We are seeing many indications these days that administrators are realizing that a strong computer science curriculum for students is a critical aspect of providing high quality education. Now it seems that school district are beginning to use this message to attract parents as well.
The Crowley Independent School District in Texas is a great example of this new thinking. As CSTA member Lynne Ryan explained, a new toll road called the Chism Trail is about to be opened that will connect downtown Fort Worth with communities south. More than half of this new tool road will be in Crowley ISD. When the new road is opened, the community expects to see tremendous growth due to development. In expectation of these changes, Crowley ISD has launched a new marketing campaign to highlight the excellence of its school system.
The campaign consists of a series of five short videos that were created to “sell” the strengths of the district. The video topics include:

The Developing 21st Century Learners video focuses on student access to new technologies to promote and expand learning and Lynne herself talks about the importance of tools for collaborative learning and exploration.
The world is changing and parents have a lot more flexibility and power when it comes to school choice within many public school systems. The Crowley ISD videos demonstrate the importance of strong computing programs as an indicator of a forward-thinking learning environment.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

A day never goes by that I don’t hear some mention of data (big or otherwise) that has create problems or is being used to solve a myriad of problems. “If only we had more data on Flight 370” or “The government has too much data on our citizens”.
So in a world that simultaneously experiences too much and not enough data, how do teachers help their students understand what all the hub-bub is about and to feel in control of data rather than victimized by it?
The topic of data is not one that we, as CS educators, can ignore. Data Science is a part of Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum and in the upcoming AP CS Principles course. It’s popping up in many other curricular areas and you might be called on to help colleagues incorporate it into their areas as well. The challenge is that that many of us need nearly as much help in learning about data as our students do!
While the topic of data is not exactly new to CS curricula, the availability, abundance, and the importance of data, not to mention the tools for powerful analytics and visualizations, are certainly beyond anything most CS classrooms and K-12 teachers have typically been equipped to handle. The list of data topics and skills that our students will need to be effective citizens is long.
But there is good news! CSTA is going to be part of the solution in providing resources and opportunities to members. Take a look at the agenda for the 2014 CSTA Annual Conference in July. There are several sessions on data. In addition, a set of professional development kits will be coming online soon. While the kit resources were specifically created to enhance ECS, the lessons, teaching tools, and ideas for student activities will enhance any classroom. The kits will be perfect for Chapters to offer two to six hour workshops. My guess is that it won’t only be CS teachers knocking at the door!
Watch for news about these new PD resources in the next month. We’ll let you know when they are ready.
Pat Philips
Editor, CSTA Voice

CSTA-Central NJ and CSTA-Northern NJ are working together with their advocacy efforts. A few members from each chapter focus on state-wide advocacy. The mission of this small advocacy group (CSNJ) is to establish K-12 Computer Science as an essential academic discipline in NJ. CSNJ believes that all students should take Computer Science classes to help develop logical thinking, problem solving and computational thinking skills necessary for the jobs of tomorrow.
The state of NJ requires students to complete three years of math and three years of science to graduate. CSNJ is proposing an additional STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) graduation requirement. They call this proposal 3+3+STEM. The STEM requirement can be satisfied by a Math, Science, Computer Science, or Engineering class. CSNJ has their first meeting with members of NJ Department of Education scheduled for next week.
In addition to the efforts of CSNJ, both NJ CSTA chapters have been awarded CSTA grants promote CS Education statewide. With funding provided under a mini-grant program sponsored by the ACM SIG Governing Board, they will co-sponsor an informational booth at the New Jersey Educational Association (NJEA) convention in November to advocate for Computer Science education in New Jersey and are submitting a proposal for a professional development (PD) workshop on CS education to the NJEA. If the workshop proposal is accepted, members of the chapters will present a PD workshop on the state of Computer Science in New Jersey and the impact of CS on student achievement and future career prospects.
The two chapters will also co-sponsor an informational booth and a half hour presentation on Computer Science education in New Jersey at the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) conference during October 2014. The workshop will focus on the state of Computer Science in New Jersey and the impact of CS on student achievement and future career prospects.
Funds from the grants will also be used in support of CS advocacy activities such as meetings with legislators, business leaders, educators, parents, administrators, members of local school boards, other education professionals, the commissioner of education, the State board of education and any other stakeholders who can influence the direction of CS education in New Jersey. Both chapters will work together to develop the materials for the booths and the workshops/presentations. Both CSTA NJ chapters will be represented at these state conferences to show cohesiveness and statewide initiative.
NJ CSTA chapters have worked very hard to advocate for CS Education in our state.
For more information on CSTA in NJ, visit: http://www.cstanj.org/home
If you haven’t started advocacy work in your state, now is the time!!!
Fran Trees, CSTA Chapter Liaison
Proud member of CSNJ!

