use of video games! More information can be found by following this link:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=60054

The University of Washington had an innovative summer enrichment academy. This academy introduces deaf and hard-of-hearing students to careers in computer science. The academy is a nine-week intensive program for outstanding math and science students in the 16- to 22-years old age group. The students who participated were from Arizona, Indiana, Maine, New York, Texas, and Virginia, as well as from Washington. The students lived on campus and took a college-level computer programming course. They earned a certificate in computer animation. The students communicated innovative ideas with American Sign Language during class. This program not only interests more young people in computer science, but it strives to diversify the computer science field. Further information about this academy can be found by following this link:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=59995

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN, also conducted a summer education program called Operation Catapult. Thirteen rising high school seniors participated in a variety of hands-on projects and attended lectures on a variety of topics. Students completed projects in such areas as entrepreneurship, Python computer programming, and embedded microcontrollers. The program is in its 43rd year of enticing young people to enter STEM (and computer science) career fields. More information can be found by following this link:

http://www.tribstar.com/schools/local_story_223221103.html

Educators and computer science professionals alike understand the importance of capturing students' interest in computer science at a young age. IBM conducted a STEM Camp for Girls in Burlington, Vermont this summer. During the camp, 40 young women learned to build robots with Legos as well as to design Web pages. While having fun in engaging activities, the seventh-grade students were honing their math, science, and technology skills. The girls will return to the IBM facility in February for Job Shadowing Day. What a great idea! Not only are the students engaged in activities that will attract them to computer science, they will also learn more about the profession when they return during the work-based learning activity in February. Again, the enrichment program will interest a diverse group in pursuing a career in computer science. You may find further information about this program by following this link:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090812/NEWS02/90812018

All computer science educators and computer science professionals should take note of these programs. The United States has a critical shortage of professionals in all STEM and computer science professions. Students who are engaged in authentic projects and applications of science, math, and computer science are far more likely to follow a career path into one of these fields. Women, minorities, and individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in the STEM and computer science fields. Summer enrichment programs, job-shadowing programs, mentoring programs, and partnerships between education and business and industry are all investments in young people that will produce a great return (more young people and especially those from underrepresented groups) seeking career paths in computer science.

Deborah Seehorn
CSTA Board Member

Posted by cstephenson at 02:20 PM | Comments (1)

July 29, 2009

Building CS in South Carolina

This blog is like the blogs I have seen people writing in real time during conference presentations. I am writing this in the middle of our Advanced Placement Summer Institute for Computer Science. Our consultant, Richard de Paulo, is leading this institute for fifteen teachers, all but one from South Carolina. (He is at present talking about ArrayLists.) We haven't had a summer institute in the state for at least ten years, which may explain why our enrollments in AP computer science are not very high. Time to move things forward.

I have been working in the last few years to understand the decline in university enrollments in computer science, and I have come to the conclusion that to increase the number of university students we must improve what we do for computer science in the K-12 schools. Increasing the AP enrollments will not by any means be sufficient for declaring success in the world of computer science education, but it certainly seems to be necessary, and with fifteen more teachers in the classroom here in South Carolina, we can't help but see better times in the future.

(I have other irons in the fire, to be sure. But this is a blog, and thus is supposed to be timely and "current", and right now what is most current is watching de Paulo teach about teaching Java. I happen to have spent my last two years in teaching our first two semesters' courses, so this is very familiar material for me.)

Putting on this institute took some doing. Normally in South Carolina, the AP summer institutes are funded by the state. This year, there was no such money available, and at one point I decided we weren't going to be able to run the event. We were, however, able to get a new organization, the Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management, to replace the state funding and keep costs low for teachers and school districts. Finding the approved consultant was not exactly easy. There is only one consultant for computer science in the entire southeast region. After that, it was mostly a matter of getting out enough propaganda to be able to get an enrollment large enough to justify the class. Even in a bad economic year, we got a class of 15 teachers (plus one who had a family emergency this past weekend and couldn't make it).

I am hoping for good results in the long term. Tom Rogers, from Southside High School in Greenville, joined the CSTA Leadership Cohort this summer as a teacher leader for South Carolina, participating in the Leadership workshop. Together with the other teachers I have been working with, Tom will now have a sizable base from which to build a larger statewide network.

We have a good mix of teachers here this week. There are a few ringers, people relatively new to teaching who have run IT businesses or done computing in past lifetimes. And there are a few who have taught applications courses, but not programming, in the past. We won't get a uniform distribution of results from this summer, but we will have started to rebuild the interest in AP CS.

Duncan Buell
CSTA Board of Directors

Posted by cstephenson at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2009

Computer Science Certification-Why We Need to Care

First, I would like to encourage all of you to read the CSTA publication: Ensuring Exemplary Teaching in an Essential Discipline: Addressing the Crisis in Computer Science Teacher Certification
http://www.csta.acm.org/ComputerScienceTeacherCertification/sub/TeacherCertificationRequi.html

As we know, there is a crisis in computer science teacher certification. This crisis can be attributed to two key factors:
* a lack of clarity, understanding, and consistency with regard to current certification requirements
* where certification or endorsement requirements do exist, they often have no connection to computer science content.

What follows is, in my opinion, a ridiculous situation being experienced by a person who is currently in search of a high school computer science teaching position in New Jersey. Unfortunately, this situation and similar situations are not uncommon.

Background and Experience:
Mathematics and Computer Science, Explorer Scouts, Summers 1976 and 1977.
Independent Computer Programmer and Consultant, 1984-1997.
B.S. Computer Science, Marquette University, 1991.
High School Certification in Computer Science, Mathematics, and History,
Cardinal Stritch University, 1997.
Wisconsin Licenses 1997-2002, 2002-2007, 2007-2012.
M.S. Computer Science Education, Cardinal Stritch University, 2004.
AP Computer Science Reader, 2006-2009.

Notes on certification
Wisconsin created certification in Computer Science in 1983. While relatively few Schools of Education offer CS certification, it is a recognized field.

This person's other certifications are as "add-on minors"; that is, he took enough courses to have had an undergraduate minor in mathematics and in history, but did not take them at the right time to add them to my undergraduate degree.

Moving
For personal reasons, this person is moving to New Jersey.

Attempts to certify in New Jersey
Wisconsin offers reciprocity with very few other states. New Jersey is not on that short list.

New Jersey does not offer High School certification in Computer Science. The closest thing is Vocation School certification in Computer Technology.

Based on numerous discussions with people at the New Jersey Department of Education, those who teach computer science in New Jersey usually have certifications in either Mathematics or Business. They have suggested that he return to school to earn a second Bachelor’s degree in a certifiable subject area.

More attempts
Not getting any answers by telephone this summer (the number for the New Jersey Department of Education is only open from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and is almost always busy), he has spoken with two people at the Morris County New Jersey Office of the Department of Education. They have suggested that the Department of Education is extremely busy with renewals and initial certifications right now. No one in Trenton will see people. If you want to find out how to certify, you need to fill out the online application, pay the $190 fee, and then they will consider answering your questions. (If you cannot be certified, then they will refund $120 of the fee.)

Temporary solution
For now, it appears that his best options are to either teach at a private high school or teach as an adjunct at a college or university.

He has accepted a position in a private high school in New York to teach one section of AP CS and also an adjunct position at a 4-year university in New Jersey teaching a CS 0 course. He will be spending more time commuting than teaching!

Because they cannot be certified as computer science teachers, new teachers and those teachers like the person described above, find that they must first meet the certification requirements in some other discipline, requiring them to develop and prove teaching proficiency in a field in which they may not actually wish to teach.

It is absolutely essential that all computer science teachers, new and veteran, have adequate
preparation to teach computer science successfully. The background information described above clearly indicates adequate preparation to teach computer science. But because there is a significant lack of consistency in computer science teacher certification standards in the United States, he is unable to hold a NJ teaching certificate.

Our ultimate goal is to ensure that the standards for computer science teachers are clear, consistent, and are uniformly implemented in the United States as well as in other countries. It is critical that the standards described in the CSTA publication mentioned above be universally accepted and applied to the licensing of high school computer science teachers.

I thank Lon Levy for sharing his story.

Fran Trees
CSTA Chapter Liaison

Posted by cstephenson at 12:24 PM | Comments (2)

May 12, 2009

Alternative Certification for CS Teachers

In the midst of budget cuts (which the politicians claim won't harm education), a colleague of mine reported that a local school system had declared that it would cut costs by dismissing all alternate entry teachers. After the initial shock, and the inevitable question, "Can they do that?" my colleague told me about research she had been doing on her doctoral thesis—concerning the value of in-depth induction programs for alternate entry teachers. She had come across a research study published by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

The study, An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification was published in February of 2009. The study reported several interesting findings. Before I continue with my post, I must state that the study involved 187 elementary school teachers (kindergarten through 5th grade) in 20 districts in seven different states (not middle school or high school Computer Science teachers). However, the study findings certainly give one cause to pause and think.

The study reported that students of alternative certification (AC) teachers did not perform statistically differently from students of traditional certification (TC) teachers. There were some "average differences in reading and math, but the differences were not statistically significant." The study explained that there were many differences in the preparation and background of AC and TC teachers, including, required coursework, whether or not the teacher was currently taking courses, the teacher's undergraduate major, and the teacher's SAT scores, differences that exist among any group of teachers (or other professionals for that matter). The study reported that such "differences in AC teachers' characteristics and training experiences explained about 5 percent of the variation in effects on math test scores and less than 1 percent of the variation in effects on reading test scores." In other words, the teachers' characteristics and required coursework "were not related to the effects of teachers on student achievement." The study concludes that there was "no benefit, on average, to student achievement from placing an AC teacher in the classroom when the alternative was a TC teacher, but there was no evidence of harm, either." The authors note that, of course, individual teachers have an effect on student achievement. The authors were NOT able to identify what specific characteristics of individual teachers have an effect on student achievement.

Interestingly enough, the study also concluded that "There is no evidence from this study that greater levels of teacher training coursework were associated with the effectiveness of AC teachers in the classroom." The statistical analysis showed that there was no evidence that the amount of coursework required of AC teachers produced more effective teachers. As a life-long educator, this surprised me; however, after reflecting on my recent experiences with so many alternative entry teachers and the current state alternative licensing requirements, I thought perhaps educators aren't really approaching the AC teacher with an open mind. There are many truly outstanding AC educators in many different content areas.

The study further concluded that "There is no evidence that the content of coursework is correlated with teacher effectiveness." The study found no statistical correlation between student test scores and the content that the AC teacher had completed—including pedagogy and fieldwork. The authors state "there was no evidence of a statistically positive relationship between majoring in education and student achievement." That will certainly shake up conventional wisdom in the world of education. I'm not sure that I can even grasp the implications since one of the responsibilities of my current position is to plan the preparation needed for these alternative licensure teachers. At least I do have the educational foundation that many teacher education institutes are now embracing (in part due to NCLB). I have a bachelor's degree in my content area. I took education courses in addition to the BS degree requirements to obtain a teaching license. My master's degree is also in the content area rather than in education, and I had to jump through many hoops to add that content area to my teaching license (it's not quite as strenuous now!).

So, why would a school system want to dismiss all their alternative certification teachers? That's a very good question. I don't think that action would be prudent at all. I have come to the conclusion that we need to encourage and embrace alternative certification in all areas of education, but particularly in the areas of Computer Science (CS) and Information Technology (IT). What better preparation can a CS or IT teacher have than to have a degree in the content area and related work experience? What a wealth of knowledge and experience these AC teachers bring to the classroom! Who better than an AC teacher to help our students with authentic, rigorous and relevant learning in the 21st Century? What better time than a financial downturn than to encourage these well-qualified individuals to seek a second career in education? We need these well-qualified alternative certification teachers in Computer Science and Information Technology education—and we need them now. (CSTA has included alternative entry teachers in the recently published white paper, Ensuring Exemplary Teaching in an Essential Discipline: Addressing the Crisis in Computer Science Teacher Certification, available at http://csta.acm.org/Communications/sub/Documents.html.)

The research study, An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification, was conducted by Jill Constantine, Daniel Player, Tim Silva, Kristin Hallgren, Mary Grider, John Deke of the Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.; and Elizabeth Warner, Project Officer, Institute of Education Sciences. A pdf file of the research study can be found at the ISE, US Department of Education, website: http://ies.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=NCEE20094043.

Work Cited:
Constantine, J., Player D., Silva, T., Hallgren, K., Grider, M., and Deke, J. (2009). An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification, Final Report (NCEE 2009-4043). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

Deborah Seehorn
CSTA Board Member

Posted by cstephenson at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)

March 30, 2009

Do High School Computer Science Teachers Want a Professional Organization?

There is no doubt that High School Computer Science Teachers need a professional organization. We are often the lone voice in the wilderness, under appreciated by our departments, administrations, and districts. Yet, what have we done to improve our lot?

Typical high school computer science teachers are usually the only person at their schools who teach computer science. They may be in the Business Department, Math Department, or part of the Career and Technical Education department; but wherever they are, CS teachers are often alone. They may teach only one class of computer science and often have two or three other courses to prepare to teach. Their time is at a premium. Where do they turn if they have questions, experience difficulty with a topic, or need a new idea or activity to help their students better understand the material? There are resources, including the AP Computer Science Electronic Discussion Group, AP Central, International Baccalaureate Online Curriculum Centre, and our textbook web sites. However, these sources may not be time sensitive, or may require multiple attempts to find someone knowledgeable who can answer the question. High School Computer Science Teachers need answers now, not in two weeks, because in two weeks that topic has been left in the dust.

How can a professional organization help? Local chapters can provide personal contacts in the local area who can readily respond to questions. Periodic meetings can provide a forum to air difficulties or concerns, offer solutions, or find others who are experiencing the same problems. Chapters can also provide professional development on a topic if there is widespread need and an "expert" exists in the community.

What makes me think we do not want a local chapter? Let me give two examples to illustrate my point. Over the last six months, a two high school teachers and five college professors have worked together to create a local chapter in my area. We spent many hours planning for our first meeting, which was held at a local research center. We felt this would provide some professional development for Computer Science Teachers in current applications of computing and computer systems as well as providing the opportunity for local teachers to meet. We contacted over 50 high schools by email, often directly to the teacher listed as the computer science teacher. We emailed invitations 45 days in advance and again 10 days in advance. No one responded to either of the emails, and no new teacher attended. Our initial meeting consisted of the seven original members. My second example is from a different area. Again, a dedicated group met and laid plans to form a chapter. One of these members was transferred out of state. All efforts after this to hold a meeting to finalize the chapter plans and hold the first meeting have been unsuccessful. So I ask, are we really willing to do the work necessary to support a professional organization that will address our needs?

What can we do about this? Well, if you are reading this post, you already understand the benefits of CSTA and what it can offer. You want a local organization to provide support and professional development. Do your colleagues? What is the interest in your area? Start small. We have been holding a district wide forum for several years. Of the 10 teachers, four or five attend regularly; several others occasionally, and one or two never attend. We continue to meet to serve the needs of those who attend.

CSTA is an organization that exists to serve High School Computer Science Teachers. We can make CSTA the organization that will provide the service we need and want if we are willing to step up and shoulder some responsibility. Yes, High School Computer Science Teachers want a more localized service, but maybe more of us need to come forward to make this a reality.

John Harrison
CSTA Board Member

Posted by cstephenson at 03:18 PM | Comments (6)

March 24, 2009

Why We Need a "Voice"

The CSTA publication is called "Voice" and it has really come home to me the importance of having a Voice.

Our Ministry of Education (In New Zealand we have centralized education policy) has had three attempts in three years at "solving" the problem of Computing in High Schools. None of them, in my view, made or are making progress. But what is finally starting to happen is, informally computer science teachers themselves are "coming out" on a listserv (actually now a Google group) and uniting. They are giving voice to what is required. The listserv has to date been dominated by technical issues or "how do you assess this unit of work." Now the hot topics are what do we want for CS, how do we achieve it, lets unite and make our collective voice heard.

It is heartening to see teachers gaining a voice and advocating. Several of us have chipped away for a few months and it is gathering momentum. Without those "starter" voices nothing would change.

