By now, many of you have heard of the College Board’s decision to discontinue the AP Computer Science AB exam after next year (the A exam will not be affected). We are just as surprised as you are by the announcement and know that the news will come as a disappointment to many computer science teachers. We do hope, however, that this decision will provide us with an opportunity to strengthen high school computer science education.
The College Board has said that it will be “focus[ing] their efforts on improving and supporting the AP Computer Science A program, which will be enhanced during the next five years to better represent a full-year, entry-level college computer science sequence.”
To that end, they have formed a “AP Computer Science Course and Exam Review Commission responsible for developing and enacting comprehensive research among colleges, universities, and secondary schools to identify how best to keep the AP course and exam current and reflective of the ever-changing discipline of computer science.”
CSTA is well-represented on this commission and will do its best to meet these goals.
While we don’t know what the future will hold for the AP curriculum, we now have a seat at the table and we’ll keep you posted as we move forward.
In the meantime, given that we are soon only going to have a single AP CS exam, what do you think that exam should cover? In other words, what are the essential concepts that the course must include?
Let us know what you think!
Robb Cutler
CSTA President

CSTA has been invited by the College Board to take part in a review of the Advanced Placement Computer Science curriculum and we would like your guidance on how it might be improved.
In order to keep all of its subject area curricula current, the College Board conducts regular reviews of all of its AP curricula. To do this, it forms a committee of experts from various educational levels within each academic discipline to examine the curriculum carefully and put forward any recommendations for change.
Of course, the process is not a simple one. There is the issue of ensuring the curriculum is sufficiently rigorous as to justify the awarding of college-level credit to students who successfully pass the exam. There is also the concern with ensuring that the exam answers can be fairly and consistently assessed.
There are also much deeper questions to be answered. Does the curriculum cover the appropriate content? Is it well-focused, consistent, and rigorous? Does it provide a balanced view of the discipline? Does it encourage good students to view the discipline in a positive but realistic way?
These are some of the questions that we need to consider very carefully as a community.
At this point, a rant against the AP CS curriculum is really not very helpful. What we need are your practical suggestions for making it better. We cannot promise that we can make it so, but we believe that good things will happen when we bring the collected wisdom of our CSTA community to this task.
So tell us what you think! How can the AP CS curriculum be improved?
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

CSTA has a new collection of podcasts called CS Snipits that allows teachers to listen-in on interesting conversations with leaders and practitioners in the computer science (CS) field. These podcasts feature educators, industry folks, and students who are willing to take the time to chat with us about their passions.
The 2007 Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference was held in Orlando, Florida, October 14-17. This conference celebrates the technical contributions and career interests of diverse people in diverse computing fields. I love this conference because it makes college and university students the primary focus, having them participate in a variety of presentations including technical papers, panels, workshops, posters, and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions.
During our time at Tapia this year, I visited with many conference attendees, and talked specifically about projects for K-12 aimed at making computing more inclusive for all students. I especially loved interviewing the students who helped us appreciate their passion for computing and their drive to improve the world.
Here are just a few of our podcast from Tapia this year.
Edward Gonzales and Josef Sifuentes of Rice University energetically contend that if you think math isn’t cool it is because you’re not cool! Gonzales and Rice have launched the Math is Cool project to demonstrate how you can use mathematics, racing, and art to engage student interest in computing.
Richard Tapia of Rice University, recounts how his dreams of diversity in computing gave rise to the Tapia Conference. As a bridge-builder among ethnic groups, Richard has mentored dozens of students toward amazing successes in computing. His dedication to students is second to none.
To listen to these or any other CS Snipits, visit http://csta.acm.org/Resources/sub/Podcasts.html
Pat Phillips
Editor, CS Snipits

One of the things we frequently hear from our members is that kids are avoiding computer science courses because they belief that there are not any jobs. We now have more evidence that this is not the case.
Recently, the Chair of the CSTA Advisory Council, Dr. Debra Richardson, sent me this article by eWeek reporter Deborah Perelman that shows that job opporunties for computer science graduates are actually on the rise and so are the salaries.
The article CS Degree Starting Salaries Up 15% Since Bust was published October 5, 2007 in eWeek.
To quote Perelman: “In addition, some of the highest salary offers among all college majors, exceeded only by a few in the engineering field (chemical, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering, specifically), went to graduating computer science majors. Computer science majors saw a 4.5 percent increase in salary offers between 2006 and 2007, bringing the average to $53,051. The increase for information sciences and systems graduates was even greater (5.9 percent), resulting in an average offer of $49,966.”
This is a great article and you should definitely read it, and perhpas even print off a copy for your school’s guidance counsellor, or for the members of the PTA.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

