CSEdWeek continues to roll along with events in schools, districts, community centers, and businesses and computer science educators continue to play a critical role in all of these events. Last night I had the pleasure of attending a CSEdWeek event in the St. Vrain Valley School District in Colorado that was sponsored by Oracle and CSTA among others.
According to Superintendent Don Haddad, St. Vrain is the fastest growing school district in the state and clearly St. Vrain is well on the way to establishing itself as a district dedicated to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to learn the skills that will enable them to compete in the global economic environment.
Last night’s activities followed upon a district hackathon that involved students in computing challenges in three areas: Best Educational Gaming Solution, Best Teenage Consumer Retail Solution, and SVVSD/ESRI Expert Choice Award. Parents, teachers, community members and staff from several local political leaders were able to view student displays and to vote a People’s Choice Award.
In addition to the prize giving, the evening included a rich agenda of speakers, all focusing on the importance of computer science education. In her address, Oracle Academy Vice President Alison Derbenwick Miller noted that creating a computer scientist takes 25 years and requires engagement by educators at all levels to make sure that students acquire the skills, knowledge, and experience they need as they progress through their educational experiences.
Alison’s focus on the process of becoming a computer scientist was echoed by the members of the panel that I had the pleasure to moderate. Panel members Alexander Repenning (University of Colorado at Boulder), Ann Root (Niwok High School), Tracy Camp (Colorado School of Mines) and Sarah Hug (University of Colorado at Boulder) spoke passionately about the realities of learning computer science at middle school, high school and university and what research is teaching us about how to better engage all students in computer science learning.
During the panel question session, many of the parents present demonstrated a deep concern about issues of access to computer science knowledge for all students. One parent, for example, noted a critical need for affordable informal education experiences to help students developed their interest in computer science at a young age.
The evening also received a nice boost from local politicians who are putting computer science education on the map in Colorado. U.S. Representative Jared Polis (a passionate supporter of computer science education) sent a warm video welcome. Monisha Merchant, Senior Advisor for Business Affairs for U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, also spoke about the critical commitment to providing students with the opportunity to prepare for the jobs of the future.
The evening was a great success thanks to the incredible support and efforts of all of the participants and most especially of Alison Derbenwick Miller and Sara Akbar of Oracle, Patricia Quinones of the St. Vrain School District and my terrific panelists.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

Editor’s Note:
One CSTA helped to launch CSEdWeek in 2009, our hope was that it would grow into an annual campaign that attracted partners and supporters from all levels of education and industry. This week we will be running guest blog pieces by many of our partner organizations. The excellent blog piece below by our friend Geoff Lane at the Information Technology Industry Council has been reposted here with his permission.
Were Grace Hopper still alive, she’d turn 107 years young on Monday, December 9th. Grace Hopper, as I’m sure you know, served in the United States Navy with great distinction. She first enlisted in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program in 1943, in the midst of the Second World War, and served in various roles in the Navy until 1986, when she retired as the oldest active-duty commissioned officer at nearly 80 years of age. At the time of her retirement, she was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the highest non-combat award bestowed by the Defense Department. Hopper was also arguably one of the brightest minds of her generation, and undoubtedly one of the sharpest computer programmers this country has ever known. She is credited with popularizing the term “debugging,” helped design an entirely new computer programming language, and oh by the way, has a U.S. Navy destroyer named after her.
Not coincidentally, Monday, December 9th also marks the kickoff of Computer Science Education Week. Computer Science Education Week was launched by a diverse and influential coalition of businesses, educators, and non-profits with the simple goal of promoting computer science education. Notable supporters include ITI-members Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Akamai, as well as other prominent organizations like the Computer Science Teachers Association, Alice, and Project Lead the Way, to name only a few.
The work being carried out by this group is quite timely. Consider, for a moment, that in 2013 (when our favorite apps and the mobile devices that power them aren’t just fun devices anymore, but rather extensions of our own being) just six in 10 high schools in the U.S. offer a basic computer programming course, and only about a quarter of the nation’s high schools offer advanced placement (AP) computer science classes. What’s more, it’s expected that the economy will need an additional 1.5 million computer programmers by 2018.
And this is where Washington can and should help. The great work being done by the Computer Science Education Week partners is no doubt gaining traction, but the country won’t realize the true transformative power of computer programming until Congress weighs in and formulates a wholesale approach to tackle the issue. In a previous blog, I wrote about the Computer Science Education Act, a bill that would modify existing legislation to make computer science a “core” subject with the likes of math, English, and history. Core subjects are eligible for federal funds, thereby offsetting curriculum expenses. The legislation passed unanimously in the House of Representatives, but unfortunately has yet to see the light of day in the Senate.
So as we celebrate this week’s activities, we should keep several things in mind. First, as Congress dithers, tech industry leaders like Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Akamai have shown tremendous initiative in preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s challenges. We should also celebrate Grace Hopper’s sterling accomplishments. She remains an inspiration for her years of dedication to her craft and her country. But most importantly, we should remember that Computer Science Education Week is really about enabling kids to not just know Grace Hopper’s name, but emulate her work.
My fingers are crossed that this time next year we’ll be able to celebrate Congress and its efforts to expand the computer science education footprint.
Happy birthday, Grace.
Geoff Lane
Government Relations Associate
Information Technology Industry Council