So I encourage anyone, anywhere in the world, to use their voice. This blog may be a way of making that first contact with others in your own country! Or CSTA can put you in touch with others in the same geographical region.

Joining CSTA will open up that potential.

Margot Phillipps
International Director

Posted by cstephenson at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2009

Educating NITRD

As far as obscure government acronyms go, NITRD is a pretty good one. It stands for the National Information Technology Research and Development program. This program cuts across numerous federal agencies to carry out and coordinate investments in IT R&D. In 2007, the President's Council of Advisory on Science and Technology (PCAST… another doozy of an acronym) issued a report making recommendations for some reforms of the NITRD program. One interesting issue it touched on is the need to improve computing education and strengthen the IT workforce pipeline. With Congress now using this report as basis to look at what changes it would make to the program, ACM joined with the Computing Research Association and National Center for Women and Information Technology in a letter outlining ideas of how NITRD could be improved to address computer science education issues, particularly at the K-12 level.

While R&D is clearly the focus of the NITRD program, it has an education component. The overall program is broken into several (acronym alert) Program Component Areas (PCAs). Each one deals with a field of research but its Social, Economic, and Workforce Implications of IT PCA is charged with addressing workforce and education issues. In truth, this part of the program is small and the Nation Science Foundation dominates the contributions to it. Further, it really does not have a K-12 focus and the Department of Education dropped out of the overall program some time ago. It is time to revitalize and expand this area.

The community letter to Congress seeks to strengthen the pipeline by expanding, better leveraging, and coordinating existing education efforts within the NITRD program. We outline four recommendations (and specific legislative language for the wonks out there):

* Promote computing education, particularly at the K-12 level, and increased exposure to computing education and research opportunities for women and minorities as core elements of the NITRD program;
* Require the NITRD program to address education and diversity programs in its strategic planning and road-mapping process;
* Expand efforts at the National Science Foundation (NSF) to focus on computer science education, particularly at the K-12 level through broadening the Math Science Partnership program; and,
* Enlist the Department of Education and its resources and reach in addressing computer science education issues.

Each of these recommendations would bring a much-needed federal focus to issues in computer science education at the K-12 level. More and more conversations are occurring within the community about what needs to be done to improve computing education, and the discussion often turns back to the K-12 level. Computing and the innovations it yields are critical to the domestic economy. The ubiquitous nature of computing has spread its reach into everyone’s daily lives. Securing our cyber-infrastructure, protecting national security, and making our energy infrastructure more efficient are among numerous issues all depending on computing. However, the current pipeline will not satisfy the demands of an industry that includes some of the country's most innovative and successful companies. Nor will the existing education system give students the kind of background knowledge in computing and skills they need for the 21st Century.

We must do more to expose kids to a quality computer science education program at the K-12 level, support teachers and bring innovative new curricula into the schools. Opening a serious education front in the NITRD program would be a good start to this ambitious goal.

Cameron Wilson
ACM Director or Public Policy

Posted by cstephenson at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2009

Many Things We Can Do

While riding across the California desert on my way to California CUE (Computer Using Educators), reading several RSS feed captures, and trying to decide upon a topic for my blog contribution from the many CS related events in the news lately, I recalled a fitting quote, "When you don't know what to do, do many things."

I think that's the approach we as technology educators need to embrace, and quickly! There are serious problems in technology/CS education that need solutions. We scratch our collective heads because we are not sure what to do to solve the problems of falling enrollments, to reverse popular CS misperceptions, and to motivate students to look at opportunities in technology.

A few recent reports in the news offer motivation and a source of ideas for some of the "many things" we can do.

The $787 billion stimulus bill, signed into law last week includes $650 million for existing educational technology programs and opportunities for additional funds for improved broadband access for rural schools as well as other dollars identified for educational technology. In a recent article in Education Week magazine, Keith R Krueger, the chief executive officer of the Washington-based Consortium for School Networking, said "If you think this is the time to get ahead of the curve and show that educational technology can be creative, then there are opportunities. If we don't do this, than shame on us, and we're going to get rolled over."

So what can be done "ahead of the curve" in your classroom, school, or district to show CS as a creative solutions for improving graduation rates, re-engaging disengaged students, building relevance into other core subjects, creating effect higher-education articulation agreements?

The second item in my "do many things" list is to vow to meet our clients where they live. The problem we face is the equivalent of what is currently happening to newspapers. The newspaper tossed on the driveway is facing serious circulation problems. Many of their customers are living on the net and that is where they want to get their news. We need to seriously think about where our clients "live."

Our students call the Internet and other media rich environments home. How are we meeting them there in both our delivery of learning materials and the projects they learn from? Ideas for taking our product to the customer include providing a rich online presence for classes with engaging interactive elements as well as a repository of their learning resources. We need to explore how programming for the Web can enliven a CS course while teaching all of the basic concepts plus many more that have real meaning for our "clients." Dan Lewis, Santa Clara University, has suggestions on how to do this in the upcoming May issue of the Voice.

Teaching game development is gaining popularity and seems to motivate at least some of our students. The impact of playing video/computer games is hotly debated. Solid research into both the effects of playing games on learning and into the effectiveness of teaching game design on engaging students in STEM careers would be valuable. The good news is that the Games for Learning Institute, a joint venture between New York University, Microsoft, and other colleges has begun research to discover whether video games (and not just those designed to be educational) can draw students into math, science, and technology-based programs.

Opportunities to teach "real" CS using media including games abound. Scratch, Alice, and Media computation are just a couple. New to the field is XNA programming, a natural advanced step in a comprehensive CS curriculum. Many of the opportunities to include game and media development are free and worthy of exploring.

So if you don't know what to do, do many things!

Pat Phillips
Editor, CSTA Voice

Posted by cstephenson at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2009

Fixing Computer Science Teacher Certification

More than likely you wouldn't be reading this blog if you didn't feel passionately that computer science is an essential discipline in our high schools. Certainly, every article I read about the importance of teaching our students 21st Century Skills reminds me how critical computer science is in our educational system. Quite simply stated, computer science exemplifies 21st Century skills. Students today are inherently interested in computers and computer science because they are digital natives.

With these digital natives populating our classrooms, the increasing globalization of our economy, and the focus on 21st Century skills, the stage is set for a resurgence of computer science in our schools. Who will teach these digital natives computer science? Unfortunately, many of our states lack teacher certification in computer science. Where computer science teacher certification exists, the certification standards are not consistent among the states. And, the certification standards are certainly not consistent throughout the world. It is critical that the individuals teaching computer science in our schools be exemplary in the field. And, it is critical that a certification structure be put into place to address that critical need.

CSTA has recently published a white paper titled Ensuring Exemplary Teaching in an Essential Discipline: Addressing the Crisis in Computer Science Teacher Certification . The white paper addresses the critical need for computer science teacher certification by detailing the importance of computer science education, examining relevant research about computer science teacher preparation, highlighting models of computer science teacher certification, and concludes by recommending models for teacher preparation and certification in computer science. The recommended models for teacher preparation and certification address professionals who are new teachers, veteran teachers who have NO computer science teaching experience, veteran teachers WITH computer science teaching experience, and individuals coming from business with a computer science background. The professionals in each of these four groups bring a wealth of experiences and skills to computer science teaching. These are the professionals who are or will become the teachers who will teach computer science to our digital natives.

The CSTA white paper provides a welcome and necessary model for state teacher certification specialists to follow to establish computer science certification standards in each state thus providing critical uniformity across states. The white paper also assists current and prospective computer science teachers by providing a model for honing their skills and for keeping current in the field. Certainly if we have more professionals earning computer science certification, we will see an increase in computer science education in our schools. This will lead us to exemplary teaching in computer science and prepare our students for success in the 21st Century.

The Ensuring Exemplary Teaching in an Essential Discipline: Addressing the Crisis in Computer Science Teacher Certification document can be downloaded by following this link:

http://www.csta.acm.org/Communications/sub/Documents.html

I urge you to take a few minutes to read the document, if you have not already done so.

Deborah Seehorn
CSTA Board Member

Posted by cstephenson at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2009

Advocacy Action in Ohio

Ohio is on the move, or at least we would like to think so.

During the eTech State Technology Conference in February we were able to present four sessions on topics in computer science education. The eTech coordinators worked with us to schedule all four sessions on the same day in the same room. We had approximately 250 people over the four sessions. Topics included teaching with Scratch, programming with phidgets (small electronic devices), CS Unplugged, and teaching graphics and web design.

There were many teachers who stayed to ask questions and gather resources. Many also took CSTA membership forms. One particular teacher confided that the only reason her district allowed her to come was because there were sessions directly relating to her job. Her school district paid for her to attend on the one day that we were presenting. We feel that is a huge success. As we talked to other teachers and as we continue to make new contacts we find that most computer science teachers are isolated. Our hope through things like the day at eTech and through working to develop a chapter that we are able to provide contacts and resources for CS teachers.

We have also begun the conversation about forming a CSTA chapter in Ohio. This conversation will continue on March 10th at our next informal meeting. We hope to use Skype (or something similar) and have a pod of cs teachers meet in the Cleveland and a second group in the Columbus area. The primary goals of this meeting is to determine the structure of our proposed chapter. We also plan to talk more about the lines of communication that have been opened with the Ohio Department of Education concerning awarding a math credit for APCS when 4 credits of math are required with the new Ohio CORE initiatives. We will also discuss upcoming events for CS students and teachers.

The Cincinnati area will also have a meeting on March 17th as scheduling issues prohibit running it in conjunction with Columbus.

As you can see things are happening in Ohio. If you are interested in being a part of any of our activities visit:

http://sites.google.com/site/compsciohio/

to see what is coming up.

Angie Thorne & Stephanie Hoeppner
CSTA Leadership Cohort

Posted by cstephenson at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2009

Why It is Time To Get Political

In the last year, CSTA has put s great deal of effort into developing a strong advocacy arm for CSTA and there are times when I wonder if this is a good use of our precious and limited resources when there is so much that needs to be done for computer science teachers. A blog comment by our member Tom Reinhardt (which I am including in its entirety below) however, helped me see once again why advocacy is not just important, but critical to our survival as a disciple.

With the launching of the CSTA Leadership Cohort we are now building an advocacy network in every state. And through our work on the ACM Education Policy Committee, we are getting our message to the key policy makers. In fact, several of our powerful CSTA members are on the Hill right now, lobbying for K-12 computer science education.

And these efforts are starting to show signs of success. More states are considering allowing computer science courses to count as math or science credits for mandatory graduation requirements. The National Science Foundation has opened up the Math and Science Partnership grants to include funding for computer science. And we are hearing rumors of a potential large-scale professional development plan for computer science teachers.

In the last year CSTA has also supported two germinal publications. The first is a CSTA publication called Ensuring Exemplary teaching in an Essential Discipline: Addressing the Crisis in Computer Science Teacher Certification. This publication has now been sent to over 500 educational policy makers.

The second book is by Jane Margolis. It is called Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race and Computing and we are doing everything we can to convince policy makers that they must read this book.

In his comments below, Tom talks about the seemingly overwhelming challenges that teachers are facing and the critical importance of changing the minds of the policy makers. His comments have convinced me that these advocacy efforts are, after all, something our members both want and need.

Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

Here is Tom's Comment

What's missing is "relevance." Unless or until someone who is in a position of authority deems Computer Science "relevant" we shall be relegated elective status. Pure and simple. That no one from ACM or any other organization was able to get CS into the "core" curriculum when they crafted that terrible piece of legislation called No Child Left Alive, sealed our fate---pure and simple.

Sure, we can argue the point, but, trust me (at least from what I've seen over the last six plus years) no one is listening. Unless your content impacts your Principal's career, you're irrelevant. In the best case, you're tolerated. In the worst case, you're marginalized to the point of collapse.

It gives me no pleasure to say this, but I'm growing weary of hand-wringing and the polly-annish attitude that if we could only make our case known, things would be different. Policy makers only convene meetings to hear opinions that confirm their decisions. Unless they have already decided that you are important, you are a not on the agenda.

This is the view from the trenches, at least in Montgomery County, Maryland. I live from enrollment period to enrollment period. I teach 5 preps, 5 courses, run a department (whithering yearly) and participate in more meetings that I'd care to recount at this moment. I have more education and more experience than 90% of my co-workers. I teach a content area that our Science department treats as "what's the name of that course?" and our mathematics department sees as not-calculus: No one teaches properties and structures any more; we have calculators, we don't need abstract mathematics.

All the while, I have excellent relationships with my students who take my courses when they can free up the elective credits. And this is the only reason that I soldier on. Their parents make it a point to visit me on Back to School night; they really don't have to do that. (Their students could fail my course tomorrow and the Administration would likely expunge it from their records.)

If we really wanted to do something to promote CS, we'd be figuring out how to change the minds of policy makers, not educators because they are cows. We'd be actively engaged in political action, not intellectual hand-wringing. We'd be writing articles and books, exposing the shameful state of a youth abused and deprived of a truly relevant and world-class education.

Peace out.

Tom Reinhardt

Posted by cstephenson at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2009

Where Are All the High School Computer Science Students?

I recently had a discussion with a professor from Virginia Tech on why can't we recruit more students for Computer Science majors at the university level, why can't we get women or minority students, and what can be done to turn this around? There is obviously a great deal of interest in recruiting students to our discipline, so why are we unsuccessful?

Why don't high school students take Advanced Placement Computer Science? There are a variety of "excuses": it is too hard, it is boring, I don't want to spend my life in a cubical writing code by myself or I don't want to be a computer scientist, there are no jobs, etc. Let's examine these rationalizations.
1. It is too hard. Certainly, Computer Science is a challenging discipline and is different in content and concept from any other high school course. But, is it too hard? AP Calculus is hard. AP Physics is hard. AP Spanish is hard. AP Government is hard. In fact, all AP courses are hard. They are college level courses high school students take. By their very nature, AP courses require extra work, cover advanced material, and proceed at a more rapid pace than their non-AP counterparts. AP Exam results support my contention that AP Computer Science is no harder than any other AP subject.
2. It is boring. Again, if all we do is write boring programs, AP Computer Science is boring. However, there are many interesting labs that AP students can do involving graphical applications and real life simulations. As teachers, if we were still teaching using the techniques we learned to teach Pascal, our course would be dull; but most of use are using modern tools and techniques. Even so, is computer science more boring than memorizing derivative forms or learning physical laws?
3. The last series boil down to the perception that there are no jobs or that the jobs are boring. Various agencies (Census Bureau, Labor Department) indicate that there is a growing demand for people with computer science degrees and that the jobs are good jobs that are unlikely to be off-shored. So why can't we get this message out?

Why do high school students take Advanced Placement (AP) courses? While there are many answers to this question, certainly the ability to achieve college credit or placement is a key factor. Can a student who takes AP Computer Science benefit directly in their college career? For most students, the benefit is indirect and intangible. Few colleges award general education credit for AP Computer Science. The typical student can satisfy those GenEd requirements with most AP courses (math, science, history, foreign language) but AP Computer Science does not fit in this mold. AP Computer Science students learn how to solve problems, how to think outside the box, and how to tackle a large project. These are all skills that lead to success in future academic courses. However, AP Computer Science does not lead to college credit for most students.

So, what can we do? We (High School Teachers) can't fix the college credit issue. However, we can tout the virtues of our course in developing 21st century skills and creating a more technologically savvy student. How many majors require either a formal programming class, expect the student to be able to write Excel spreadsheet macros, or create Visual Basic applications? As a student, do you want to do this as a college freshman when you are making the adjustment to college life or as a high school student when you are still in your comfort zone? As educators, we need to sell our course, not as making students computer scientists, but rather, exposing students to skills and knowledge they will need for the rest of their lives. How many other high school courses can make that statement?

John Harrison
CSTA Board Member

Posted by cstephenson at 01:02 PM | Comments (1)

February 18, 2009

An Effective ELL Strategy for Computer Science Classes

I'm sitting in my office printing out cards to send to students to invite them to enroll in a computer course. I am using the AP Potential list from the College Board provides. It includes the students that the College Board believes should be successful in an AP Computer Science class. Fortunately, one of the school's secretaries was kind enough to look up some additional information about the students to help me deliver the cards.

