The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and Oracle have released a series of new documents that demonstrate alignment between the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards and Oracle Academy’s Java Fundamentals course and Java Programming course.
The growing interest in K-12 computer science education led to an unprecedented interest in the CSTA standards. Much of this interest has been focused on how current programs, courses, and resources align with CSTA standards. Toward this end, CSTA has created a number of crosswalk documents that delineate the alignment between its standards and several well-known national standards including the Common Core State Standards, the Common Core Mathematical Practice Standards, and the Partnership for the 21st Century Essential Skills.
Oracle Academy recently joined in this effort by working with CSTA to create new documents that show the alignment between the CSTA standards and two of Oracle Academy’s most popular computer science courses: Java Fundamentals and Java Programming. These efforts have produced two documents for each course: an alignment checklist that provides a quick snapshot of the CSTA standards covered in the course and a comprehensive crosswalk that provides standard-to-standard matching.
Much of the work of this project was done by the CSTA Curriculum Committee. Committee Chair and CSTA Board of Directors Chair, Deborah Seehorn, notes that the committee sees considerable benefits to working with other organizations to help them improve alignment with the CSTA standards.
According to CSTA Board Chair, Deborah Seehorn, collaborating with CSTA industry organizations and other non-profits to align their curricula to the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards is a win-win situation. “After the alignment has been made, computer science educators have ready access to the alignment crosswalks to assist them as they plan, develop or expand their local or state computer science curricula. Businesses and other non-profits benefit from this collaboration because it helps them better align their materials with the learning needs of computer science students,” she said.
Seehorn also notes that the process helps other organizations identify potential areas for enhancement in future versions of their curriculum. “The CSTA K-12 Computer Science standards are transforming secondary computer science education, and the beneficiaries are our students and teachers, as well as the future computing workforce. CSTA is fortunate to work with such committed organizations.”
Alison Derbenwick Miller, Vice President of Oracle Academy, also noted the importance of documenting alignment with the de facto national standards for K-12 computer science education.
“Oracle Academy’s mission is to advance computer science education, and an important part of this is creating resources that are easily used by educators in classrooms. By demonstrating alignment to accepted curriculum standards, like the CSTA Computer Science Standards, we can facilitate curriculum reviews and help teachers and administrators integrate CS concepts and courses into the school day,” said Derbenwick Miller. For more information about this Oracle project, please contact [email protected].
CSTA is providing access to the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards and to all of the current alignment documents on its website at:
http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/K12Standards.html
CSTA is also committed to working with other partner organizations to help them understand the extent to which their standards, curricula, and resources are currently aligned to the standards and helping them improve that alignment. If you are interested in finding out more about this program, please contact Deborah Seehorn at [email protected].
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director