When I first joined CSTA almost a decade ago, computer science education was absent from most school districts. Rigorous computer science courses were often tucked away in the classrooms of exclusive private schools and affluent public schools. Even then, the myopic focus on programming languages attracted a very narrow and homogenous subset of students. Computer science education was for the very privileged few.
The past few years have revitalized computer science education. Multiple groups including the NSF, non-profit education organizations, and industry have joined the policy efforts of CSTA with the shared mission of elevating computing education. This united public messaging echoes what teachers already know – computer science education is important knowledge needed for all students to participate in 21st century democratic and economic society. Indeed, CS for All has become a powerful policy movement.
But, as all the students gain access to computer science learning, teachers are charged with the task of teaching each student based on the lived experiences, prior knowledge, and the wonders of the world that the child brings to the classroom. Developing a computer science classroom that welcomes each child requires a culturally responsive pedagogy that views diversity as a strength that should be integrated within the curriculum. Additional instructional supports for English language learners and students with disabilities should be developed and shared to support teachers in a CS for Each model.
To see this in action, we can observe how our CSTA colleagues in the Chicago Public Schools focused on supporting teachers as the key component of increasing access and equity for students. Both before and after ensuring a district commitment to provide CS for all, the teacher corps in the city has committed to bring high quality professional development and curricular resources to their colleagues in order to transform this district policy into inclusive teaching practices. This dual model of policy push, with a strong emphasis on the professional support of teachers, gives us a concrete example of how CS for Each can be realized.
Joanna Goode
CSTA Equity Chair

As a teacher, I have spent the last eighteen years of my life dedicated to teaching technology skills and computer science. One of the most rewarding aspects of this work is when I am visited years later by former students who have become successful coders or engineers. It makes me happy to know that one of my classes helped introduce them to their chosen fields.
Over the years, organizations such as CSTA, ACM, NSF, WIT, and WITI (to name just a few) have made enormous progress. This past year, Code.org has also done amazing work. Billions of lines of code written by students, regardless of gender or ethnicity has been nothing short of inspiring for classroom teachers like myself. But we still face important challenges. Here are some of the hard truths. The glass ceiling for women in technology is real. The declining numbers in enrollments in CS and engineering programs by women is real.
And now we are seeing the ugly flip side of the good work that has been done. When you bring an issue to the forefront, you have to worry that some folks will take exception and satirize your accomplishments in name of humor. Enter codebabes.com, an organization brought to my attention by an article in the Washington Post. While not wanting to give it legitimacy by naming it, it is difficult to skip the opportunity to express my outrage. This organization and the website it has created flies in the face of the years I have spent trying to teach students to code for good.
Fifteen years ago, my school had a guest speaker from the Internet Crimes Task Force. He spoke about computer hackers and portrayed the typical hacker as a teenage male (yes, usually a teenager, but always male). I wondered why this was the case, and decided that either there weren’t any female hackers, or they were so much better than their male counterparts because they had never been caught!
As a middle and high school teacher, I have taught several talented young men. Some of them had great potential as hackers. I always felt a sense of obligation when I worked with them to try to get them to understand their potential and show them that it as important to do good things with their code. Sadly, code babes presents the antithesis of this message, portraying coding as dangerous to women and dangerous to our future.
Too bad they couldn’t create a site that would not be offensive to women and offensive to computer science teachers. It is clear that the authors possess a really immature sense of humor, and we can only hope that someday, when they grow up, they will be ashamed of their sophomoric actions. At the minimum, let’s hope that if they pass on their coding skills to future offspring these offspring will all be girls, and that the antics of their fathers in their younger days will not dissuade them from bright coding futures.
Joanne Barrett
CSTA Member and Florida Chapter Leader

It has been a little over a year since Code.org released its viral video in the midst of a larger push for computer science education. The video used well-known celebrities to speak to the importance of computer science, but this initial video did not propose any solutions to make computing more accessible for students. I wondered and blogged about why teachers weren’t more visible in this campaign to draw attention towards computing education (LINK).
What a difference a year makes.
This month at SIGCSE, Hadi Partovi delivered a powerful keynote in which he articulated Code.org’s successful Hour of Code and their vision of district partnerships to increase access and diversity for computing. A common thread throughout his comments was the centrality of the role of teachers.