While waiting for the printer to chug out the cards, I was thinking about a strategy that I recently used in my computer class. As a mentor for two beginning teachers (PT), I am invited to attend the workshops that my PTs are required to attend. The PTs are required to implement a strategy and then collect evidence to show its effectiveness. I decided that since they had to do it, I should at least implement something that was suggested during the "Teaching Academic Language to English Learners" workshop. I decided to implement the "same and different" strategy.

During the workshop, the speaker walked us through "same and different." She had us divide ourselves into pairs. In our pairs we selected who was A and who was B. The As received one picture and the Bs another. We were told to discuss the picture with our partner in terms of how the pictures were the same or different, but were could not show the picture to our partner. For instance, in my picture there was a couple, a man and a woman. In my partner's picture there was also a man and a woman. In my picture both were standing, but in my partner's picture the man was leaning and the woman was standing. We continued our comparison for 5 to 10 minutes.

I decided I could also use this strategy in my AP Computer Science class. I gave my As a method that returned a value without parameters and the Bs were given a similar method except that it did not return a value and had parameters. The students discussed the methods for 5 to 10 minutes then we had a whole class discussion about return types, parameters and method calls. The students felt that this help solidify return types and parameters. I am looking for an opportunity to use this again.

Give it a try with your students and let us know how it works.

Myra Deister
CSTA Board Member

Posted by cstephenson at 01:26 PM | Comments (1)

February 06, 2009

Why Computer Science?

I used to say that high school students should take computer science because it helps them be better problem solvers and critical thinkers. I'd go on to say that what they learn in computer science will serve them well no matter what they choose to study or what career path they take in the future.

I don't say that anymore.

Not that I don't believe it. Of course I do. But how does this argument differentiate computer science from any other academic high school class or discipline? The fact is that *every* high school teacher can claim (and rightly so) that taking classes in their discipline will help students be better problem solvers and critical thinkers.

So what then is the compelling reason to take computer science in high school?

I think we can only answer this question by looking at what it means to be a well-educated citizen in today's world. Most would agree that, at the minimum, we need to be able to read and write with understanding, have a knowledge of mathematics that includes algebra and geometry, understand the basics of science including the fundamentals of biology, chemistry, and physics, and have a historical perspective on our own culture and the culture of others.

I'd argue that we must have computing literacy as well.

Now, by computing literacy I don't mean knowing how to keyboard, word process, or use software. These are all important skills but fall into the realm of either basic foundational skills taught in elementary school (such as handwriting typically is) or extracurricular education (such as driver's ed).

Computing literacy is also not information literacy. While essential, information literacy is about critical reading and analysis rather than computer science.

Finally, computing literacy is not just about knowing how to program any more than mathematical literacy is just about knowing how to use a calculator or chemistry literacy is just knowing how to do a titration or history literacy is just about memorizing a bunch of dates and events.

Computing literacy *is* about knowing and understanding the fundamentals -- the big ideas, if you will -- of computer science. It is about understanding how computing simulates the real world by modeling real world processes. It is about understanding basic algorithms and algorithmic techniques and how we can solve complex problems using simple concepts. It is about understanding abstraction and how it helps us manage complexity. It is about understanding the theoretical and practical limitations of computing, knowing that they affect what types of problems we can solve and how quickly we can solve them.

When we talk about computing literacy in these terms, it gives us a compelling case for making computer science a required part of the high school curriculum so that our students are well-educated citizens and productive members of society. Given the ubiquity of computers and computing and how they are both integrated with and integral to every other discipline, it's hard to argue otherwise.

Robb Cutler
CSTA Past President

Posted by cstephenson at 06:14 PM | Comments (1)

December 31, 2008

The New Year

I hope that you have had as restful and relaxing a holiday break as I have. After what felt like non-stop activity during the first semester, with lessons to plans, assignments to grade, and students to help, it's nice to have some time away from school. As the break winds down, I find my thoughts turning back to school.

As a teacher, I always think of the new year as beginning in September. New pencils and pens, bright classrooms, excited students...the short days of January have nothing on the fall. That said, the new calendar year can provide an opportunity to start fresh.

I used to think it was important to maintain absolute consistency. Even when systems didn't work, I kept going with them. I'd been told it was important to keep things the same, lest we confuse students. Fortunately, I've long since realized what a bad idea that is! Consistency is only a good idea if it works. Now I use the holiday break to reflect on what systems are not working well and how I can improve them in the upcoming semester.

This year, I will offer weekly lunch tutorials, so students will have a dedicated time they can get help. I'm always available by request, but having to set a time is a barrier for some of them. Hopefully, knowing they can come in every Wednesday will encourage some students who need extra support.

What changes are you thinking of? What ideas do you have that someone else might use in their class?

Michelle Hutton
CSTA President

Posted by cstephenson at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

December 09, 2008

Why Students Do Not Take APCS

I recently heard a statistic that 30% of the students who take AP Computer Science go on to major in computer science in college. While this may sound like an impressive statistic, it only serves to highlight one of the systemic problems in high school computer science education -- namely, that we don't serve a broad base of students.

Consider the evidence. Only 20,000 or so students currently write the APCS (both A and AB combined) exam, and this number is likely to decrease next year when the AB exam is retired. Contrast this with the 100,000 students who take the AP Chemistry exam, the 145,000 students who take the AP Biology exam, the 275,000 students who take the AP Calculus exam, and the almost 600,000 students who take the AP English Language or Literature exams. In fact, more students take an AP exam in French than in Java!

Why is there such a wide variance in the numbers? I think you have to examine the motivations of students who take AP courses. While some students take AP courses because they like the subject matter or because they want college placement and/or credit, my experience has been that the vast majority of students take AP courses for two reasons:

First and foremost, students take AP courses because of the GPA boost they get. Many high schools have a higher GPA scale for AP and honors courses, but even if they don't, admissions departments at the college level will often recalculate a student's reported GPA to weight AP courses more heavily. The end result is that many students will only take a non-AP course as a last resort because it will often *lower* their GPA -- even if they get an A+.

Second, students take AP courses because it improves their chances for admission at most selective colleges and universities. Admissions officers want to see students take the most challenging coursework available to them. When there's a choice, it is better to take an AP class (even if your grade is slightly lower) than to take a non-AP course and get an A+.

The main problem is that the APCS course (either A or AB) is perceived as difficult and time-consuming -- not rigorous and challenging. With all that students are doing these days, being able to sink two or three or four hours a night into a lab is just not possible. Even if they have the time to put into APCS, they have the very real concern that their other grades will suffer as a result.

It comes down to the fact that when students have a choice between APCS and another AP course that they perceive as "challenging but doable," students will usually pick the latter -- sometimes even if they would prefer to take computer science.

Don't get me wrong. I love computer science and I advocate strongly that *every* student should have a basic understanding of the field. But unless we do something soon to change how computer science is being taught at the AP level, I fear that APCS A will soon go the way of AB.

As far as that 30% statistic I mentioned earlier, I'd much rather see it drop to 2% -- as long as we could develop a broadly appealing yet rigorous computer science course. If AP Computer Science could draw a similar number of students as AP English, we would increase the number of students who go on to major in computer science by more than 50%. Now *that* would be impressive.

Robb Cutler
CSTA Past President

Posted by cstephenson at 12:31 PM | Comments (3)

October 14, 2008

The Most Important Book You Will Read This Year

You might remember Jane Margolis' and Allan Fisher's book from a few years ago called "Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing". That book was a germinal work about computer science education and it fundamentally changed how many of us look at issues of gender and computing.

Well, Jane has done it again, and if you can find time to read nothing else this year, read "Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing".

This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about the critical intersections of education, race, and computing. It is shocking and sad and uplifting and it is essential reading for educators, administrators, parents, community leaders, policy makers, and anyone who cares about the future.

Margolis and her team show that when it comes to education and computing, the emperor has no clothes. Schools may be filled with shiny new machines but this is no guarantee that students are learning the high level critical thinking skills they require. The writers also lay bare a pervasive and systemic racism that virtually guarantees that even the best and brightest minority students receive nothing more than rudimentary point and click computing education, severely diminishing their abilities to succeed at the post secondary level and to thrive in the increasingly technological world in which we live.

Set all of this in a bureaucratic quagmire where actually educating the students (rather than just managing them) is a near impossibility and one begins to feel as though this is a hopeless situation. But this is where "Stuck in the Shallow End" actually triumphs. In the midst of grim reality it offers hope (grounded in solid research), showing how researchers, teachers, and administrators can work together to acknowledge and overcome the ingrained inequalities that keep so many of our students from achieving their full potential.

And it should also be mentioned that this is not just a thoughtful book, it is also extremely well-written and accessible, even to the most dedicated non-techie.

If you are an educator, if you care about educating all students, if you care about understanding what is going on and doing what is right, get this book. I know your time is precious, but it will be worth every minute you spend reading it. I promise.

Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 05:52 PM | Comments (0)

October 07, 2008

Computer Science Without Programming?

There have been some interesting discussions in the blogosphere recently about whether computer science could (or should) be taught in K-12 without programming.

At the elementary and middle school levels, the CS Unplugged curriculum is one way to engage students in real computer science without even needing computers. And when we do use programming tools at this level, they tend to be exploratory -- a developmentally appropriate way to learn.

In the high schools though, I think we have it completely backwards. Too often, we teach programming without computer science. Courses such as "Introduction to Java" and "C++ Programming" abound. Even the remaining AP course is focused almost solely on programming. Although we're now becoming "enlightened" and are moving towards programming environments such as Scratch, Greenfoot, and Alice, we still gear our courses around the tool rather than the computer science. We're just replacing "Programming with C" courses with "Programming with Alice" courses.

There's somewhat of an analogy in the mathematics curriculum these days. I recently tutored a student who wanted to review for the SAT math exam. As we were going over sample problems, we'd talk about approaches to solving the problem. Much too often, when I'd suggest the traditional mathematical solution (for example, using the quadratic formula or factoring a quadratic polynomial to find its zeros), she would tell me that she didn't know how to use those methods. Instead, she'd graph the function on her calculator and use the built-in solver to get the answer. Moreover, she could get the answer in about one-third the time it took me to solve the problem by hand.

I hate this. Not because I dislike the tool, but because she (and too many students) use the tool to solve the problem without having any real understanding of the underlying math concepts. Take away the calculator and her SAT score would have dropped several hundred points.

While some would say my quarrel with the AP and SAT exams is an issue with standardized tests, not with mathematics or computer science education, I would argue that problems go well beyond those multiple choice exams -- that the fault lies in our curricula and our approaches to education. Perhaps I'm too much of an idealist, but shouldn't our students' education be at a higher level? Whether it's math or computer science, shouldn't we first be teaching our students the conceptual framework and then (and only then) teaching them what buttons to push?

Robb Cutler
CSTA Past President

Posted by cstephenson at 01:54 PM | Comments (5)

September 11, 2008

Leadership Cohort Activities in Gwinnett County, Georgia

I began this school year with a renewed spirit, after having attending the Leadership Cohort in Chicago, IL this summer! It was so empowering to be amongst folks with like minds and a passion to grow our computer science programs at our schools.

As the Program Specialist for High Schools in Gwinnett County, Georgia, I serve as a liaison between the Computer Science teachers and the Director of Technical Education, Computer Science, and Apprenticeships. During the week of pre-planning, the Assistant Principal of Curriculum at my school stopped me in the hallway and asked me if I had any ideas about how I could possibly help to increase the number of students in the Computer Science program. I said, "Do I?!" He came into my classroom and I told him about the cohort, and all of the activities that we'd done to that end. So, we both left our little impromptu meeting feeling very encouraged. As part of an aggressive recruiting program this year, I will be at the feeder middle school's Orientation Night, equipped with a Smartboard showing some Greenfoot programs, Scratch animations, and Alice movies. I will also take along a couple of Lego NXT robots. The idea is to get the upcoming freshman class students "amped up" to take computer science courses as early as their first semester in high school. To get some of the current students at the school interested in our courses, I'm going to work with teachers in other disciplines to create projects that incorporate computer science in their other courses. For example, one year, one of the Foreign Language teachers and I created a project in which my Advanced Web Design students created a Flash matching game to help with Spanish vocabulary. We each had our own rubric to grade the project, and the students were very proud of their work. I will also recruit more female students by going to the softball team and cheerleaders, and encouraging them to register for computer science courses with a "buddy". There's been some research that indicates that female students feel less isolated in a computer science course when they take the course with a friend. I've done this before, and it seemed to be true.

This summer, my goal is to facilitate 2 or 3 Computer Science camps at one of the local middle schools, to teach upcoming 7th and 8th graders Scratch, Alice, and Lego robots. I will also speak with the Program Specialist for Middle School Computer Science as well, to see if he'd be interested in participating in this project with me.

I'm very excited about my endeavors this year, and I'm hopeful that my efforts to create "One Voice" are successful.

Michelle Venable-Foster
South Gwinnett High School
Math / Computer Science Teacher
Program Specialist for High School Computer Science
Gwinnett County, Georgia

Posted by cstephenson at 08:50 PM | Comments (1)

Maryland and Technology Literacy

So the people in the computer science field are constantly asking "Where do we fit in terms of technology literacy?" Some believe that every student should have some programming experience, while others believe that it should be selective students that get that instruction. (how we select is a whole different argument)

Maryland has adopted learning.com's Tech Literacy assessment according to this article in order to gauge how well their 7th grade students are doing in acquiring 21st century skills. If you go to the TechLiteracy assessment modules page you can see the core skills they are working on.

It is anextensive list in terms of applications usage, but is lacking in the more conceptual knowledge (except the social and ethical tabs). Lets consider what would happen if we added another box: Computer Science. What 1 sentence description would you provide for the module? What elementary and middle school examples of computer science skills would you want all students to have? (answer one or both, doesn't matter - I'll post my own ideas later in the comments to let people think about what they value before they see what I do).

Leigh Ann Sudol

Posted by cstephenson at 06:34 PM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2008

Leadership Cohort Activities in Ohio

I am very excited to be a part of the CSTA Leadership Cohort. I was impressed at the workshop this summer with all of the insights into CS education, where we have been and where we hope to be. We are doing our best in Ohio to advocate for CS education. Our two main goals are to set up a CSTA chapter and have a CS emphasis one day at our state wide Etech conference.

My colleague Angie is working with contacts in Central Ohio to host a first CSTA meeting which hopefully will lead to the formation of a chapter. We have both been working on our Etech conference emphasis. It is a 3 day event and I am working with one of the program coordinators to have one day offer a computer science session for
each time slot. We are working with a professor and a couple other CSTA members along with ourselves to write proposals for sessions. Our topics are most likely going to include Alice, Scratch, CS Unplugged, Phidgets and some other topics. We want to offer sessions that will offer free solutions (or minimal cost) to add to school
curriculum. Our plan is that other CS educators will walk away from that day with a handful of ideas and resources plus our commitment to continue helping them advocate for CS in their school district. Our goals are lofty but are in the process of being realized.

We appreciate all the support we are getting and the excitement that is passing from us to those we come in contact with. Hopefully our efforts will help promote our "ONE VOICE" for CS and bring support to those trying to keep computer science in the schools.

Stephanie Hoeppner
Clermont Northeastern High School
Angie Thorne
Hilliard Davidson High School

Posted by cstephenson at 01:30 PM | Comments (1)

Leadership Cohort Activities in Georgia

I was asked to address all the teachers in my county (Fulton) in Georgia towards increasing teacher training and collaboration for teaching CS courses. Our county Department Chair, for Career Tech, Business and Computer Science at the county, asked me to conduct a survey on what kind of interest teachers would have towards being more successful in teaching CS courses. The choices offered had a wide range of courses from AP Computer Science to Introduction to Computer Programming. The response was awesome. Most teachers said they felt lost and responded that the training would help a lot. In Fulton (my county) since last year all students K-12 have an early release day once a month (Sept., Oct., Jan, Feb and March). Teachers are expected to use this extra time toward Professional Learning and counts towards adding to their PLUs. I am cashing into this and offering training in different CS courses. I plan to start with AP Computer Science (only because I have other teachers with whom I collaborate with and I have most success teaching this course).
This kind of project is the first of its kind. I am not sure how things will turn out. I guess I will solve the problems as they come along. As I progress, I will keep you posted of my successes, frustrations and failures.