On March 7, 2014, after a long day at SIGCSE, the members of the Georgia and Alabama chapters of the CSTA got together for some collaboration and conversation.
CSTA-Georgia Vice-President, Deepa Muralidhar, thought it would be a great idea for the neighboring chapters to get to know each other. With the financial support of Jeff Gray and the University of Alabama, as well as Barb Ericson and Georgia Tech, Deepa was able to plan an evening reception with light refreshments. Several people were kind enough to help Deepa with the planning and implementation of the reception including: CSTA Director of Development Lissa Clayborn, Jeff Baker and Carol Yarbrough of the CSTA-Alabama chapter, and Crystal Furman CSTA-Georgia.
Approximately 30 members of the Georgia and Alabama chapters of the CSTA met and mingled with each other and members of the CSTA Board of Directors. Chris Stephenson, Executive Director, CSTA said a few words to get the reception started. As always, her words were inspirational and well received by the crowd. Chris’ remarks were followed by a game of “Sort and Mingle”, devised to help members get to know a little bit about each other. After that, it was time to enjoy great food and conversations with fellow CSTA members.
A great time was had by all. It was a great opportunity for the Georgia and Alabama teachers to get to know each other and socialize. This was especially true for the members of the newly established CSTA-Alabama chapter. The Alabama chapter is just getting started and beginning to plan activities and future meetings. The reception was a great way for the Alabama teachers to learn what the Georgia teachers and CSTA National Board members are doing and get ideas for chapter activities.
We hope to continue to find opportunities for the neighboring chapters to get together and collaborate. We encourage other closely located chapters to do the same. The evening proved true to the theme: Collaboration opens new avenues.
Carol Yarbrough
Vice-President, CSTA-Alabama

Last month Patrice Gans had a great post Creating a Professional Learning Network here on the CSTA blog about creating a professional learning network using Twitter. I thought it might be worthwhile to add some suggestions of my own.
You may wonder how this works in practice and I ran into a great example recently. Mike Zamansky, a CS teacher and CSTA member from New York City (on Twitter @zamansky), tweeted a link to a blog post he wrote about a lesson in sorting he had taught. Carolyn Petite, a CS teacher from Ohio (on Twitter @cfhsPetite) replied to his tweet with two resources that she used. A follow up reply from Mike included two more resources. So in a short period of time two teachers had shared five different teaching resources with their followers and each other. I eventually captured these resources and some others I knew about on my blog post Resources For Teaching Sorts.
As you can see this sharing occurs across multiple channels though. Tweeter is great for sharing resource links and short discussions. Blogs are great for longer discussions and more in-depth information. (I have a list of computer science educators who blog BTW.) But that is not all.
If blogging and Twitter are not your style there are also email lists and even Facebook. The CSTA has a Facebook group where some great discussions take place on a regular basis. CSTA also runs an email discussion list for members. You can join the conversation there at http://listserv.acm.org/scripts/wa-ACMLPX.exe?SUBED1=csta-members&A=1.
These are friendly venues for asking questions, answering questions, sharing news and ideas and building relationships with one’s peers. Everyone’s ideas have value and are worth sharing. Especially yours!
Jump in the water is fine!
Alfred Thompson
At-large Member, CSTA