CSTA K-12 CS Standards: We want your input!

On December 1, 2011, the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards were released. These standards have been instrumental in assisting many schools, school systems, and states in implementing and promoting computer science education in the K-12 classroom. Nearly four years have passed since the 2011 CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards were released. CSTA is ready to take a thorough look at the standards to see how they can be updated and/or improved.

We realize that many CS educators are quite eager to work on revising the CSTA K-12 CS Standards. Unfortunately, the CSTA K-12 Standards Revision Task Force must be limited to a small representative working group of CS educators. However, we are seeking input from all educators who have used the standards and/or who have worked with them. This will provide us with informed input to guide our revision process. The more useful the input we receive, the higher quality standards will emerge from the 2015-2016 revision process. Effective K-12 CS standards will greatly benefit the expansion of K-12 computer science education.

Please take a moment to provide the CSTA Standards Revision Task Force with descriptive input that will assist us in making educated decisions about the standards. You will have the opportunity to comment about the five strands (Computational Thinking; Collaboration; Computing Practice and Programming; Computers and Communications Devices; and Community, Global, and Ethical Impacts). Are these the five essential strands or have we neglected to include a strand? You will also have the opportunity to give us detailed input on individual standards in each of the grade levels (Level 1, Grades K-6; Level 2, Grades 6-9, and Level 3, Grades 9-12).

The CSTA K-12 Standards Revision Task Force will include CS educator representatives from each of the grade levels, community college CS faculty, university CS faculty, and state representatives who have worked with K-12 CS education. The task force will analyze the input that received from the computer science practitioners prior to beginning the revision of the standards.  Our goal is to release the revised standards at the 2016 CSTA Annual Conference.

We want your input. We need your assistance.  Please complete the CSTA K-12 CS Standards Revision input form at http://bit.ly/1ND9xaM.  The input on the standards will be accepted until October 15, 2015.

Thank you for your time, expertise, and enthusiasm in supporting K-12 CS education!

Deborah Seehorn
CSTA Board of Directors Past Chair
CSTA K-12 CS Standards Revision Task Force Co-Chair

Tammy Pirmann
CSTA Board of Directors District Representative
CSTA K-12 CS Standards Revision Task Force Co-Chair

2 thoughts on “CSTA K-12 CS Standards: We want your input!

  1. CSTA needs to take a public stance against additional standardized testing (beyond AP CS) right now or making CS a graduation requirement. I voiced my distaste before and got a personal reply from someone at CSTA about how you only want states to count CS for graduation credits. But with I think Chicago making CS mandatory, the trend in this country is only going to make that happen everywhere. In fact I haven’t seen anyone from the CS education community speaking out against that.

    Because of self-interest, this problem will become unstoppable unless CSTA take an early stance, and we’ll be co-opted by forces seeking to tighten the noose around public school teachers. CS educators understandably want more jobs and opportunities and self-interests will allow these standards to become mandatory everywhere.

  2. I can also be reached on the following

    r.m.zahran@durham.ac.uk
    Education Doctorate Student
    https://www.dur.ac.uk/

    or

    raghda.zahran@polytechnic.bh
    Bachelor of Information Technology Programme Manager
    http://www.polytechnic.bh/

    Dear CSTA Standard review team
    I went through the standard thoroughly; I suggest to rephrase some of the substandard points about the use of computer science; I will send my input to the provided email address “customerservice@csta-hq.org” ;

    Kind Regards
    Raghda Zahran

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