Deepa Muralidhar
Northview High School
Johns Creek Georgia

Posted by cstephenson at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2008

Making K-12 Outreach Really Count

In the face of the continuing computer science enrollment crisis more and more universities and colleges are doing outreach to middle and high schools. Post-secondary institutions know that in order to get more students into their classes they have to reach out to K-12 teachers and students, but how much value do they really place on the work of the faculty and staff who are running their outreach programs?

Last Thursday and Friday CSTA and SIGCSE co-hosted a workshop for colleges and universities who are doing or thinking of doing what we call "roadshows." These institutions are sending faculty and students (graduate and undergraduate) into middle and high schools to do presentations about computer science, informatics, and information technology. Their goal is to provide students with information about computing as a discipline and a career option and to provide special encouragement to students who are traditionally under-represented in the discipline.

The workshop, hosted by Google at their Mountain View campus, was, to put it bluntly, amazing. Faculty and staff from 36 institutions (large and small) came from across the country to share their expertise and resources. Some of the participants were from schools with long-standing, high-quality outreach programs (such as Carnegie Mellon, Indiana University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and some were just starting out. The workshop addressed key issues for the "newbies" as well as the concerns of more mature programs with regard to maintaining and sustaining outreach programs over time.

But, as is often the case with these kinds of workshops, some of the most enlightening discussions took place outside the regularly-scheduled events. For me, the most engaging centered on the question of how much value universities really place on this kind of outreach work.

As we were transitioning from one session to another, I happened to comment on two very different experiences I had had regarding the letter of support we required from the participants' Deans or Department Chairs. One Dean called me personally to say that, although her institution had virtually no money to support the outreach program, she saw it as exceedingly valuable and wanted to make sure that the applicant from her school would be able to attend. She made it very clear how much she respected and valued both the work being done and the person doing it. Another Dean sent me a letter that was so grudging in its support, I wondered how his faculty member actually managed to keep the program alive. Both of these faculty members were selected to participate in the workshop.

My off-the cuff story started the ball rolling and many of the participants noted that although their institutions want and need them to do outreach, they really don't value it in all the ways that count for university faculty. As one participant noted "It doesn't count for tenure, it doesn't help you publish technical articles, it doesn't count for service work, and it doesn't bring in the big money grants. And the rest of the faculty do not respect the work that we are doing."

When you consider that many of these outreach programs are scraping by on soft money or even no money, it is simply amazing that they are managing to do the work they do. College and university computer science and informatics programs need to move into this century. They need to realize that these kinds of outreach programs are critical to addressing the enrollment crisis and they need to recognize the folks who are doing it in the concrete ways that really count.

Posted by cstephenson at 10:08 AM | Comments (2)

February 25, 2008

Life Changing Moments in Professional Development

In the March, 2008 issue of the CSTA Voice newsletter (csta.acm.org/Publications/sub/Periodicals.html), readers are invited to reflect upon and share professional development experiences that changed their lives. We all have stories of inspiring presenters, dramatic training, and "ah-ha!" moments that transformed our approach to students, what we teach, or even our direction in life.

As summer approaches and opportunities for professional development abound, we'd like to hear about the professional development experiences that truly made a difference in your life. CSTA is the proud sponsor of many professional development opportunities (csta.acm.org/index.html), and hearing from you will help us in planning memorable, maybe even life-changing, opportunities.

So in the spirit of sharing, let me tell you my story of life-changing professional development. I began my professional life as a home economist. In one of my first years of teaching, I attended a professional development event and listened to what we called way back in the early 80s, a "futurist." I have long forgotten the person's name, but the message was loud and clear: "Technology will change the lives of families in ways you cannot imagine. Those who prepare now for the technological future will have the opportunity to impact that future."

I was so excited about the stories of smart devices, ubiquitous communication, and unbelievable opportunities, I barely slept for days. Within weeks, I reenrolled in college, figured out how I was going to be part of the exciting new world I had heard about, and announced to my fellow (and very skeptical) teachers that I was going to become a CS teacher!

Lo and behold, the future that I heard such wondrous things about is here and my life was changed forever because of a professional development event.

Please tell us about the impact of your professional development experiences.

Also, take a look at CSTA professional development offerings.

Get ready for life-changing experiences.

Pat Phillips
Editor, CSTA Voice

Posted by cstephenson at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2008

Rethinking CS Education

I think if there is one benefit to the current downturn in computer science enrollments it is that great minds are starting to wrestle with the complex challenge of how we improve computer science education so that we better engage all students.

This was the topic of a recent blog posting by Dan Reed on his Reed's Ruminations blog (http://hpcdanreed.typepad.com/reeds_ruminations/). Here is some of what Dan had to say.

I believe we must rethink our computing education approaches in some deep and fundamental ways. First, as researchers and technologists we seek to reproduce students in our technical image, failing to acknowledge that most of our students will not develop compilers, write operating systems or design computer chips. Rather, they benefit from training in logical problem solving, knowledge of computing tools and their applicability to new domains.

In short, most of our graduates solve problems using computing rather than working in core computing technologies. We must recognize and embrace the universality of computing as a problem solving process and introduce computing via technically challenging and socially relevant problem domains.

The magic hierarchy of computing - from atoms to gates to bits to in-order instruction architecture and machine language to code translation to "hello world" was an attractive and emotionally enticing technology story to previous generations. It is often esoteric and off-putting to a generation of students reared on ubiquitous computing technology.

This does not mean we should eviscerate the intellectual core of computing. Rather, we must emphasize relevance and introduce computing as a means to solve problems. Show the importance of computing to elections and voting, energy management and eco-friendly design, health care and quality of life.

Second, we struggle to accept the fact that not every student needs detailed knowledge of every computing specialization. If I were to draw a tortured analogy with the history of automobile, drivers need not understand combustion dynamics, the stiff ODE solutions underlying antilock brakes or superheterodyne radio engineering. Drivers do need to understand how to operate a car safely and recognize the high-level principles underlying that operation.

All of this suggests we should create multiple educational tracks that emphasis the disparate aspects of computing, layered atop a smaller, common core. Of course, I could be wrong - I often am.

To read the full blog entry, you can go to the CRA blog at:

http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives/000657.html

It is well worth the read.

Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 02:20 PM | Comments (2)

October 22, 2007

Update from the Hopper Conference

I have just attended my first Grace Hopper conference organized by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. The conference sold out with over 1400 people attending. There were a few brave men at the conference but the vast majority of the attendees were women (they even changed some of the men's bathrooms into women's bathrooms). It was amazing and exciting to see so many technical women in a variety of shapes, colors, ages, and backgrounds. I was impressed with the energy, enthusiasm, and depth of knowledge.

The keynote speaker was Donna Dubinsky who is the founder of a new company Numenta that is trying to design a computer system that reasons using a model based on the neocortex of the brain. She was also president and CEO of Palm and had also co-founded Handspring.

Jeannette M. Wing from Carnegie Mellon University gave a very interesting speech about some of the great open questions in computer science such as, "What is computable?" and "What is intelligence?" I was standing behind Turing Award winner Fran Allen in line for drinks and got to ask her, "what attracted her to her career in computer science at IBM". She said that she had big student loans and needed the money!

One of the interesting comments I heard was from a student who said that she was surprised at the number of older women at the conference. Many of the students didn't know who Grace Hopper or Anita Borg were. I had an interesting talk with Kathryn Kleiman about a documentary that she is working on about the female programmers of the ENIAC and how they have never really gotten credit for their work. You can learn more about the female programmers of the ENIAC at www.eniacprogrammers.org.

There is a documentary fundraiser on Thursday, November 8th 2007 from 6pm – 9pm, at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. Tickets are $100.00 each and you can register at www.google.com/events/eniac.

Everyone has heard of Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs but very few people know about the important contributions of women in computer science. We need to do a better job of recognizing the contributions of women in computing and in educating both men and women about the role women have played in computing!

For more information on Grace Hopper see http://gracehopper.org/2007/about/grace-hopper/.
For more information on Anita Borg see http://anitaborg.org/about/history/anita-borg/.
For more information on the ENIAC programmers see http:// www.eniacprogrammers.org.

Barb Eriscon
CSTA Certification Chair

Posted by cstephenson at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2007

South Carolina Takes Ambitious Leap

About six months ago, a group of department chairs, university and technical college faculty, teachers, and parents in South Carolina came together with the goal of bringing back the enrollments in undergraduate programs in computing. Now with the support of the South Carolina Superintendent of Education, Dr. Jim Rex, they are moving ahead on an ambitious plan to revamp high school computer science in South Carolina. Duncan Buell, Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Carolina gave me the following update on the Computing Competitiveness Council's plan.

Our committee's goal is to improve students' future employment opportunities and South Carolina's share of the knowledge economy. Over the last few months we have developed an analysis of why computing education may be the way it is and a plan for changing the situation for the better.

One of the problems we see is that although there are departments of math, science, and business, there is no "department of computing" in the high schools, and thus there is no focus and no champion of computing per se. Over the long term we hope to change that situation, even if only to create virtual departments of computing comprising faculty from other departments. We feel we have made a major step forward in this direction in that the major guidance brochure for the STEM disciplines now features computer science prominently along with mathematics, science, and pre-engineering.

We have also, at least in the Columbia area where USC is located, identified a school district willing to work with us on curricular issues and program development. In South Carolina, high school students choose a major. Last week the district and I worked out a major in computer science that will be advertised as one of the STEM disciplines. At USC, we are also developing a variation of the ACM/CSTA Level II course that will be suitable for distance delivery and satisfy a state computer science requirement that all too often has turned into a computer literacy requirement.

We also intend to create a distance delivery version of the course and thus to mitigate problems with rural schools and the difficulties faced by school districts in justifying the staffing of computing classes with teachers. The other university participants in the CCC are currently searching for suitable districts in their regions of the state.

Finally, we will be planning teacher preparation courses for summer 2008 both in the new Level II course and in Advanced Placement Computer Science, whose enrollment has shrunk in South Carolina to less than ten percent of that of AP Calculus. As our plans develop, we will be asking the state for support for teachers to induce them to make the effort to prepare for teaching these classes.

Overall, our goal is to coordinate the presentation to students and parents of the message about computing as a discipline and computing as a career and to provide schools with the documentation, support, and teacher preparation necessary to deliver that message. It's a tall order, but if we do not participate, then we can't very well complain about what message does get sent.

Duncan Buell
BUELL@engr.sc.edu

Posted by cstephenson at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2007

Introducing your new board members Part III

Welcome back for the third and final installment of "Meet your new board members". The third new member of the CSTA Board of Directors is David Burkhart. David is the newest K-8 teacher representative and he and brings experience with teaching computing to the lower grades to the board. Dave and I sat down in cyberspace and had a little chat.

Where are you from and what are you doing now in addition to being one of CSTA's newest board members?

I am the Computer and Multimedia teacher at West Muskingum Middle School in Zanesville, Ohio. I also serve as the middle school technology mentor. I am a Master's Degree candidate at Ohio University, graduating June 2008 with a degree in Computer Education and Technology.

Why Computer Science Education?

I feel that it is my responsibility to show my middle school students a wide range of uses and career opportunities within my computer classes. Computer Science is one of the fields that my students enjoy the most.

What do you like to do other than teach?

I love spending time with my two sons, ages 6 and 10. They are involved in Cub Scouts, soccer and music lessons. As a family, we enjoy participating in activities with the Muskingum Valley Vineyard Church.

For you personally which of the statements from CSTA's purpose has the most significance?

Wow, choose just one? I think the purpose statement that means the most to me personally is "Build a strong community of computer science educators who share their knowledge." I feel that I have benefited so much through networking with others within the CSTA.

Dave, along with Myra and Brian are bringing new ideas to your Board of Directors, but we want to hear from you as well! What are your hot topics? What can we do to help? Either leave Dave a comment or a question here, or let us know what we should be thinking about as we continue to move forward.

Leigh Ann Sudol
CSTA Communications Chair

Posted by cstephenson at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2007

Introducing: Your Newest Members of the Board of Directors (Part 2)

Welcome to the second installment of "meet your new directors". Today's featured director is Myra Deister who is our newest 9-12 teacher representative.

Myra is an active teacher in Fullerton, CA and teaches mathematics as well as computer science at her high school. She is also involved in a local Java educators support group and a member of the assessment review panel for the California Standards Test in Mathematics.

What got you started in education?

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a teacher. In high school I worked as a tutor at the local elementary school and was a member of the Future Teacher's Club.

Why computer science education?

I became interested in computers when the first Apple computers were sold commercially. I was intrigued as to how it could process the data. My husband wanted a quicker way for me to calculate grades and he found the computer and I found the software. I also decided to pursue a Master's degree around that time. I discovered that the math Master's program was not what I wanted to do, but computer science seemed interesting. I finished my Master's degree in software engineering a few years later and changed school districts so I could teach computing classes.

For you personally which of the statements from CSTA's purpose has the most significance?
"Build a strong community of computer science educators who share their knowledge."
This has been very important for me because, as the only computer science teacher on my campus, I appreciate the support of other teachers. For example, this summer our support group decided that we needed to meet to review the new case study. We met for nearly eight hours during which time we were able to answer questions as a group and become more familiar with the case study. Also, during one of the breaks, a teacher and I were taking about Online Learning Management software. I mentioned to him that I was going to purchase server space to move my computer science curriculum there. He told me that our county was offering exactly what I was looking for at no cost. I looked into to it and it was exactly what I wanted. I appreciate the help and suggestions I receive from the teachers that I meet with on a regular basis.

Is there anything else you would like to mention to help the membership get to know you better?

I live in Anaheim Hills with my husband and son. My daughter lives in Costa Mesa. My children are my pride and joy. My son is a full time student at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) majoring in communications. When he completes his degree, my entire family will be CSUF graduates. My daughter is working as a marketing manager in Costa Mesa for an IT company and does mission work with her church. She is leaving in a few weeks on a mission trip to India.

We welcome Myra to the ranks of leadership and we know that the enthusiasm that she has brought to CS teachers in her local area will translate well into the work that she does as a member of the Board of Directors. If you have any questions or comments for Myra please leave them here. :)

Leigh Ann Sudol
CSTA Communications Chair

Posted by cstephenson at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2007

Georgia Summer Camps Reveal Student Preferences

Summer is my busiest time of year. We run teacher workshops and summer camps for middle and high school students. We began with two weeks of camp for high school students in 2004. Last year we added two weeks of camp for middle school students. This year we expanded the program to five weeks of camps for middle school students and three weeks of camps for high school students. We ran two weeks of middle school camps using Scratch and PicoCrickets and two weeks of middle school camps using LEGO NXT robots and Alice. We ran one week for middle school students on RoboCup Jr. and some teams went on to participate in the international RoboCup Jr competition at Georgia Tech.

For high school students we did two weeks of Alice, LEGO NXT robots, and Media Computation in Python. We also did one week for high school students for RoboCup Jr using LEGO NXT robots (dance and rescue).

One interesting result is that many middle school students really liked Scratch and many high school students really liked Media Computation in Python. Many students preferred these free items over the expensive robot kits from LEGO and Pico. One boy had his mother come up and take a picture with his image collage displayed behind him that he created using Media Computation. See this collage at http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/567 (3rd from the top).

So, it is fairly easy for a high school teacher to offer computing summer camps for middle and high school students with Scratch, Media Computation in Python, and perhaps Alice and make some extra money in the summer and hopefully increase the quatity and diversity of kids in your computing classes! You could even make enough to buy some robot kits. The kids liked the RoboCup Jr. camp, too. I would like to do a Southeastern regional competition every year for this.

See http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/475 for more information on our summer camps and a zip about how to start a summer camp and some curricular materials.