After my last blog piece, I got to work on my Hour of Code activity. I was trying to decide where to hold an Hour of Code activity and who to invite. After much consideration, I decided that the easiest place to hold the event would be at my own campus in the computer lab. There are two computer labs next door to each other, so I felt that I could accommodate at least 60. My plan started to come together. The STEM grant coordinator at the local community college generously offered to print and distribute flyers about the event to the local schools. We finally settled on just the junior high schools because of the number of potential students. Also, one of the professors from the same community college offered to help during the event. I immediately accepted his offer. I have also set up an Event Brite site so I could track the number of participants. The flyers have been distributed and families are beginning to register.
Additionally, I contacted the local newspaper and they agreed to run an article about Hour of Code that I submitted. I used the resources at Code.org to help me write the article. You can read the article at:
http://media.wix.com/ugd/50dca9_c23f1de8f0914fe48aa7d06258cc2ebb.pdf
I also contacted the county newspaper and was interviewed by their education reporter. She said they would send a photographer out to my event.
Another person I reached out to was the executive director of the Computer Using Educators. He decided that I should be one of the moderators for Sunday’s (December 8) twitter chat about Hour of Code. It will take place at 8 p.m. PST and the hashtag is #caedchat. Join in if you can!
Next, I contacted the local Assemblywoman and asked for her help to get the word out. Unfortunately, I never received a response from her. I was disappointed because she is a former teacher and at each of her events states that she is an education advocate.
I have contacted CTA, our state teachers’ association, about advertising Hour of Code. I did not receive a response from the President but I did contact his aide who said that they had sent it to committee. Disappointed with the response, I contacted the editor of the California Educator, CTA’s member magazine. She had recently attended a STEM conference at our state capitol. She had heard about Hour of Code at the conference and agreed to interview me about “Hour of Code” and Computer Science Education Week. I also sent her additional information. She said they would tweet out about Hour of Code and CS Ed Week and also post to Facebook. She also suggested some of the sections of their magazine I could write articles for after Hour of Code.
I am planning on preparing CD-RW’s for the participants by adding Alice and other programs to it. I want the participants to take their creations home with them. I have also purchased silicon bracelets to give out and plan to have Christmas goodies to munch on. My principal has offered to supply bottles of water. I have collected some door prizes to give away. My computer science students have committed to be tutors for the evening. Next week during class, my students will tryout the tutorials and select the ones they feel would be the best. I want them to be a part of this, too!
I am looking forward to Hour of Code and the excitement I hope that it brings to my students and my program. Are you looking forward to Hour of Code?.
Myra Deister
At-Large Representative

As you know, CSTA has given enthusiastic support for the new Computer Science Principles course but as we move toward its widespread adoption in schools. We believe this is a great course and a game-changer for high school computer science education, but we are also worried about the fact that he current proposal is to have the Advanced Placement CS Principles exam offered exclusively online. Much of our concern is exemplified by the results of the E-Rate and Broadband Survey released by the Consortium for School Networks and MDR.
The results of this survey indicate that there are serious issues of access to broadband that will inevitably impact the ability of schools to offer this course and enable students write the exam. They show that the average school network cannot support broadband due to poor and outdated internal connections/wiring, backbone in the school LAN, and lack of sufficient wireless access points:

Other key survey findings include:

Schools need both financial support for ongoing monthly costs AND cost of capital or up-front/nonrecurring expenses covered by E-rate if we are to achieve broadband in schools. According to the survey, ongoing monthly costs (79% agreement) and cost of capital or up-front/nonrecurring expenses (59% agreement) are the two biggest barriers for schools.
Clearly, there are major issues of access to we need to grapple with before we can truly make this course available to all students in all schools.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

With the recent publication of the new CSTA report Bugs in the System: Computer Science Teacher Certification in the U.S. CSTA has shone another white hot spotlight on the systemic barriers that keep good teachers from becoming computer science teachers. Today, however, I’ve been thinking about what comes next and I”ve realized that there is almost no discussion about keeping the good teachers we have. When are we going to start dealing with the fact that we are driving great CS teachers away from our classrooms?
The U.S. is only one nation that is now grappling with how to entice people with computer science knowledge into teaching. In Britain, for example, the British Computer Society (BCS) is administering a government-funded program that will award a number of $38,000 grants to new computer science teachers. Those not successful with the BCS grants may still qualify for a grant of $30,000 if they have a strong computer science academic record.
Right now, we only dream of such a program in the U.S. But even if we had one, the sad truth is that we would lose far too many of the teachers we attracted. According to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, one-third of all new teachers leave after three years, and 46 percent are gone within five years. In other words, half of the investment made in recruiting, training, and hiring new teachers is lost within the first five years.
And little wonder. Why would any smart person with a degree in computer science want to go into teaching? Who would want to be underpaid (many teachers must have a second job to earn a livable wage while computer scientists receive excellent starting salaries), under-supplied (on average teachers spend $1,200 per year buying basic supplies for their classrooms and many CS teachers spend a great deal more), and over-regulated (the paperwork is mind-numbing).
Some states have begun grappling with the challenge of keeping good teachers by offering incentive pay in “high-need” disciplines. I am not sure this is the answer. But I do know we have to do something. We need people with great minds and great hearts to prepare our students to thrive in a world in which computing is ubiquitous. We can no longer afford to chase good teachers away from our discipline by undervaluing and de-professionalizing them.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