Code.org’s explicit commitment to working with public schools provides curricular and instructional supports for classroom teaching in settings where students historically have had the fewest opportunities to pursue computing.
In talking with K-12 teachers after this keynote, there was a huge buzz and a sense of empowerment for being recognized and affirmed for their important role in reforming computer science education. It was especially rewarding for teachers to be recognized while sitting alongside 1200+ fellow SIGCSE educators, most of who work in higher education and have little understanding about the nature of K-12 teaching.
It was a great day to be a K-12 teacher at SIGCSE.
Joanna Goode
CSTA Teacher Education Representative

These were my thoughts several years ago as I was headed to my first SIGCSE. It seemed on the surface a little intimidating when the majority of attendees and sessions dealt with college/university level computer science. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that SIGCSE is the second best conferences I attend (the firs being the annual CSTA Conference)
SIGCSE 2014 was the fifth time I have attended SIGCSE and there seemed to be more sessions and activities geared specifically toward K-12. I usually find, however that it is important to attend anything that piques your interest regardless of the intended audience.
So here are my suggestions as you contemplate attending next year in Kansas City, Missouri.
Look at all the workshops because many have high school (sometimes middle school as well) implications or are on different teaching tools that can be used in your classroom. Attending workshops are how I met many different people and gained experience with great tools for my classes. You spend three hours learning, collaborating, and sharing teaching practices. I highly recommend attending at least one your first year.
Secondly, check out the Friday and Saturday schedule as this is when the sessions geared toward K-12 normally are. If you are a K-12 teacher and are only attending these days, there is a discounted HS rate as well. If you attend the full conference, you often find gems you would not otherwise know about. One of the best things that happened my first SIGCSE is I attended a paper session on using robots within CS courses. It was from the college perspective; however, I learned about a new robot called a “finch” and how it was going to be a cost effective option for those wanting to use robots. At that point it was still in beta testing but I in turn mentioned this to a local business that runs a computer camp in the summer. They were able to make a connection and help beta test the finches and, as a result, I also was able to use them. From there I was able to buy some for my classroom. Could I have still found out about the finch at a later time? Sure, but I had the benefit of listening to the creator, hearing the plan, and following it from its inception.
Another great example is that information regarding the CS Principles course from the concept to the piloting has been showcased at SIGCSE. These are just a few of many examples of the benefit of SIGCSE.
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, are the relationships you build. While I will admit that the CSTA Summer Conference is the best place to collaborate with other CS K-12 teachers, SIGCSE is a great place to collaborate with community colleges, universities, and even other organizations. I have met several professors from universities in Ohio and have been able to continue conversations with them as well as work with them on some summer projects. This is the conference is where K-16 computer science educators can learn from each other and make valuable connections that they normally would not make.
Stephanie Hoeppner
CSTA 9-12 Representative