Barb Ericson
CSTA Board of Directors

Posted by cstephenson at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2007

Applause for ISTE Standards Refresh

Over the last year the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has been carrying out a review and renewal of its National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) and early indications are that the results will be positive for educators concerned about ensuring that students have the skills they need to thrive in an increasingly technological world.

The newly released ISTE NETS for Students Draft document (1/4/2007) is a move towards inclusion of computer science topics as well as technology topics under one standard. I applaud ISTE for suggesting a broader base of computing studies than in previous standards.

While I believe the draft represents a step toward better computing preparation for K-8 students in the US, the one-page draft does not provide sufficient indication as to the anticipated level of student understanding expected. For example, Section "VI.A. Technology Operations and Concepts, understand and use technology systems" does not indicate the type of technology systems. I can reasonably imagine this as anything from connecting and using a DVD player or MP3 player, to connecting and using a computer system.

Unfortunately, "IV.B. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving and Decision-Making, plan and manage activities to develop solutions and complete projects" also fails to specifically state that students should use algorithmic thinking as a means to develop solutions. Trial and error is a great place to start, but eventually standard algorithms need to be introduced and modified in the approach to a solution.

CSTA applauds ISTE for moving technology standards forward and for introducing concepts that are suggested in the
ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science Education. While not perfect, the revised NETS are moving students toward knowledge and skills necessary for success in today's digital world. We would encourage ISTE, however, to look at the future needs of US students and consider a more comprehensive approach to these needs.

Anita Verno
Chair, CSTA Curriculum Committee

Posted by cstephenson at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2007

AP Report Shows Slight Improvements

The College Board has released its Report to the Nation for 2007 and the good news is that the number of students writing the A and AB Computer Science Advanced Placement exams seems to be on the rise after four years of continual decline.

Between 2002 and 2005 the overall number of students taking AP CS dropped from 23,459 to 19,021. In 2006, however, there is a slight upward trend of about 3% to 19,601.

The distribution of examinees by grade level is fairly similar to last year, with a slight increase (from 0.8% to 1.4%) in students who are taking the exam as early as 9th grade).

Exam Takers by Grade Level
9th grade: 1.4%
10th grade: 14.5%
11th grade: 36.6%
12th grade: 42.4%
Other: 5.2%

The Grade Distribution also remains fairly consistent.

AP Grade Distribution
Score of 5: 24.9%
Score of 4: 21.6%
Score of 3: 15.1%
Score of 2: 8.1%
Score of 1: 30.3%

There is also a slight improvement in gender equity, with the percentage of young women writing the AP CS exam rising from 15% to 16%.

AP Exam Takers by Gender
Male: 84%
Female: 16%

The number of exam takers who are students from traditionally underrepresented populations has also improved marginally. Both the number of Hispanic or Latino students and the number of Black or African American students have increased by 0.4%.

AP Exam Takers by Race & Ethnicity:
White: 52.8%
Asian American or Pacific Islander 22.4%
Hispanic or Latino: 6.6%
Not stated: 5.0%
Other: 4.0%
Black or African American: 3.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native: 0.4%

These small improvements are a positive sign in light of growing concerns about the AP Computer Science exam, but it is doubtful that they are sufficient to overcome the growing sense among both K-12 and university educators that the exam is in need of a significant review and revision.

Posted by cstephenson at 12:34 PM | Comments (1)

February 16, 2007

How does more testing ensure that students are gaining critical thinking skills?

For those of you who have not yet seen it, the Commission on No Child Left Behind has put out their report proposing changes and updates to the NCLB legislation currently in place.

In reading the high school section of the report (Chapter 6) I was immediately drawn to the recommendations that they are making for high schools. In addition to changing the way that high schools are evaluated, and including evaluation for principals, there are some changes that concern me. First of all the report states that "70 percent [of employers] said that high school graduates were deficient in critical thinking and problem solving skills" (p. 131).

Are they recognizing that there is a pressing need to include more critical thinking activities (such as large design projects) or that students take at least one elective course in their high school career that is designed around critical thinking and problem solving? No, this is not their solution. Instead they are instituting another grade level assessment at the 12th grade level. If they are not bothering to teach these key concepts and skills as part of the curriculum, why on earth do they think that yet another assessment will solve the problem?

Problem-solving courses can take many forms and many of these courses already exist in schools. The problem is that they are being phased due to the pressures of NCLB. Why not re-energize those courses, computer science included, by recognizing they teach an important set of concepts that is often missed in the four R's.

Regardless of your feelings about NCLB and the mentioned changes here, I highly recommend you read the report. Even if you do not read the entire report, at least read the sections pertaining to your particular sphere of existence. Share your thoughts, speak out, let us know what you think the solutions might be.

Leigh Ann Sudol
CSTA Communications Chair

Posted by cstephenson at 11:47 AM | Comments (1)

December 21, 2006

Florida's New High School Computing Majors

In an effort to provide students with more highly defined career paths, the state of Florida is requiring high school students to choose a college-style major. To facilitate this change it has created a list of 400 possible majors, including eight that deal specifically with computing.

Computer and Communications Technology
Computer Education
Computer Education - Applications
Computer Education - Programming
Computer Education (Magnet)
Computer Graphics and Design
Computer System Analyst
Computer Systems Technology

The good thing about this list of possible majors is that it includes the possibility of computing technology majors (Computer and Communications Technology and Computing Applications), majors relating specifically to the use of computing across the curriculum (Computer Education and Computer Education - Magnet)) and majors that can be considered more traditional computer science courses Computer Education - Programming, Computer System Analyst, and Computer Systems Technology). It also includes opportunities to focus on the use of computing inn other disciplines with majors such as Bioinformatics and Business and Information Technology).

The problem with the list of majors, however, is that in attempting to connect courses with specific career paths, Florida may be focusing on so closely on one particular element of a discipline that it will make it difficult for students to acquire a sufficiently broad knowledge to function well in a workplace where both the jobs and what they are called are continually shifting.

Take Computer Education - Programming for example. While there are some who think that computer science is really just programming, experts in the high tech industries will tell you that computer science is a whole lot more. Students need a foundational understanding of software design, software development, and software maintenance. They also need to be introduced to diverse areas of computer science, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interfacing just to name a few. A course in programming alone won't prepare them for the world of work.

Florida might be wise to take a page from the ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science, and organize the computing courses to allow students to learn the core concepts they require first, and then to explore the various specializations the discipline offers. Taking this approach, the majors might be listed as :

Computer and Communications Technology
Computer Applications
Computer Science: Introduction
Computer Science Analysis and Design
Special Topics in Computer Science:
graphics and design
robotics
networking

This kind of organization would be far more likely to ensure that students learn what they need to learn and that the system of majors remains flexible enough to serve Florida schools over time.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 02:17 PM | Comments (2)

November 28, 2006

The Pitfalls of Corporate Sponsorship

All educational associations would be wise to pay attention to the roasting the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) is taking right now over its refusal to distribute a video on global warming to its members.

The controversy has arisen over NSTA's refusal to distribute 50,000 free DVD copies of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". In a recent Washington Post article, the film's producer, Laurie David, reported receiving an email refusal of the free teaching materials from the NSTA indicating that acceptance of the DVDs would place an "unnecessary risk upon the (NSTA) capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters." Also in the email, NSTA claimed that it did not want to offer a political endorsement that distribution of the film might imply. The problem, says David, is that NSTA has shown no such qualms about accepting more than $6 million in funding from Exxon Mobile, which has an alternative but similarly political end in mind when it comes to dealing with issues of fossil fuels.

Whether you personally agree or disagree with the NSTA's decision, this situation is sadly indicative of the tightrope all educational associations walk. The fact is, associations such NSTA, CSTA, and NCTM are increasingly stepping in to fill the huge educational gaps that other institutions have abandoned. We are doing the research, and creating the learning materials, and providing professional development for teachers. And doing all of this take money.

You might be surprised to learn that for most educational associations, membership fees account for less than 20% of the operating budget. That means we have to find the money to do all the good things we do from someplace else. There are only so many National Science Foundation grants to go around, so all of us, not just NSTA, rely on some form of corporate sponsorship.

To date, CSTA has been blessed with wonderful sponsors and we are very proud of the things we have accomplished together. Like most organizations, we focus on finding projects that are clearly in support of our mission and of benefit to our members. We also look carefully at the practical and moral implications of our choices. In truth, we have had to turn money down for projects that would imply CSTA support for a given product because our Board feels strongly that this is the right thing to do.

Whether right or wrong, I feel sorry for the good folks at the NSTA today. They have spent many years trying to do good things for teachers with far fewer resources than they need. The politics of scarcity gets us all eventually.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 05:37 PM | Comments (1)

November 17, 2006

International Perspective on Girls in the Sciences

The Financial Times reported recently that females are more likely to study Information Technology if it involves problem solving, team work, and creativity. One of the Israeli daily newspapers has also just published research which finds that girls studying computing get slightly better grades than boys, though not significantly higher. They aslo get higher grades in physics and math. The problem, however, is that in computer science and physics, only about a third of the high school students choosing to take these courses are girls. Approximately the same picture is seen in higher education in Israel and elsewhere. Why is it so? Have you an ideas? Any solutions?

Judith Gal-Ezer
CSTA Director for International Outreach

Posted by cstephenson at 07:25 PM | Comments (3)

October 27, 2006

A Rant About Salaries

I am beginning to wonder if we will ever successfully address the issues around improving computer science education as long as we fail to grapple with the issue of teacher salaries.

In every conversation I have had with people from business and industry and government, there is a genuine concern with ensuring that we have knowledgeable and well-trained professional teachers in the computer science classroom. Teacher pay, however, is the 800 pound gorilla everyone seems determined to ignore.

In most states, high school teachers now require an undergraduate degree in some area of specialization as well as a teaching certification that takes an additional one to two years to achieve. In many states, provinces, and countries, licensed teachers are also required to write (and pass) praxis exams in their academic area and to maintain a level of on-going professional development. And none of this even takes into consideration what they actually face in the classroom (for example critical shortages of resources, lack of professional respect, large class sizes, students of widely varying abilities to name just a few).

And what do they get for their troubles? Not much. Here is a chart of salaries for high school teachers.

Median Salary by State or Province - Job: High School Teacher (United States)

And here is a similar chart for computer programmers/analysts (often considered the bottom rung of the conputer science jobs ladder).

Median Salary by Job - Computer Programmer / Analysts (United States)

My guess is that until we bring these two more into line (start paying computing teachers what they are worth) great teachers with computing skills are going to continue to find it very difficult to justify their choice to teach.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 02:14 PM | Comments (7)

August 08, 2006

What if Alabama Led the Way?

Last week I spent a great day at the University of Alabama at Birmingham talking to computer science faculty and local high school computing teachers and administrators about working together to improve K-12 computer science education (see http://www.cis.uab.edu/programs/hsws/ for more on the workshop).

During what turned out to be a wide ranging discussion, Alabama Teacher of the Year Cameron McKinley asked some interesting questions:

"What if Alabama decided to lead the country in improving K-12 computer science education? Could this happen? What would it mean for the state and its students?"

Our discussions during the day touched on many so called "local issues". Certification for CS teachers in Alabama is a mess. As Amber Wagner explained, there is no certification for computer science, so computer science teachers have to write the praxis exam in an area that has no computer science content. This is a story I am hearing from CSTA members all across the country.

Jeff Gray of the University of Alabama at Birmingham talked about how student misconceptions about computer science as a discipline and as a career destination are driving students away from computer science at a time when companies cannot find enough qualified workers to fill the jobs available in the computing field.

And we all admitted that computer scientists in general do a terrible job of explaining our field and why it is so exciting. How many student, for example, really understand that the most exciting breakthroughs in the sciences and even in the humanities require computer science expertise? How many students are even aware that computer science makes the gadgets they love possible? Too few!

What would it take for Alabama to address these and other issues and so become a national leader in K-12 computer science education? First it would take vision and committed leadership at the highest political levels. Fortunately Alabama has "an education governor" so that is a good start. Next it would take the commitment of educators on multiple levels. The University of Alabama at Birmingham Computer Science Department is ready. The folks from the Faculties of Education are getting ready. The teachers I met are very ready.

It would take an unwavering long-term commitment to creating a state-wide computer science curriculum and providing the resources to support it. This would require a plan for on-going professional development for all teachers and a campaign to help students understand the opportunities that are available for them in the computing field. These are things that CSTA would be happy to help with.

Business and industry would have to step up, offering financial and other support. Not just the high tech companies, but the industries that hire 80% of the computer science graduates to keep them up and running, such insurance companies, banks, the auto industry, and the health care industry just to name a few.

Of course, something would have to be done to fix the certification mess. And just maybe, teachers would be paid a livable wage.

What kind of place would Alabama be if it did these things? Alabama would be a place where all students have the opportunity to acquire the computing knowledge and skills required to survive and thrive in this new global economy, Alabama's booming high-tech and medical industry would have access to the skilled workers it needs to drive innovation and economic prosperity. And a world of career opportunities would open up for this and future generations.

Wouldn't it be a great thing? I believe that it is a possible thing.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 05:49 PM | Comments (3)

July 23, 2006

Expanding Communication

In my new role as CSTA's Publications Committee Chair, I have spent the last week thinking a lot about communication, specifically about what types of communication make an organization work and what types of communication our members might want.

Right now, CSTA communicates with its members (you) in a couple of different ways. This blog is great for letting you know what we are thinking and working on. The CSTA Voice is great for sharing articles, highlighting trends or best practices in CS education, and informing you of new research or upcoming events. Our current focus, however, is finding an effective interactive tool for communicating more immediately and directly with our members and helping our members connect more easily with each other.

My favorite form of communication is face to face. Unfortunately with 4500+ members spread across the globe its kind of hard for all of us to get together in one place at one time. And even then I believe that a formal "program" would be needed to help introduce people, connect people who are interested in the same topics, and start to build a community of our members.

One of our primary tasks when producing a community is interaction. How can those who have questions ask them? How can those who have knowledge share it? How can the leadership of the organization share important membership benefits and receive candid feedback about them? And how can we as a leadership understand what is most important in your little corner of the world?

I am working on some ideas, but I would love to hear yours. Please comment on this post, even if it is just encouragement to say that you are interested in an interactive tool.

Leigh Ann Sudol

Posted by cstephenson at 11:04 AM | Comments (2)

June 27, 2006

Poster Perfection

Four the last four months, CSTA has been working in partnership with ACM-W and the American School Counselors Association to create a classroom poster to help promote computer science and information technology, especially for young women and minority students. One of the things we have learned is that sometimes it is more important to do something necessary and good than something everyone agrees upon.

The poster (which can be printed standard paper sized, or as a 2x3 ft. or 3x4 ft.classroom poster) is intended to help students make the connection between their interests and abilities and the many fields of computing that are part of computer science and information technology.

Our work began with a small committee. Bettina Bair and Gloria Townsend (ACM-W), Michelle Hutton (our middle school computing teacher), Brenda Melton (our guidance counselor) and I met with our designer Beth Scandalios to brainstorm our poster message and work through some design options. Beth then created six poster designs (one of which was exactly what we asked for and the other five which were even better). From there, Beth and I got it down to three choices and then the whole committee reviewed and critiqued those choices. People selected the elements they liked best and made new suggestions for further revisions which helped Beth create a final design.

During the design phase, we also asked for advice from folks outside the committee. Leicia Barker from the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) provided us with a number of very valuable suggestions that we incorporated into the final poster design. I showed the poster design to a number of colleagues in other associations and to the CSTA Board of Directors and the CSTA Advisory Council. Bettina also took the design to the NCWIT meeting and we received feedback from a number of university folks. And Tracy Camp (who wrote the germinal research paper on the pipeline crisis) gave us great feedback and support all the way from New Zealand where she is working this year.

We also tested the poster design with teachers and students. The test group involved students in four classrooms (two middle schools, two high schools, two independent schools) and an online feedback site that involved both high school and university students.

