2015 CSTA Board of Directors Election and Vote on Proposed By Laws Change
Clarifying a confusing proposed change in an essential area
Today is April 2, the start of the CSTA Board of Directors Election. I hope you have received your information about participating in the election. There are three vacant board positions, K–8 Representative, 9–12 Representative, and At-Large Representative. You may find further information about the candidates here. You may also read blog posts by the candidates in the CSTA Advocate Blog.
We have had some questions and comments about the proposed By Laws change to Article V, Section 4. There is some concern that CSTA is no longer going to work with standards, and that is absolutely not true. Below is the proposed change to the by Law and the existing language in the by law.
PROPOSED BYLAW CHANGE
Article V: Election of Officers
Section 4: Committees
Proposed language (with proposed changes highlighted in italicized bold text):
There are several committees that are essential to the operations of the organization. These committees address the following categories—Teacher Certification, Curriculum, Executive, Equity, Funding Development, Governance, International, Membership, Nominations and Elections, Professional Development and Research—and are permanent standing committees of CSTA.
Existing language:
There are several committees that are essential to the operations of the organization. These committees—Certification & Standards, Curriculum, Executive, Equity, Funding Development, Governance, International, Membership, Nominations and Elections, Professional Development and Research—are permanent standing committees of CSTA.
One can easily see that the proposed name for the committee that is currently named “Certification & Standards” is “Teacher Certification.” The justification for making this change is given below.
Language is fluid, and specialized language in a particular field even more so. Ten years ago it made sense to call a committee concerned with the academic preparation of computer science teachers “Teacher Certification & Standards ,” in the intervening decade CSTA has worked on and published standards for K-12 students, thereby making the name of two committees confusing. By changing the wording of this section to indicate that there will be standing committees addressing each category, without dictating the name of the actual committee, we are granting flexibility to future boards with regards to communication.
CSTA will most assuredly continue to address both standards for teacher certification and educational standards for student learning. The CSTA Teacher Certification Committee will address the teaching standards for teacher certification. The CSTA Curriculum Committee will address the educational learning standards for students. Standards for teacher certification and educational standards for students are both critical to the growth and vitality of the computer science education community. CSTA will continue to address both.
Happy voting!
Deborah Seehorn
Chair, CSTA Board of Directors
On behalf of the Elections and Nominations Committee