CSTA Advisory Council Member Anita Verno of Bergen Community College working with students from East Newark Public School as part of an on-site Technology Day at Bergen.
The next generation will interact with computers in ways we cannot imagine. Are we preparing our children?
Today’s children are high-level users of computers. Give them a tech toy; they can work with it. But, are they using it creatively? Do they have any understanding of the possibilities? When they send a text on their smartphone, do they ever think about the power in that device? I believe that the youth of today are using computers in a similar way they use a TV remote. While they can’t imagine life without a remote, few use all the capabilities that are available. Computer Science education is a must for all students so they can head into the future, confident that they can move forward with the technology, take advantage of the computing power it provides, and use technical tools to carve out new and creative solutions to problems.
When does computing education begin? At birth? Pre-school? Elementary school? Middle school? High school? College? The earlier the better. I am attempting to target elementary school. Is this possible? Can we teach computer science concepts to young children? The answer is unequivocally yes. However, the expectations must be realistic and the approach simple.
College faculty can help expose elementary children to CS by providing workshops for teachers, visiting schools to help deliver lessons, and inviting schools to participate in Technology Day activities on-campus. Elementary teachers often are not able to determine what CS content is appropriate to offer or they may not have sufficient technical background to deliver computing lessons. The workshops help teachers understand the possibilities and consider ways to fit CS activities into their existing curriculum. A college faculty visit to a local school to help deliver a lesson provides a higher level of support as a teacher begins teaching CS. And a visit by elementary children to a college campus permits young students to engage in CS activities that enhance current learning. In addition, it exposes children to the college environment and may encourage some to consider continuing their education, possibly to include a career in computing.
A bonus for the college faculty members participating with young children is watching the “awakening”. “Wow! I can do that?” Additionally, I often find myself reevaluating approaches for teaching my college students as I learn how to break down content to the most basic level. Ultimately, if I can prepare lessons and teach programming or web development to a 10 year old, I can employ similar techniques to engage my college students.
How to get started? Here’s an approach that has worked for the Information Technology faculty at Bergen Community College. Approximately once a year we invite teachers, including the CSTA-NNJ members, to attend a Saturday morning workshop that is also serving as a meeting of the Community College Computer Consortium (CCCC-NJ). The CCCC membership is primarily comprised of CS and IT community college faculty from around the state. This workshop provides the opportunity for networking as well as serving as an educational event. The networking at the workshop, outreach activities through various areas at my college, and inquiries from local teachers often serve to pair teachers with college faculty for continued discussions of CS education.
When there is interest in bringing CS education to a class, particularly an elementary class, I will work with a teacher to determine the best approach based on available equipment at their school. One approach that has worked well is to plan a Technology Day event at the college based on a future curriculum topic. Students love a field trip and the CS lesson will be delivered by college computing faculty rather than the elementary teacher. Once the topic and the Day are set, one or more pre-event lessons are developed together to prepare the student for Technology Day. The lessons include preparatory info about the CS activities that will be part of Technology Day. Follow up activities for after Technology Day should also be planned. To ensure the Technology Day event will run as smoothly as possible, I invite a few of my college students to assist as teacher aides. The more help the better.
Benefits to the students: Exposure to the college campus, exposure to computer labs (if there are no labs available at school), and participation in introductory CS activities.
Benefits to the teachers: Help with planning and delivering CS instruction.
Benefits to the college faculty: Exposure to new ways to structure and present engaging lessons. The methods can be scaled and used with the appropriate modification for instruction to college students. Additionally, modeling outreach activities for college students helps them understand that you “do” as well as “say”. And for community college faculty, community service is often a bonus when applying for promotion since one role of community colleges is to provide services to the community.
I believe helping young children understand that computing is only limited by their imagination is one of the most rewarding activities of my professional career.
Anita Verno
Associate Professor, Information Technology
Bergen Community College
CSTA Advisory Council Member

Sometimes what seems like a very good idea in principle, even a good idea put forward with the best intensions, can turn out to be a very bad idea in practice. This is definitely the case with the idea of allowing students to count a computer science course as a foreign language credit.
If you have not been living under a rock for the last year, you know that there is an incredible amount of discussion concerning the need for all students to have access to computer science knowledge and computer science courses in schools. There are lots of different words being used to describe this knowledge (coding, programming, computing, computer science) but the intention is the same and CSTA has been one of the organizations pushing hard since it was created in 2004 to get this message across.
And now people are listening, especially politicians who see the job projections (more than half of the jobs in STEM by 2020 will be in computing), who see that other countries are far ahead of us in preparing their students for these jobs, and see people in their own constituencies struggling with unemployment and underemployment.
When these policy makers look at schools, they see that computer science is not part of the “common core” of prescribed learning for students. And then they hear that Texas has just passed legislation to enable students to count a computer science course as a foreign language credit and it seems like a great idea.
But all we have to do is to look at Texas to see how this idea could, at the implementation level, turn out to be an unfortunate choice for computer science education. Here are the unintended consequences
1. If a course counts as a foreign language course, it will be suggested that a new course must be created.
2. If a new course is created, chances are that it won’t fit well into any of the already existing course pathways for college-prep or CTE.
3. This new course will be added to the current confusing array of “computing” courses which students and their parents already find difficult to navigate.
4. There will be pressure brought to ensure that that course focuses somehow on a “language”. For the last ten years we have been trying to help people understand that computer science is more than programming. Programming/coding is to computer science as the multiplication table is to mathematics, a critical tool but certainly not the entire discipline.
5. If this new course is going to be a “language” course, we have to pick a language (just one). And so the programming language wars begin.
This cascading set of ramifications happen because counting computer science as a “language credit” completely obscures the fact that computer science is a complex discipline with deep roots in both mathematics and science.
It is critical to point out that there are no bad guys here. The people proposing and supporting these legislative initiatives are just trying to figure out how to make computer science more accessible to students. There are, however, better solutions that will, in the end, be far better for computer science education and, more importantly, for our students.
The best ways to ensure that more students have the opportunity to take richly rigorous computer science courses in their schools are to:

Please reach out to your political representatives and help them understand why what may seem like good legislation goes very wrong at the implementation level. Encourage them to focus their good intentions and energy on solutions that really will help us achieve what we are trying to achieve.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

The Hour of Code was a great success and you may have had more interest than ever before in computer science, but what do you do with all that momentum? How do you help students and other teachers keep interest in computer science and even coding? I’m so glad you asked.
Have you looked at the resources section of the CSTA a website? Have you scanned the CSTA Advocate blog to see what different people are doing in different parts of the world? Have you looked on the CSTA to website to see who the CSALT leaders (computer science advocacy leadership team) are in your state so you can use them as a resource? Have you looked to your local CSTA chapter to see what kind of resources they’re creating or outreach and workshops they are providing? Have you looked at the Computer Science EdWeek site?
The Hour of Code has helped generate national and even international interest in computer science. It is our job now to get down into the trenches and make sure that the new interest witnessed in December makes a real difference in our schools. That is the real challenge we face now.
Fortunately, many CSTA members have been doing work in the schools and on the “front lines”. There is help and there are resources available for anyone who is now looking to continue the work. Use the CSTA website to find someone near you doing similar work and reach out. We need each other to keep moving forward. I do not want the fantastic things that happened in December to just become stories. I want them to inspire us to make real, sustained change in our classrooms, schools, districts, and states.
Stephanie Hoeppner
CSTA 9-12 Representative

Today is the last school day of CS EdWeek and what a week it has been! The phenomenal success of Code.org’s Hour of Code, a great CSTA CSEdWeek event in CO with our friends at Oracle, new legislation signed that will make computer science courses more accessible and attractive to students. New partners who have joined with us to promote computer science education. Just more of everything! But in all of the hoopla and congratulations, I have not heard much said about the teachers.
For the last week teachers all across the U.S. and in other countries have dedicated their time to planning and hosting CSEdWeek events in their schools and communities. Countless teachers have written to tell me how proud they have been to share their knowledge and excitement with students, parents, and the general public. One teacher wrote to tell me he was doing an additional event in a local senior citizens home to just show that “no one is ever too old to learn computer science”.
It took over six months of planning, but thanks to the efforts of Mary-Angela Papalaskari of our Philadelphia-area chapter, the citizens of Philadelphia saw the words “Computer Science Education Week 12/9-12/13” in a huge running LED banner across the PECO building.
Some CSTA teacher members witnessed critical legislative gains for computer science education for which they have advocated and which they have shaped. The photo above, for example, shows CSTA members Joe Kmoch and Lori Hunt with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the legislation he signed this week to make computer science count. And with the support of the CSTA Alabama Chapter and of Drs. Bice and Cleveland from the State Department of Education, the Alabama State Board of Education voted to approve both AP Computer Science and Computer Science Principles as math equivalent elections for graduation.
This week we have also seen new partners step forward and join us in our fight for more and better computer science education in K-12, partners such as Joyce Hoffman, President of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) in WI who gave a wonderful interview on the importance of engaging all students in computer science education to WKOW in Madison, WI.
And of course we saw President Obama personally encourage students to give computer science a shot.
Its been a big week, a great week for computer science education. So, to all teachers, from CSTA, we are so proud of you and all that you do. You are, and always will be, the beating heart of CSEDWeek.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director