The response to the poster was overwhelmingly positive, but that is not to say that everyone agreed. In fact, there were differing opinions on just about everything. The teachers who reviewed the poster were really pleased that the young woman was dressed "like our kids dress", but a couple of the university folks were concerned that some schools would find the tank top inappropriate. One person did not like the "IT is all about me" headline, but Michelle's response was "If they are in middle school, believe me, it really is all about them and they know it. That is what makes this such a catchy headline." And you will never believe how much time we spent discussing whether it should be "IT is" or "I.T. is"!

Our goal, however, was to get this poster ready for the upcoming conference season, so that we could get it in the hands (and classrooms!) of real teachers. And to date, conferences across the country have offered to distribute the poster to their attendees. These include the National Educational Computing Conference hosted by ISTE, the American School Counselors Association annual conference, the Grace Murray Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, and a number of other folks who are offering great workshops for computer teachers.

The truth is, we could have spent a lot more time and a lot more money trying to hone our poster so that everyone would love it, but I am not sure we ever would have achieved that goal. Even though every single person who gave us feedback really wanted the poster to be a success, people's tastes and expectations are very different.

So, you might say that in the end we sacrificed complete consensus for getting something into teachers' hands right now, because the problem is right now and it is getting worse. We need immediate interventions to overcome students' beliefs that computing is not the field for them, that it does not welcome them and help them make important contributions to the world.

We really hope that you like the poster. We are proud of it. We hope that people will put it in their classrooms and offices. We hope that students will take notice. We are grateful to everyone who took the time to help us make it better.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 02:02 PM | Comments (1)

June 09, 2006

Sometimes Even Bad Things Are Good To Know

From an organization's point of view, a good survey is a wonderful thing. I don't just mean surveys that tell you good things are wonderful, but that any survey that gives you solid data can be a useful tool for getting a member's eye view of how you are doing and what you could be doing better.

In May we finished the first CSTA Member Satisfaction Survey. This survey was designed to provide very detailed information. We asked our members to rate every benefit and service CSTA provides and to tell us what other benefits would be of value to them.

As soon as they were available, I looked at the quantitative results and they were most informative. It has only been in the last week, however, that I have had time to delve into the qualitative results and they are a virtual diamond mine of new insights.

Here are some of the good things that I learned:

• Our members are making surprisingly extensive use of the ACM Model Curriculum. They are using it to build, revise, and evaluate state level, district level, and school level computer science curricula. They are using it to convince administrators and principles about the importance of supporting K-12 computer science programs. They are using it to support their own research. They are using it to evaluate their own teacher certification requirements.
• Our members are very glad that CSTA exists and are making increasing use of the resources we are providing (when they have the time!).
• Educators at all levels of the educational system belong to and support CSTA and K-12 computer science education.
• Far more researchers than we expected are using our research data to either support or inspire their own research efforts.

Here are some of the valuable things we learned about doing better.

• The Welcome to CSTA email we send out to our members to let them know about their benefits is not reaching all members. We suspect that firewalls and filters are to blame, but we need to find a more effective way to get this information to folks.
• We need to provide some kind of facility that lets interested members get breaking information from CSTA and to interact more effectively as a community without filling up people's spam folders.

These are important issues that the CSTA Board is now looking at thanks to the folks who completed our first Member Satisfaction Survey. Thank you for your input and insight. Thank you for continuing to support CSTA.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 05:54 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2006

What To Do About CS Teacher Certification

Anyone who takes the time to follow this blog knows that one of the most challenging issues we face is the current lack of standardized teacher certification requirements for high school computer science teachers.

The saga of CSTA's involvement in this issue is long and complex. Suffice to say that all of our early research told us that computer science teacher certification in the U.S. is a complete mess and all of the members who have written to us about this issue (via email, articles in the CSTA Voice, and comments here on the blog) agree with this assessment.

Here is how the current mess breaks down:
* some states have requirements for teaching computer science
* some states have NO requirements for teaching computer science
* half of the teachers in any given state know whether or not there are requirements, the rest do not
* some states with requirements demand that teachers have taken or taught courses that do not exist
* some states classify computer science under business, some under math, some under science, and some under vocational technology
* some people responsible for computer science teaching requirements at the state level do not know what computer science is
* many just don't care

Before CSTA can make any recommendations on how to improve the situation, we have to have more solid, research-based data. So, for the last months we have been collecting the computer science teacher certification requirements for each state. The biggest challenge has been to find someone who actually admits to being responsible in each state. The second biggest challenge has been trying to explain to whoever is in charge that we are not talking about K-12 technology use standards. We now have data from all but 14 states and we are working hard to get them to respond. Even once we have all the data, though, I wonder what it is we can do to fix this mess.

So here are my questions for you.

1. Do you think we should have a national high school computer science certification requirement that would apply in every state?
2. Would your state actually opt in to such a program?
3. Should computer science be classified as a science, math, technology, or business specialization?
4. Should there be a single national praxis test that could be used to ensure sufficient subject content and teaching mastery to support certification?

I would love to know what you think.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 05:28 PM | Comments (18)

April 18, 2006

Let's Celebrate Computer Science Education at our School

As I was walking past our school library this week, I noticed that this is Latin week. During the school year at Lake Highland Preparatory School we celebrate many events that have to do with different disciplines and I'm sure your school must as well. So, I was thinking that we should do something school-wide to celebrate Computer Science Education.

As a member of the Faculty Advisory Board for Microsoft Corporation, my first thought was to send this group an e-mail and ask them what we should be celebrating and when. Daryll McDade, who manages our group and is in charge of supporting computer science education for Microsoft, suggested a Grace Hopper day celebrating her accomplishments in the computer science field and gave me a link to the Seattle Girls' School. For the past four years, this school has celebrated Grace Hopper with a luncheon focused on visionary women in math, science, and technology.

After further research, I discovered that in 1994, Dr. Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney organized a conference called The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. This conference, held every two years, celebrates the continuing achievements and contributions of women in computing. The first conference was held in Washington, D.C. and over 450 people attended. Last year, this conference had 900 participants and highlighted the impact and history that women have made, are making, and will continue to make on technology and innovation.

More research led me to a group of woman called the Hoppers which was started by Theresa Stowell and Teri Schiel who were both engineers for Microsoft Corporation and gathered women programmers together to form a group that would give Microsoft women a forum to discuss some of the challenges they confronted in the workplace.

Today, Hoppers has more than 1,600 members across every Microsoft office in the United States and overseas. Any woman who works at the company and supports the Hoppers charter can be a member, regardless of job title or employment status (permanent, contractor, vendor, intern or part-time). Microsoft funds Hoppers and contributes to its scholarship fund.

As computer science teachers, we know of the accomplishments of Grace Hopper and it seems fitting to honor this pioneer on her birthday which is December 9th. Unfortunately, this day falls on a Saturday this year but we could celebrate it on Friday the 8th as Computer Science Education Day.

Student activities could include an essay contest on the life of Grace Hopper or perhaps a contest for posters which could be displayed around school. In any event, Computer Science Education needs to be recognized and I ask that you join me in celebrating Grace Hopper on December 8th 2006.

Brian Scarbeau,
Computer Science Department Head
Lake Highland Preparatory School
Orlando Fl
bscarbeau@lhps.org
http://sws.lhps.org

Posted by cstephenson at 10:56 AM | Comments (2)

March 24, 2006

Just the Facts

While it has been great to see the computing media/business media coverage of ACM's new Job Migration study, I worry about how much of the important information in this report is actually filtering down to students.

The most pervasive misconception about computer science, especially among students and their parents, is that there are no longer any job opportunities in this field. Media coverage about offshoring has played a major role in spreading this misinformation. My hope is that media's coverage of the Job Migration study may help undo some of the damage that has been done.

Contrary to what many people now believe, employment in IT in the U.S. is at an all-time high. As ACM President Dave Patterson noted in a recent column in Communications of the ACM (February 2006, 49(2), pp. 41-41) it is even higher than it was at the height of the dot-com boom. Contrary to the situation in other industries (think manufacturing!), annual job losses due to offshoring have been no more than 2-3% of the U.S. IT workforce.

As Patterson also indicated, there are also several types of IT work that are not likely to be offshored, including:
* Work that has not been routinized
* Work that is critical to a company's control over its own operations
* Work involving data security, data privacy, intellectual property, or proprietary information
* Work that relies on a combination of application-domain knowledge and IT knowledge.

Beyond the information about jobs in the IT sector, ACM's report raises some interesting ideas about curriculum which should be of direct interest to K-12 computer science educators.

Keeping students competitive in this new global IT economy is going to take more than drilling programming concepts into their heads. Our students need to become better problem solvers, to be curious, innovative, and creative. They need to see the connection between what they are doing in the classroom and real problems in the real world.

We also need to think seriously about making the so-called "soft skills" an integral part of our curriculum and our pedagogy. Students need to build team work and communication skills, and also to develop cross-cultural understandings that will allow them to function as citizens of this new world.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 01:36 PM | Comments (1)

March 22, 2006

New and Old Ideas About Computer Science

If anyone happened to ask me, I would say that the biggest problem we face in all of computer science education right now is addressing misconceptions many people hold about our discipline, both as an educational endeavor and as a career path. Recently, however, I am beginning to see efforts by respected computer scientists to address this challenge head-on.

In an effort to address the misconception that computer science is programming, Jeannette Wing, the head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University has taken on the thorny issue of what computer science is and is not.

In a recent issue of the Communications of the ACM (March 2006, 49(3), pp.33-35), Wing puts forth the opinion that computer science is really the study of computational thinking (what can be computed and how to compute it) and that computational thinking is a fundamental skill, not just for computer scientists, but for everyone because it involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior.

Computational thinking, Wing argues, has the following characteristics:
* It is about conceptualizing, not about programming
* It is about how humans solve problems with the aid of computing devices
* It draws on both mathematical and engineering thinking to build systems that function in the real world
* It is about ideas that touch everyone's lives
* It is everywhere

When we think about computer science in this way, the realm of possibilities for doing interesting and important work is shown to be limitless and the idea that computer science is sitting in a cubicle all day worrying about 1 and 0s is suddenly shown to be, as one student said to me, "so ago".

Posted by cstephenson at 12:16 PM | Comments (1)

March 17, 2006

Working More Effectively Together

If our experience at the recent SIGCSE Conference in Houston is any indication, we are on the verge of a major positive shift in the relations between K-12 computer science educators and our colleagues at the college level.

To be honest, relations between high school and post-secondary computer science educators have always been a little fractious. University folks have bemoaned the fact that students coming into their classes are not adequately prepared for the rigor of the discipline at the college level, and high school teachers have complained that the university folks have no idea of the environment in which K-12 people teach or their desperate need for information and support.

Over the past few years, however, there has been something of a sea change. More and more colleges and universities have established outreach programs to the high schools, providing teachers with much-needed opportunities for professional development and mentoring. The success of CSTA's JETT program (over 60 workshops held nation-wide) and the booming interest in our TECS workshops are also proof of the willingness of colleges and universities to step in and step up, using their own resources to build bridges and support community.

On March 3, Robb Cutler (CSTA Chair) and I had the opportunity to give the plenary session at ACM's SIGCSE Conference. Our goal was to provide our post-secondary colleagues with a better understanding of the challenges that K-12 teachers face, and to suggest new and improved ways that we can work together to address the issues confronting computer science education along the pipeline.

The fact that SIGCSE so generously allotted us a major session at this highly respected conference is, in and of itself, indicative of not just a shift of consciousness among post-secondary educators, but a major pledge of support for CSTA's efforts to promote and support computer science education in K-12.

The response to this session has also opened our eyes to the incredible potential of stronger ties and real partnerships between CSTA and organizations that have long supported post-secondary computer science education. A number of ACM's SIGs have offered to work more closely with us on key issues. Some pretty important people have also come forward to volunteer their time and expertise.

Our task now is to find ways to harness their incredible abilities in support of our common goals. The issues that we share all along the educational pipeline are complex and challenging, but this growing realization of our common interests and goals and, more importantly, this commitment to working in harmony rather than in isolation, are important and exciting.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 02:21 PM | Comments (1)

March 16, 2006

Computer Science for all Students?!

We have known for hundreds of years that chemistry provides the building blocks of our world. Pick up the item nearest to you and you will find that it was made with chemistry.

Computer science provides the building blocks of our increasingly technological world. After you put together the silica, etch it with acids, and treat it with other chemicals, you use computer science to make it do cool things. Where would my daily run be without my mp3 player? Where would my friendships across the country be without the wonder of free wireless internet at the local cafe? These were made with computer science.

Introductory chemistry is (fairly) straightforward; as a society we believe chemistry is valuable for students to understand. Of course we don't expect all our students to become chemists, but we want adults in our society to know about chemistry in order to be competent individuals who can cook, use common household products safely, and make informed voting decisions. It isn't until the second year in college with organic chem that it becomes an intensely challenging "weed out" course. And it isn't until medical school that we truly force our students into intensely challenging conditions, in part because "that is the way we have always done it."

Why is it, then, that computer science has adopted an attitude more like medical school than introductory chemistry? Why don't we provide an accessible and fun introductory course that gives students the building blocks of the discipline? It seems that we teachers have the attitude that the way we learned computer science was through programming, and it was hard, and that is how we should teach.

I would like to see a new model, one where computer science is accessible to all students, where it is a standard part of the core curriculum, and where it is fun! This is part of why I am so excited about the Level 2 curriculum outline and the whole ACM Model Curriculum for K12 Computer Science. But it will take more than the new curriculum - teachers have to use fun tools and games like Sudoku and role play to engage students. We can make computer science accessible without dumbing it down if we just try.

Michelle Hutton
CSTA Equity Chair
Girls' Middle School

Posted by cstephenson at 02:38 PM | Comments (2)

February 24, 2006

ACM Shows Us Why the AP Numbers Matter

Sometimes, if you wait long enough, new information comes along that helps you see things more clearly, or at least in a way that helps you gain perspective. For some time now I have been procrastinating on a blog response to the AP Report to the Nation, but a major report, released by ACM, has helped me find a way to articulate exactly why the AP CS results are so alarming.

The number of students writing the computer science AP examinations is continuing to decrease. In 2001, 23,422 students wrote either the CS A or B exam. By 2003, the number had dropped to 21,745. By 2005, the number of students writing the APCS exams had declined to 19,021. While one might argue that the percentage of the decline from year to year is not extreme enough to cause profound concern, the fact that there is a continuing pattern of decline clearly is.

This pattern tells us that students are loosing interest, they don't think computer science has educational or employment value to them, or they do not have time to take AP CS because they are too busy taking AP courses in all those other disciplines. This worries me a great deal. But I have been putting off writing about it in fear of receiving the seemingly inevitable comment that there is nothing to worry about because all the jobs are being "outsourced" anyway.

This is why I was so happy to read ACM's new comprehensive report called Globalization and Offshoring of Software. This report, developed by a team of internationally recognized computer scientists, industry leaders, labor economists, and social scientists, finally gives us a coherent, balanced, and rigorously researched view of the increasing globalization of the software industry and what this means for countries who want to maintain their technological edge.

The report notes that globalization trends in the software industry have been fueled by rapid advances in information technology as well as government action and economic factors. What it also found, however, is that, despite intensifying competition, offshoring between developed and developing countries can benefit both parties.

The study cites data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) which indicates that more IT jobs are available today in the U.S. than at the height of the dot com boom. This trend is evident despite a significant increase in offshoring over the past five years. In fact, U.S. IT employment in 2004 was 17% higher than in 1999, and the BLS data reveals that IT jobs are predicted to be among the fastest-growing occupations over the next decade.

So what does this mean for educators? The report also tells us that IT workers and students can improve their chances of long-term employment in IT occupations by acquiring a strong educational foundation, learning the technologies used in global software, and keeping skills up to date throughout their careers. In other words, they can ensure a better future for themselves by learning computer science. The brightness of the future for individuals, companies, or countries, rests on their ability to invest in building the foundations that foster innovation and invention.

Meeting this commitment begins with K-12 education. It requires us to improve computer science education in K-12. We must do a better job of helping students understand that there are opportunities open to them, that computing is the mechanism by which the greatest problems of this century will be addressed, and that they need to begin building their skills now, because the future is always closer than we think.

