Last year, the United States graduated 42,969 computer sciences graduates into the workforce while there were a whopping 523,222 open computer science jobs nationwide. Obviously there is an urgent need for schools to teach computer science courses starting in kindergarten and through graduation. According to Code.org, “Computer science drives innovation throughout the US economy, but it remains marginalized throughout K-12 education. Only 32 states allow students to count computer science courses toward high school graduation.” At this rate, students in states that do not have computer science courses or do not count the computer science toward graduation will likely be unprepared to major in computer science in college. Further, the diversity in computer science is poor, with notable underrepresentation of women, racial and ethnic minorities, and students from economically challenged homes. If we wait for others to do what is obviously needed, our students may never get the chance to be part of this emerging and exciting field. How can K-12 schools implement computer science into their curriculum? How can schools use the CES Common Principles to encourage and support the computer science in our schools?
Please see the Networking Conversations document deslgned to guide this conversation:
http://bit.ly/NetworkingConversations2016.