As educators we know that we impart more to our students than just content knowledge. Life lessons, motivations, these come along with the classroom content of variables and arrays. We share student’s hopes and dreams and often wonder what happened to “so and so” every now and again.
But what if we were asked to put aside content? Focus instead on the life lessons? Many universities across the country have been asking professors to do just this in a series called “last lectures”. The professors were to give what they imagined to be their last lecture in life. What would you say? Who would you address it to?
Hypothetical has a way of becoming true. This week Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch gave his lecture entitled “Achieving your Childhood Dreams” as a part of this lecture series. The catch? It just might be one of his last. Randy is one of the co-creators of Alice and has contributed enormously to computer science in his career. Randy also has terminal cancer and has been given just a few weeks to live.
The lecture that he gave was taped and can be viewed through CMU for a short while. The lecture itself is 2 hours, but watching it goes much faster than that. The Wall Street Journal has a good article with a short highlights video of the lecture.
I highly recommend watching the lecture, sharing it with your students and talking about the life lessons that it evokes. The lecture is light and full of humor and something not to be missed.
Leigh Ann Sudol
CSTA Communcations Chair

According to a report from the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy (CEP), about 44% of school districts nationally reported cutting time from one or more other subjects or activities as a result of the NCLB legislation.
The report, Choices, Changes, and Challenges: Curriculum and Instruction in the NCLB Era was based on a nationally representative survey of nearly 350 school districts. It reports that time spent on subjects other than reading and mathematics (including science, social studies, art and music, physical education, lunch and recess) has fallen by nearly one-third since the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act became law in 2002.
About 62% of districts reported increasing time for English language arts and/or mathematics in elementary schools since school year 2001-02, and more than 20% reported increasing time for these subjects in middle school during the same time. Among the districts reporting increased time for English and mathematics, the average increase was substantial, amounting to a 46% increase in English, a 37% increase in math, and a 42% increase across the two subjects combined.
The report notes that the increases and decreases are more prevalent in districts that are home to struggling schools. School districts with at least one school identified for improvement under NCLB reported in greater proportions that they had increased time for English and/or mathematics at the elementary and middle school levels and had cut back on time for other subjects since 2001-02 (78%) than did districts without schools identified (57%).
In addition to increasing time spent on English and mathematics, many districts appear to be changing their curriculum to provide a greater emphasis on content and skills covered on high-stakes state tests used for NCLB purposes. In mathematics, for example, 81% of districts reported changing their curriculum at the elementary and middle school levels to more closely match the content of state tests, while 78% of districts reported doing so at the high school level.
We would love to know if you have experienced similar cuts, especially to computing courses, in your school!
Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

Since January, CSTA has been collecting data from our High School Computer Science Survey. As of our closing date of May 1, 2007, more than 1000 eductors from across the United States had participated.
The CSTA Reseaarch Committee is now tabulating the results of the survey and is planning to publish them on the CSTA website some time this summer.
In the meantime, however, CSTA has announced the winners of its survey participation raffle. Rob Tindel of Arnold High School in Florida and Beth Smith of Fountain Hills High School in Arizona have each won a Zune digital media player from Microsoft!
CSTA would like to thank all of the educators who particpated in our survey and Microsoft’s Carla Faini who so graciously dontated the Zunes.
Chris Stephenson
Executive Director

According to Ana Paula Ferreira of the Portuguese Science Teachers Association (ANPRI), someone has been playing politics with teacher certification requirements in Portugal and the future of computer science in high schools is in jeopardy.
Since the 1990s, Portugal has had a pre-service university degree for people who want to teach computer science courses. Since that time, many high schools have been teaching computer science in grades 10 through 12.
Recently, however, the Ministry of Education decided to allow anyone to teach computer science classes. The problem, Ana says, is that the people in the Ministry of Education do not understand the difference between teaching computer science and teaching technology in education (the use of computers to support learning in other curriculum areas).
The members of the ANPRI are very concerned that this change will allow teachers with no computer science background to teach computer science or will eliminate real computer science education altogether.
According to Ana, the computer science teachers who are part of ANPRI believe that it is essential to prepare their students for a technology-embedded future and computer science is a key element of their education. ANPRI is therefore committed to working in collaborating to the Ministry of Education to propose a special curriculum for K-12 schools, and develop special high schools courses.
ANPRI estimates that there are 2000 teachers with degrees in computer science teaching in Portugal’s high schools. ANPRI represents 10% of that number the organization is launching a campaign to reach for new members.
Judith Gal-Ezer
Director for CSTA International Outreach

