Computer science advocates are using this week to fight for their share of classroom time. They’ve dubbed Dec. 6-12 “Computer Science Education Week.” They’ve even got an all-important congressional resolution in their favor!
Their argument is simple. The number of jobs in computer-related fields is growing, but the academic curricula is failing to keep up, and even falling behind. “While five of the top 10 fastest-growing jobs are in computing-related fields, the percent of schools with rigorous high school computing courses fell from 40 percent to 27 percent from 2005 to 2009,” they say. “The last 60 years witnessed an extraordinary burst of innovation and talent that have produced a nation where most can scarcely remember life without computers. Yet this innovation-based society is at risk if students are not learning fundamental computing knowledge in our nation’s schools.”
Do you see computer-related courses being unfairly squeezed out of the curriculum in your district or state? Should these courses be preserved in their entirety, or folded into broader math, science, or engineering classes, or are there other curricular options? How essential are these skills, compared with core academic knowledge?
The effort is being led by the Association for Computing Machinery, which has been joined by several partners, including the Computer Science Teachers Association.