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2006

CSTA Launches New Virtual Binder

With everything else they have on their plates right now, it is almost impossible for K-12 computing teachers to keep up with all of the research about computer science education that might be relevant to their classroom practices. In fact, just finding material that is relevant to K-12 is a considerable chore.

One of the major benefits of CSTA membership, however, is access to the CSTA virtual binders - a collection of top-notch, classroom relevant articles culled from ACM's huge Digital Library.

So far, dedicated volunteers from the CSTA Board of Directors have put together three binders and the newest one, on Careers, just went live this weekend.

There are now three CSTA virtual binders, each covering a different topic: Careers, Equity, and Teaching Strategies. Each binder provides full-text access to up to 15 articles pulled from the very best professional and educational computer science journals.

CSTA members can access these binders directly from the CSTA website (csta.acm.org) by clicking on K-12 Virtual Binders in the Resources section on the left column. Once you get to the binders page, click on

Login for e-binders

and you can access the binders directly using your ACM Web Account. (CSTA members who have not done sor yet can simply follow the instructions to set up their free ACM Web Account.)

The CSTA Membership Committee, under the direction of Charmaine Bentley, has been spearheading the creation of the virtual binders, and plans are underway for at least three more themed binders to be developed over the next few months. If you have some ideas about good topics for new e-binders, please post a comment here and let us know!

Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Posted by cstephenson at 02:54 PM | Comments (1)

December 31, 2005

Did you know? Membership Resources

On the CSTA website, two of the benefits listed for CSTA individual membership are access to:

* free online training courses available through the Sun Academic Initiative, and
* the Career Resource Centre, ACM's source for career articles, job board, and career assessment tools.

Links to both of these resources are available from the CSTA website (left side under Professional Development). Entry into either of the areas may at first seem intimidating, but the effort will be well rewarded.

Whether your exploration in the Career Resource Centre is through the career assessment tools or through the articles available, the investment in time will provide information that should be of use to you and to your students.

This is even more evident for the courses available from the Sun Academic Initiative. When registering, for any of these excellent courses, ranging from "Fundamentals of JAVA" to topics in Distributed Computing Concepts and more, the savings become readily apparent. These lessons are fast-paced, easy to understand, and more than justify the cost of CSTA membership.

Please, avail yourself of these benefits, and let us know how else we can be of service to you, the most important resource of CSTA, our members.

Charmaine Bentley
Membership Chair

Posted by cstephenson at 05:46 PM | Comments (3)

December 26, 2005

My Year in CSTA

Like many, during the holiday season I consider the many things I have to be thankful for. High on my list this year is the CSTA. It is hard to believe the organization is only a year old!

So many exciting things are happening at all levels. Perhaps the most exciting thing to me is the creation of local chapters! What a great chance for local teachers to get to know each other and feel less isolated. I am so pleased for each area that had a person willing to step up and organize a meeting; I hope more chapters will form this year.

Being involved with the CSTA provides many opportunities: to learn about the status of CS education far beyond the local community, to think about best practices in teaching CS, to begin creating the change we want to see in the world. Personally, being on the board has provided numerous opportunities. Most important: the chance to work and become friends with some smart, dedicated, interesting individuals. One truth I have found about participating with this group is the more involved I am willing to be, the more I get out of it. I am so glad I was willing to take the leap to be more than "just a middle school teacher"!

I hope you will think about filling out an application for a position on the Board of Directors or volunteering to help on one of the committees. If you're a computer science teacher or just interested in K-12 computer science education and you aren't a member, why not join now?

Michelle Hutton
Equity Chair

Posted by cstephenson at 12:03 PM | Comments (1)

December 16, 2005

A Big Shout Out to Sun

I have never been much of a hardware geek. I like my computer to do what I want it to do with as little fuss as possible, but beyond that, I probably do not pay as much attention as I should. Sometimes, however, when something especially good happens, even I must acknowledge that hardware is a beautiful thing.

Since the day CSTA was first brought into being by ACM, we have been working on the dream of an online resource that would provide teachers with access to a rich repository of teaching and learning materials for K-12 computer science education.

Toward this end, a small but dedicated committee of volunteers has been collecting resources being developed at JETT (http://jett.acm.org/) and TECS (http://tecs.acm.org/) workshops across the country, developing a classification scheme based upon the Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science, and preparing the existing resources for entry into the repository. This Spring we achieved a major project milestone with the unveiling of our new user interface which was created by students at Villanova University, under the direction of Dr. Lillian Cassel.

The web repository is being built using DSpace, a highy-customizable open source repository facility created at MIT. The CSTA repository utilizes the standard Dublin core metadata so that the material it contains will be harvestable by other major repositories such as the National Science Data Library.

The really big news, however, came just a couple of weeks ago when Sun Microsystems Vice President Greg Papadopoulos (a member of the CSTA Advisory Council) offered to provide the equipment upon which this new repository will reside and all future development will be carried out.

And here is what Sun provided:

Sun Fire V210, 2 x 1.34Ghz UltraSPARC IIIi, 4 x 512MB DIMMS, 2 x 73GB Drive, 4 x 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, ALOM Remote Manager, Single PCI Slot, 1PSU & Java ES & Solaris 10 pre-installed.

Localized Power Cord Kit North American/Asian

X-Option - Internal DVD-ROM Drive Slimline, for Sun Fire V210 and Sun Fire V240.

1GB Memory Expansion Kit (2*512MB) low-profile DDR PC2100 or faster registered ECC DIMMs for use in Sun Fire V210, Sun Fire V240, Sun Fire V440, Netra 240, Netra 440, Sun Blade 1500 and Sun Blade 2500.

Internal 146GB 10K Ultra 3 SCSI HDD, 3.5" x 1" drive with barrier plate

Solaris 9 CD-ROM media kit (latest release). SPARC Platform Edition.

Thanks to this most generous donation from Sun, the CSTA web repository is closer to being a reality than we expected. Our plan right now is to have it up and running and available to all CSTA members by the summer!

Thank you, Sun, for helping bring us so much closer to our goal!

Chris

Posted by cstephenson at 12:18 PM | Comments (2)

December 05, 2005

Everybody Needs a Little Inspiration

Anyone who does not believe that teaching computer science is a tough job has never faced a row of student faces day after day or tried to keep all of the hardware and software actually functioning. And that does not even begin to address the increasing stress that all teachers are facing. So every once in a while, it is important to reflect upon what matters and why what you do is important.

Today our CSTA Equity Chair, Michelle Hutton, sent me a student course evaluation that she has been keeping since 2002. Here is what the student had to say:

"I've learned not to be afraid of computers. I've learned some of the fundamentals and code of CS. I've learned that learning computer science is a process where you need to learn one thing before you move on to the next. Once you have mastered a concept, creating something you're proud of can be easy & fun."

Even if they do not say it quite so well, my guess is that all of you have students who have felt the same way, and who, if not immediately then some day, have realized the importance and usefullness of what you are trying to teach them.

Chris

Posted by cstephenson at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2005

Correctness and Finishedness

As a certified soft touch, I'm constantly running into the problem of students asking for extensions on their work. It is hard to deny a motivated student additional time to keep working on a problem rather than admitting to failure.

I think this may be more of a problem in CS than in other classes. In most classes, it is fairly straightforward to tell when a problem is finished and fairly difficult to know if it is correct without the answer key. In math, if I have an answer to the equation, I'm done, whether or not the answer is accurate. In humanities, I know if the paper has said what I have to say and whether I hit the page count, whether or not I was blowing hot air or completely wrong about the causes of WWII.

In CS, students have the golden test - does the program run? Until it will compile without errors and fulfill some approximation of the requirements, it is clearly not done. For a dedicated student who is used to working until the work is complete, it can be difficult to learn when to walk away, especially when the grade depends on the assignment. The difference between an overlooked missing semicolon and a significant logic error can be indistinguishable to a novice.

How can we better support our students in learning when to give up, when to persevere, and how much time to allot for assignments?

Michelle Friend Hutton
Equity Chair

Posted by cstephenson at 10:15 AM | Comments (1)

November 08, 2005

Sudoku Puzzles and Computer Science

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a Sudoku addict. Rarely has a morning gone by that I don't play one or two of the many on-line versions of Sudoku that are available across the internet.

If you've somehow missed the Sudoku craze, it is a very simple number puzzle. You are given a 9x9 grid with some of the squares filled in with numbers between 1 and 9. Your job is to complete the grid so that each number from 1 to 9 appears once in every row, once in every column, and once in each of nine 3x3 subgrids.

For example, in the above grid, you can confidently put a 5 in the shaded box. Here's why. You need a 5 somewhere in the second column. Because there's already a 5 in the top-left and bottom-left 3x3 subgrids, the 5 must go in the middle-left subgrid. And in the middle-left subgrid, the 5 has to appear in the fourth row. (As a good teacher, I'll leave it to you as an exercise to figure out why!)

To solve a puzzle, you fill in all of the empty squares by process of elimination. Depending on how many squares have already been filled in for you, this can be very easy or very hard.

So what does this have to do with computer science?

The other day I was talking with some fellow Sudoku fanatics when one of them mentioned that her daughter was particularly good at solving these puzzles. She said, "My daughter has this innate ability to recognize the patterns that occur."

And then in her next breath, she said, "I wonder what sorts of careers would use that talent."

Bingo. (The exclamation, not the career.)

"Has she considered computer science?", I asked.

"Computer science? Gosh no. The last thing my daughter wants to do is to sit in front of a computer screen all day."

Naturally, this was my opportunity to tell her about what computer science really is. It's not just programming (though a typical computer scientist does some of that as well). Rather, it's about problem-solving and algorithmic thinking. The pattern recognition skills her daughter has in Sudoku will serve her well as a computer scientist.

Finally, the thrill we Sudoku-lovers get when we finish a challenging puzzle is the same excitement I get when I solve an algorithms problem that has been particularly vexing. That satisfaction is what makes computer science so enjoyable.

While I'm not sure that my friend's daughter is going to rush out and sign up for a computer science course, I feel fairly confident that she'll at least consider the possibility the next time she has to sign up for classes. It's conversations like this one that will help people to understand what computer science is and help to strengthen the role of computer science in K-12 education.

Robb Cutler
President, CSTA

Posted by cstephenson at 05:57 PM | Comments (9)

October 20, 2005

Cheaters Never Prosper, Or Do They?

I read a very interesting article about student cheating in Communications of the ACM recently that reminded me that finding ways to subvert the system is still very much a part of the mindset for many students and led me to wonder how much effort we can and should put into discouraging it.

I never really thought very much about cheating among computers science students until the late 1980's when I was working in a computer science department at a very large university. When discussing this issue, the faculty tended to fall into two camps: the "perpetrators should be punished" camp and the "boys will be boys" camp. What surprised me, however, was that more of the faculty tended to fall into the latter than the former group.

What I found particularly irksome was the opinion among these folks that somehow computer science students were different or should be treated differently than other students in the university. Being a fine old institution, our university had a history of being particularly harsh in matters relating to plagiarism. A student in the English department caught passing off a couple of borrowed sentences as her or his own in an essay would be publicly disgraced and dismissed from the program and from the university. Why should the case be different for computer science students?

Keep in mind too, that this was back before the days when we began to look at our teaching methodologies in light of industrial practices relating to software development. There was no groupwork as part of the curriculum. There was just stealing, and the magnitude and creativity behind it was almost staggering. In those days people trooped off to the Computing Center to run and print their programs. Printouts were stolen with great regularity. Some students became seasoned dumpster divers, rifling through the cast off paper in the garbage for bits of useable code they could steal.

Sometimes, desperate times call for desperate measures. In order to curb what he perceived as a growing tendency toward "unofficial collaboration" one colleague of mine adopted a particularly successful strategy called "one cheats, two fail". When he found duplicate code on individual assignments, he called both students into his office and told them that both of them would fail unless the copier confessed. Both students were humiliated, the student who did the original work learned to protect it more carefully, and rough justice was often administered to the cheater who refused to admit to the act.

In the 1990's I also worked for an educational publisher and I would frequently receive email from students posing as teachers requesting copies of textbook teacher guides so that they could have the answers to the class assignments. Over time, I developed an almost uncanny ability to spot the pretenders. Usually it was their appalling grammar.

These days, students simply comb the Internet for snippets, applets, or entire applications to submit as original work. Some folks still defend this as justifiable on the basis that code reuse is a highly efficient and effective use of programmer time. Others remain vigilant.

How about you?

Chris

Posted by cstephenson at 06:03 PM | Comments (3)

September 09, 2005

When the World Intervenes

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own challenges that it is hard to extend our focus beyond our immediate concerns. For some reason, though, just when we are buried about as deeply as we can be in the issues of the moment, something comes along and hits us over the head and reminds us of the limitations of our viewpoint. This summer there have been two events that have brought this home to me in a profound way.

On June 28, I took part in a special panel session at NECC focusing on international perspectives on high school computer science curricula. This session, chaired by CSTA Curriculum Committee Chair Anita Verno and sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is part of a larger project to help us find successful models for developing and implementing a national computer science curriculum.

The panel featured several speakers from different countries, each of which had already begun implementing a comprehensive curriculum for computer science. Anita spoke about CSTA's efforts to support the ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science, Dr. Judith Gal-Ezer discussed Israel's highly successful CS curriculum, Jackie Martin described Scotland's national curriculum, Mike Chiles addressed South Africa's new national curriculum, and I spoke about the comprehensive curriculum implemented in Ontario, Canada, in 2000.

As each speaker addressed the implementation phase of her/his curriculum development process, it became increasingly clear that countries who were further ahead in this effort than the United States had discovered several key factors that needed to be in place in order for the curriculum to succeed. These included a reasonable implementation time line, access to adequate resources (functioning hardware, support materials, textbooks), and professional development for teachers.

All of these are important considerations for CSTA to address as we attempt to improve computer science education. But something else happened at the presentation. Mike Chiles, the Director of Information and Technological Services at the Western Cape Education Department in South Africa, reminded us, in the gentlest of ways, of the cost of focusing too closely on our own concerns. South Africa, he explained, faces a unique challenge in its efforts to ensure an adequate supply of trained computer science teachers. The HIV/AIDS pandemic raging across Africa is taking the lives of so many teachers, and so many technically skilled people in business and industry, that it is not possible to find enough teachers for the classrooms. And then it hit us, speakers and audience alike. It is not just some "them" dying in a far away place. It is "us." Teachers are dying. And I do not know what to do.

And now, we have a similar reminder much closer to home. A part of this country lies in ruins, families lost, homes destroyed, children, adults, and even pets displaced and afraid, their lives in tatters. This hurricane and its aftermath are testing as at our most foundational level, and in a country as generous as this, I do not believe that the people will be found wanting.

In Texas, everything is big, including the hearts of its people, and our friends at TCEA are already putting together a Task Force to help schools get their technology back up and running. This is the right thing to do. To offer what it is we know how to do best in the service of others. And I have promised TCEA's Executive Director Ron Cravey (cravey@tcea.org) that CSTA will be there to help in any way that we can.

Right now, there are important things that you can do. Donate money to the Red Cross, to the Salvation Army, to the Humane Society, and to the many organizations that are tending to bodies and souls. Organize something in your school, your community, or your city. And when we let you know how you can help us help them, please answer our call.

There are things we can do to help and doing something is always better than doing nothing. Find a way to show how thankful you are for all that you have by helping those who now have nothing.

Resources:
www.unicefusa.org
www.tcea.org
www.redcross.org
www.salvationarmyusa.org
www.hsus.org

Chris

Posted by cstephenson at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

August 26, 2005

Finding Funding

Over the last twenty years, I have had the opportunity to work with many professional associations for teachers, both in Canada and the U.S. and one thing that has always amazed me is how hard these organizations must work to survive, and how many of them manage to do so.

Interesting research from Australia indicates that professional associations for teachers exist in a perpetual state of needs exceeded by resources. In an effort to provide as many benefits and services as possible to their members, they stretch themselves to the fiscal, intellectual, and emotional breaking point. While large associaitons may have the benefit of a greater pool of membership revenues, the reality is that very few have enough membership revenue to cover their expenses. They depend on their volunteers and they depend on external sources of funding.