Mark Stehlik kindly agreed to let us repost his message to the AP Listserv regarding Texas’ recent decision not to include computer science as a math or science credit under their plan to increase the number of mandatory courses for high school students.
The state of Texas has recently approved a requirement called 4×4, to graduate in its recommended or distinguished track, it will require 4 years of Math, Science, English (Language Arts), and Social Studies.
Prompted by this, a week ago Thursday, I and an intrepid band of Texas secondary and college computer science educators ventured to testify before the Texas State Board of Education with the hope of persuading the board members to approve a petition formulated by Karen North to allow Computer Science (specifically, AP CS, not a course like Web Mastering) to count as a Math or Science in the newly approved 4×4 curriculum.
We arrived at 9:00 a.m. to find that we were item 8 on a 13-item agenda. And that 33 people were slated to testify to item 7 (discussion concerning the implementation of the 4×4 curriculum). As we sat and listened to discussions concerning the proper labeling of consumables (among the minutiae that occupy a state board of ed), we were heartened by positive references to Computer Science made in the testimony for item 7.
Unfortunately, those wan hopes were positively crushed by the board. First, since so many people testified on item 7, we didn’t begin testifying until shortly before 6:00pm (needless to say, my 5:55 flight back to Pittsburgh left without me). Second, perhaps because of the late hour, approximately 6 board members (of 15 total) decided not to be present for our testimony. Their chairs were empty! It was positively disconcerting after watching all the favor paid to certain item 7 witnesses to see such an abject display of disinterest in our cause.
Further, unlike for item 7, there were virtually no questions subsequent to individual testimony (only 1 question, asked of 2 witnesses, was, “So, if you had to pick one, is Computer Science a math or a science?”). Of the 13 people testifying on this item, 2 were against (and 1 practically called us all liars for attempting to characterize Computer Science as science as we do not observe the natural world and thus are not a true science). (As an aside, I agree that Computer Science is not a Natural Science, but that doesn’t make it not a science, or relevant to the future education of these students, but I digress).
At the end of the testimony, a board member asked to accept the Superintendent’s recommendation to deny the petition (which was based on the fact that CS didn’t require Algebra II as a prerequisite, which the board decided to no longer require as part of its discussion of item 7!). The motion was seconded and passed N-2 to 2. I say N-2 because it was unclear how many members were actually present to vote (the chair asserted that there was a quorum, though).
Very depressing.
Mark Stehlik

As many of you probably know, ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for Students provide the gold standard by which the implementation of educational technology in support of student learning can be measured. What you may not know is that over the next year, ISTE is launching a national consultation process to “refresh” the Student standards.
Why, you might be asking, should we care? The sad truth is that these days there is an educational and attitudinal divide between those of us who focus on the use of educational technology across the curriculum and those of us teach computer science. The truth is, however, that our interests and fates are inextricably linked and it would make much more sense if we worked more closely together.
Despite our different focus, educational technologists and computer scientists are both committed to ensuring that students have the opportunity to benefit from educational technology and to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to survive in this increasingly global and technologized world. Where we falter, however, is in seeing the extent to which our goals will only be achieved by our comprehension of the importance of the full continuum of skills. It is simply not enough to teach students about and with technology, students need to develop the skills that will allow them to become the creators and innovators who will develop the new technologies we have only begun to dream of.
When the ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science was developed, the authors believed it was essential to include the NETS as the foundational building blocks of technology knowledge for all students. As ISTE moves forward with their revisions, we hope that they will also incorporate the skills that we believe are critical to student success. We hope that they will take an opportunity to include computing logic and algorithmic problem solving into the NETS for grades 6-8, not just because these concepts are the fundamental building blocks of more advanced computing, but because they provide students with a powerful new tool for thinking about how technology can be used to solve real world problems. And if ISTE does this, we will commit CSTA to ensuring that teachers have access to a variety of age-level appropriate instructional materials that will help them introduce these concepts in engaging and relevant ways.
ISTE has begun this discussion about what students need to learn, and it is essential that computer science educators take part. Be part of this important event by completing the online survey at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=390142293245
Students win when we work together.
It is that simple.
Chris Stephenson
Executive Director