Thinking big about computer science education means thinking about how we can guarantee that every American student has some formal computing education. There are many ideas for how we can go about doing this, but there are two tightly-coupled fundamental problems that must be solved if we’re going to realize this dream: where does computer science (CS) fit in American education and who will teach it?
The first problem is viewed as a zero-sum problem. If we propose adding CS education somewhere (anywhere) in the system what will we lose? Should CS replace some existing course or content? Should it be added on top of everything else we ask our students to do? I think that the CS teaching community (myself included) has difficulty being sensitive to this issue. I often catch myself operating under the assumption that it is a priori obvious to everyone that the world would be a better place if students learned some real computing in school. The reality is that very few people (and let’s focus here on school/district leadership, policy makers, and stake holders) have a visceral sense of what good and real computing education is or looks like because, of course, it’s likely they never had it themselves.
They know that computers and technology are important, but lack the confidence or experience to declare what they want in their schools. It’s difficult to pull the trigger on a big decision when there’s so much indecision in the air. This perhaps explains why our nation’s current efforts at CS education look like scatter shot. So by asking, say a school principal to add a computer science requirement, they may intellectually understand the argument, but they can only viscerally feel the potential loss: it’s either replacing something (a loss of that thing) or piling on more (a loss of free time and resources). And if you try to claim there isn’t a loss, you’re not being honest with yourself, and they won’t believe you anyway. It’s a big ask of an administrator who will get all the flak resulting from the perceived loss, and all of the flak that seems to naturally go along with disruptions or changes to the system.
At the same time, if you manage to succeed in adding a CS requirement you’re likely screwed for another reason. Who will teach the classes? Many schools in America do not have anyone on their staff qualified to teach CS and schools that are lucky enough to have a computer science teacher probably only have one of them. If you just added a graduation requirement at a high school, how are you going to handle teaching a real CS class to all of those students?
So the zero-sum problem is tightly coupled, in a chicken-and-egg way, with the rather large problem of not having enough teachers: we can’t add CS courses because there are no teachers and we can’t get teachers because there are no CS courses. We’ve been spiraling around these two fundamental problems for a long time with seemingly little progress.
But in Chicago we think we found a way in. Right now, with the help of three local universities and funding from a National Science Foundation CE21 grant, the Chicago chapter of CSTA is helping to develop 75 Chicago Public School teachers to teach Exploring Computer Science (a real CS curriculum) that is being implemented in those teachers’ schools as a required course. Did you hear the part about required? Did I mention this is happening right now?
How did we do it? We found schools that did not have the zero-sum problem. Career and Technical Education (CTE) schools around the country have students on a track for some kind of technical education. In Chicago there are about 35 of these schools and many of the CTE programs live as a sub-program within the local schools. They are not separate schools. All CTE students in Chicago were required to take a “classic” tech ed course for a year (basically Microsoft Office certification plus a few other tech literacy things).
What we saw were teachers in rooms with students and computers in a required course that wasn’t really doing that much for the students or the teachers. Through our advocacy work we were able to convince the director of the CTE program in Chicago to change this required course (common to all the CTE programs) into a “real” computer science course. And that’s how it started. We chose to teach the Exploring Computer Science curriculum because of it’s fantastic professional development model and I would describe the early results as transformative. Most of the teachers love teaching the class and now feel like they’re making a difference in their students’ lives rather than treading water in a classic “applications” course.
Are they “real” computer science teachers? Yes. But they’re different than the computer science teachers that we in the CS community are used to and that’s something we have to get used to but also what’s so great. These teachers are going to be able to reach students of all races, genders, creeds, and socio-economic status for the precise reason that they’re nothing like, well, me. I’m seeing it happen before my eyes and it’s amazing. The potential impact of this project is huge. In a few years time, we will have hundreds of computer science teachers teaching a required CS course in Chicago Public Schools.
So, I’m writing this as a piece of encouragement to you other potential cs advocates out there. Please steal our idea. Even beyond CTE schools, many schools have some kind of tech literacy requirement. If schools in your area have teachers in rooms with students and computers and aren’t teaching CS because the teacher just needs help learning how to teach CS content instead of tech ed, let’s go after them. If we can find schools where the only issue is professional development for the teacher and not trying to find a place for a CS class, that’s something we can do. And it’s something that school leaders are more receptive to. They all want to improve existing courses and staff.
Our project in Chicago is the culmination of a relatively small group of people who love teaching computer science and kept trying to figure out ways to have a larger impact beyond the walls of our schools. I should point out that we failed in many attempts to impact the Chicago Public School system. But we kept plugging away and looking for ins. We got there by welcoming teachers and local college professors into our chapter, and requesting meetings with officials and anyone who would listen to our passionate pleas for more and better computer science. We got bounced around a lot, and you will too. But eventually you end up talking to the right person at the right time and quicker than you can believe you’ve made a difference. It can be done. And you are the one to do it.
Baker Franke
CSTA Leadership Cohort