External funding can take many forms: government grants, foundation grants, corporate support, or contracts for service to some external body. In all of these cases there is a bargain to be made, something that the funding organization wants in return, something that will require association resources (staff, volunteers, equipment) to produce. The best possible projects involve getting funding to do something that the association wants to do for its members anyway. These projects are high mission. Some, however, require doing something that is not much value to the membership, but brings in considerable money. These projects are high revenue. There are also moral questions to be considered. Just because someone will pay your association money to do something, does not mean that you should do it. It may not be in the best interest of your members or their students. Associations are in a constant struggle to balance these considerations.

Because CSTA has been in existence for less than a year and we provide members with free membership for their first year, we have no membership revenue yet to speak of. Instead, we have relied on the generous support of our parent organization (ACM) and many of its members who became charter donors to CSTA (honored on our website). The Special Interests Groups of ACM (under the auspices of the SIG Governing Board) have also made a significant financial commitment to helping CSTA address critical issues in K-12 computer science education. In these ways, ACM has provided the support we needed to get us going and to help us begin building the kinds of funding relationships associations need for long-term viability.

So far, with the help of our fabulous volunteers and mentors, we have done a pretty good job of beginning to build these relationships. IBM and Microsoft have become Gold Level Sponsors and have provided funding for new resources and for professional development events. We are also now in discussions with Sun Microsystems and CISCO. The Sloan Foundation provided funding to pilot six JETT (Java Engagement for Teacher Education) workshops and helped us to get this highly successful nation-wide project off the ground. The College Board has supported us in more ways than we can count. And two separate branches of the National Science Foundation have provided funding for multiple projects that we believe will have a profoundly positive impact on K-12 computer science education. All of these organizations have helped us significantly in our first year.

It is important for our members to know that ensuring CSTA's long term economic viability is a balancing act and we try to be very careful. We work hard to identify potential sources of funding and to design worthwhile projects. Our Board of Directors makes sure we stay on track. They keep our mission before us and the best interests of our members always in the forefront of our considerations.

Chris

Posted by cstephenson at 03:03 PM | Comments (2)

August 17, 2005

Designing Really Smart Computers

Sometimes I wonder if we are so enamored of technology and of our abilities to manipulate it that we are simply incapable of making sensible judgments about it.

I must begin by confessing that I do not love technology. I am not a toy person. It is not the gadgets that thrill me, but what I can do with them to make myself a more productive, more knowledgeable, or more interesting person. Anything that gets in the way of what I am really trying to accomplish at any given moment just annoys me.

This may be why I just do not get excited every time another feature-bloated piece of software comes on the market. Most of the time I would rather have an application that does a few things really well than some mammoth megabyte monster that does everything at the ultimate level of complexity.

Sometimes I think that the developers believe that if they keep us busy trying to figure out how to use the next new thing, we will not have time to realize that we expect far less of our computing technologies in term of ease-of-use than we do of just about any other technology in our lives,

I remember a lecture given by Bill Buxton at ACM 1 during which he compared his experiences in the public restrooms of the airport to his experiences with his office computer. Why, he mused, was a toilet in Chicago, with whom he had no previous relationship, capable of acknowledging his entry into and exit from the room and of taking the appropriate action, while his office computer, with whom he communed several hours each day, was incapable of any such thing?

Maybe as teachers responsible for educating the next generation of people who will build the tools, we can start to change the way the we all look at and use computers. Maybe we can begin by encouraging even our best students to view technology with a critical eye, to think about designing from the user's perspective, to see the world's users as diverse and deserving of technology that truly makes their lives easier.

The field of Human-Computer Interaction is rich with questions and ideas that need to be explored. If we open this world up for our students, maybe we can begin to break down the geek tradition. If we encourage all of our students, especially those who would never dream that computer science is for them, to ponder the hard questions about ease-of-use and simplicity and elegance, maybe we can open the doors to new ways of thinking about, designing, and using technology. Maybe we can begin to build computer technology that is at least as smart as an airport toilet.

Chris

Posted by cstephenson at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2005

A Little History and a Next Big Step

In 2002, with the impending transition of the AP exam from C++ to Java, ACM's K-12 Education Task Force (the precursor to CSTA) launched an ambitious partnership with the College Board to address the immediate and pressing need for high school computer science teachers to learn Java. With the very active support of ACM's then-president Maria Klawe and Gail Chapman of the College Board, the Java Engagement for Teacher Training (a.k.a. JETT) program was born.

JETT was conceived as more than a one-shot pd event for teachers. It was seen as a way of providing valuable, relevant skills upgrading for teachers while engaging colleges and universities across the country in the process of building on-going mentoring relationships with local high school teachers.

JETT began with a dedicated Steering Committee of representatives from the College Board, the K-12 Task Force, and four pilot test sites (Columbia, Duke, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Tufts University). A needs assessment was developed and sent to all secondary computer science AP Teachers to help the organizers understand the teachers' specific needs relating to the learning and teaching of Java. The results of this assessment were then used to create a series of learning modules around which local JETT host sites would organize their workshops.

A set of criteria was also developed to ensure that attending teachers received relevant and appropriate instruction. In addition to the Java modules, host sites were also required to include learning opportunities relating specifically to equity issues, with the goal of improving awareness and providing strategies to better engage under-represented students. They were also required to involve AP Computer Science Curriculum Consultants in the planning and delivery of the workshops.

Being a JETT host site required a considerable amount of effort and some funding. While ACM/CSTA provided assistance with promotion, registration, evaluation, and identification of the AP College Board Consultants, the host sites had to submit an application that was reviewed by the Steering Committee and were required to cover all the on-site costs. Despite the effort and costs involved, more than 50 universities and colleges across the U.S. have now served as JETT workshop host sites (some multiple times).

Although the number of attendees has varied greatly from site-to-site (depending on the relative strength of the local AP community) without exception, the sites have received glowing evaluations from teacher attendees and many have gone on to build strong mentoring and recruitment partnerships with local teachers. Last year, at the request of our now ACM president David Patterson, CSTA conducted a long-term evaluation of the JETT project and we were delighted to discover that 86% of the attendees indicated that they had learned and were now using new Java strategies as a result of attending a JETT workshop.

But what about the rest of the teachers, those who are teaching essential courses in computer science foundations at the pre-AP level? Where do they go for much-needed professional development?

Since January, our Professional Development Committee has been working on a new initiative—the Teacher Engagement for Computer Science (a.k.a. TECS) project. Like JETT, TECS involves colleges and universities in the provision of relevant professional development and community building for local high school computer science teachers. Starting in September, five host sites (CSU Chico, CUNY, Neumont (formally Northface) University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania) will be launching our program with six pilot TECS workshops. Once again, they will be making selections from among a set of recommended learning modules developed by the CSTA Professional Development Committee under the direction of Chair Fran Trees. This time, they will also have access to learning materials designed specifically for these modules by CSTA teacher volunteers.

JETT and TECS exist because of a large number of dedicated educators and staff. ACM and the College Board have provided unwavering support over the years, our original pilot sites helped us create an effective and efficient model, our JETT coordinator Jennifer Wroblewski has coaxed, coordinated, and charmed her way to a powerful and prolific network of dedicated host sites, and our host partners have given generously of their time, funding, good works, and good will.

Thanks to all of you for your hard work and dedication to providing professional development for computer science teachers. It would not have been possible without you!

For more information on the JETT workshops: http://jett.acm.org/

For more information on the TECS workshops: http://tecs.acm.org/

Chris

Posted by cstephenson at 04:00 PM | Comments (1)

August 02, 2005

The Power of Partnership

At this moment I am sitting in a meeting room in Portland OR surrounded by one of the most motivated and skilled work teams that I have had the pleasure of working with. This team consists of three teacher volunteers from CSTA (Margaret Butler from St. Francis High School in CA, Joon Yee Chuah from L. B. J. High School in TX, and Anita Verno from Bergen Community College in NJ) and three curriculum specialists from IBM (Jane Balin from CA, Cheri Borchardt from TX, and Bunny Taylor from GA). Our task, for the next four days, is to produce three brand new resources for computer science educators.

This project came about as a result of discussions we began with Robin Willner of the IBM Foundation many months ago. IBM was interested in working with CSTA to address the needs of K-12 computer science educators. One of the things that we agreed on very quickly was that teachers need access to more and better resources to improve student learning and also to allow them to continue to enhance their own teaching skills. And so, with funding from the IBM Foundation and help from several IBM resource people, we assembled a collection of learning materials that IBM had already created and put together a team. Our goal is to produce three new classroom-ready resources that address specific learning outcomes identified in the ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science Education.

We began our meeting yesterday with each team member presenting an in-depth review of the example resources and a proposal for new resources that could be created. When the presentations were complete, the entire team decided that we would begin with three major themes and build a new resource for each that would draw on, enhance, and add to the original materials, The themes chosen were: principles of web design, object oriented programming, and project-based learning. The team divided into three work groups and by the end of the day each work group had produced and presented its project plan.

From now until Thursday afternoon, the groups will be working frantically to achieve their ambitious plans. The entire team will then come back together and each group will present its new resource for review and feedback. The resources will then be distributed to pilot schools who will continue the feedback loop to help us ensure that they are truly useful for teachers and students. Finally, the resources will be made available free of charge to teachers by both IBM and CSTA.

I think that this project is an excellent example of how professional organizations such as CSTA and major industry partners such as IBM can work together to do good things for education. We did not go to IBM hat in hand asking them to just write us a check. We asked for much more. We asked for a relationship. We asked them to share the time and expertise of their employees and consultants. We asked them to listen to teachers about what kinds of resources would be truly useful to them. And of course, we also asked IBM for staff and financial support. And here we are in Portland.

This is the true power of partnership, the power to bring people together, to create something new and useful, to share a commitment to teachers and students.

CSTA is a fairly new organization as educational associations go, but we believe in partnerships and we believe in our ability to work with companies such as IBM and Microsoft (who provides funding for our Computer Science and Information Technology Symposium). We know that there can be pitfalls to these relationships (being perceived as being under the influence of any one vendor) but we try to be sure that we begin with a shared understanding of our mutual goals and limitations. We know that the issues we need to address are too big for any one organization to take on alone. We need support from all levels of education, from industry, and from state and federal governments.

We know that supporting K-12 computer science is the key to future technological innovation and economic viability, and we are hoping that as more people come to understand this, they will join us in this partnership. It is truly a win-win opportunity.

Posted by cstephenson at 01:53 PM | Comments (2)

July 25, 2005

Getting Out the Message

Since CSTA first came into being last September, we have been aware that one of our biggest challenges would be getting out the messages.

First we worked on defining who we are, which problems we are trying to address, and why we believe that CSTA is the organization to address these issues.

Here is how we currently define the challenges we face.
* The number of computer science teachers is decreasing overall, particularly within the high school and middle school grades. This means that fewer college students will be enrolling in computer science courses, and fewer graduates with computer science degrees are going on to earn their Ph.Ds.
* Minority students are dramatically underrepresented in K-12 computer science coursework. For example, less than 3% of AP Computer Science students in 2004 were African American.
* Women are underrepresented in computer science.
* Computer science is at a crossroads. A renewed focus on educational standards and accountability, particularly in English and math, has forced many schools to take resources away from computer science and other non-core courses.

And here is why we think CSTA is the right organization to address them.
* CSTA offers members access to curriculum standards, professional development, and other cutting-edge computer science resources that have not previously been available.
* CSTA provides a voice for K-12 computer science educators, representing their interests at all levels of the educational system and with the state and federal authorities whose policies impact educational content, practice, and funding.
* CSTA helps makes the case for computer science by pointing out its vital place in the world.
* CSTA works with teachers to build a community of educators who will offer each other the support, guidance, and resources they have sorely needed. Many computer science teachers are alone in their schools with no other staff in their line of work.
* CSTA provides a bridge between high school educators, university educators, and the high tech industry. This bridge enables these groups to share information about what students need to learn in their K-12 years to be ready to go into computer science majors in higher education and into computer science careers.
* The key resources provided by CSTA for teachers are the Java Engagement for Teacher Training (JETT) program and the Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science. With these and other materials to be developed, CSTA will be the source for information for computer science teachers and others interested in the field.

Next, we had to begin getting the message out. We have tried a number of ways to let teachers know that we exist and that we need them to help us build this community. Sometimes we have done this in fairly traditional ways. For example we have sent out information by email and direct mail, made conference presentations, and spoken to teachers at the many professional development events we sponsor (the JETT workshops and the Computer Science and Information Technology Symposia). Sometimes we take a more lighthearted approach, as exemplified in our tension-releasing squishy CS Rocks rocks.

We have also begun reaching out to key organizations that share our interests and concerns. To date we have held productive meetings with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Software Business Association, the Business Roundtable, and the folks working on the Teacher Quality Bill. We have also done interviews with key people in the media who are both knowledgeable about and interested in our issues and this has resulted in some excellent articles about computer science education.

Outreach and advocacy are just a part of what CSTA does, but it is a key element and we need to keep doing it.

We also need you to help us get these messages out to the people who count in your world: parents, principals, administrators, school district superintendents and others.

I would love to know what you have been doing to promote K-12 computer science. Let me know by posting a comment about the most ingenious method you have used to get out the message about computer science education. I'll even send the person who posts the best on their own CS Rocks rock.

Chris

Posted by cstephenson at 11:22 AM | Comments (7)

July 15, 2005

Entering the Forbidden Forest of Teacher Certification

So many issues affect computer science education these days that sometime it is hard to know how best to apply our resources (people, time, and funding). In addition, some issues should come with a big sign that says "Go back" or "Abandon hope all who enter here" or "Don't even think about it." Teacher certification is one such issue.

Two years ago we surveyed 5000 high school computer science teachers as part of our on-going commitment to begin tracking pre-college computer science education in the U.S. One of the questions we asked was "Does your state offer certification for high school computer science teachers?" We tabulated the results nationally and determined that 46% of the respondents answered "Yes" and 54% answered "No." This appeared to be a reasonable response all things considered. And then we looked at the answers by state, and we discovered that the pattern was the same, with approximately half of the teachers saying their state does offer certification for high school computer science teachers, and half saying it does not.

Our Research Committee decided that we had made a mistake and set out to correct it. One year later we surveyed 15,000 high school computer science teachers, and this time we were much more careful about how we posed the question. We divided it into two parts: asking "Does your state consider computer science a certified teachable?" and "Are you required to hold this certification to teach computer science in your state?" Once again, the answers within individual states came back with approximately half of the participants responding "Yes" and half responding "No."

After much gnashing of teeth, the CSTA Research Committee decided that either teachers are extremely confused about the teacher certification requirements for their states or that policy awareness and enforcement varies so much from district to district that no conclusive answer is possible. If we could not even get a consistent research-supported picture of what is happening with teacher certification for computer science, how were we ever going to begin working on finding ways to make it more consistent nationally?

Recently, Ben Felller of the Associated Press wrote a terrific article on high school computer science education that included mention of CSTA. And so I began to get questions via email. And what were most of the questions about? That is right, teacher certification! More specifically, folks were finding it incredibility difficult to get useful information about the teaching requirements in their states.

Over the last few months, our Standards and Certification Committee has been consistently contacting State Departments of Education and collecting information about their high school computer science teacher certification requirements. So far, about half of the states have replied, and the committee continues to work on the rest who have not yet responded. Once the committee has all of the information in place (or at least as much as it is ever going to get), the plan is to find a consistent way of categorizing the information provided by each state and to collect it all together in a searchable database that will be available to all CSTA members. As you can imagine, this is going to take a considerable amount of work, and we are still looking for good volunteers to assist with the project, but we are hoping to have the database ready within six months.

This is just one of the many current CSTA projects. Teacher certification, like most issues, is complex and full of potential sources of conflict. But it is important, and in the end, we hope these efforts will provide valuable information for our members.

Chris

Posted by cstephenson at 10:41 AM | Comments (24)