I was contacted by a CS/Math teacher last month who had an interest in hosting CS camps for elementary school students. Since our local CSTA Advocacy group was scheduled to meet that week, I invited him to attend the meeting and we had a great chat about CS education, advocacy, children, and many other interesting and relevant topics.
To me, the most thought-provoking conversation started with: Ask a student in a 4th grade math class why she is taking 5th grade math next year. She’ll say, “It’s the next course.” Ask a student in 9th grade Geometry why he is taking Algebra II next year. He’ll say, “It’s the next course.” Ask a student in pre-Calculus why she is taking Calculus next year. She’ll say, “It’s the next course.”
Our conversation continued with, “We do not have that pipeline in computer science” The 4th grade student has to be exposed to CS and there has to be “a next course.” There has to ALWAYS be a next course in CS.
We are failing drastically at all educational levels because there is no CS pipeline. Few elementary schools and middle schools offer any course in CS. Some high schools offer AP CS A. But AP CS A is not “the next course” for most students. It is the only CS course. We try desperately to have our high schools implement a CS course and/or count CS as a math or science. This is a start. But one CS course isn’t the answer. We have to build that pipeline from the ground up.
Computer Science Education Week, December 9-15, is a great time to start to start building that pipeline. The Hour of Code, part of CS Ed Week, aims to introduce more than 10 million students of all ages to the basics of coding, demystifying computing for those who think programming is hard.
Help build the CS pipeline. Visit an elementary school classroom and introduce the students to CS! See:
http://csedweek.org/
for ideas and tutorials.
Fran Trees
CSTA Board of Directors-Chapter Liaison

Last week, the NSF brought together leaders of the CS10K effort to discuss potential online supports for teachers and students in computer science. Though the concept of “blended learning” is not new for either student learning or professional development, the boom of the current market working to leverage online computer science learning to “reach” large numbers of students is undeniable.
As participants at this meeting noted, there are differences in educational objectives when designing and teaching in dynamic, high-quality learning communities and when merely providing a one-directional “content delivery” of concepts without much attention to actual learning. We should not conflate issues of delivery platforms with those of good instructional design.
By the end of the meeting, I was convinced that online learning communities have great potential to support and extend professional learning, but ideally after teachers have an initial opportunity to participate in face-to-face professional development. This initial face-to-face experience builds the foundation for a trusting learning community amongst participants before transitioning to online interactions.
The CS10K Community of Practice, an online professional community for Exploring Computer Science and CS Principles teachers, offers a dynamic example of this type of online environment that seeks to build upon, not supplant, face-to-face professional development for teachers. Though only in its first year, the iterative efforts of this online space have been impressive. A slideshow of impact can be seen here:
http://cs10kcommunity.org/resources/cs10k-community-progress-plans-possibilities
What do you think? What possibilities can you imagine for creating online learning spaces for computer science teachers?
Joanna Goode
CSTA Equity Chair

This weekend CSTA Chair Deborah Seehorn and I were attending the ACM Education Council meetings and, as part of the meeting, we participated in a group discussion about critical questions in computer science education research led by CSTA Past Chair Steve Cooper.
Our discussion group consisted of Deborah Seehorn from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Steve Cooper from Stanford University, Dan Garcia from Berkeley, and myself. Because we all have deep roots in K-12 computer science education, the list of questions we came up with covered a breadth of issues and reflect the deep need for research-grounded solutions to the issues we now face.
Here is our list:

Which of these do you think is most important?
And what have we missed?
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director

That was the question I was asked in an email from a colleague who teaches in a neighboring district. I had thought about it but not in depth. It had been mentioned on Twitter and I had planned to hold two half-hour lunch periods of introduction to computer science parties in the lab during Computer Science Education week. My computer science students assist with walking the students through a simple coding exercise. I felt if I held it after school I would not have many students participate. However, over the last few days I have been thinking more about it. What if I contacted my principal and the PTA president and got them on board? How about California Teachers Association (CTA) or my local teachers association or even the National Education Association (NEA)? Maybe I could contact the local assemblywoman or the local community college computer science chair and get their support. My head started to spin.
For those of you who have not heard of Hour of Code, I should explain what is going on. It is part of Computer Science Education Week http://csedweek.org/ and is a combined effort by Code.org and csedweek.org. On the webpage it is explained as: “It’s a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify ‘code’ and show that anyone can learn the basics to be a maker, a creator, an innovator.”
When you visit the website click the “Learn More” button which will take you to a page of resources. I plan to print the letter to give to my principal when I have my meeting to discuss what we can do as a school. I will also use their other resources when I contact CTA and NEA.
The day after the email from my colleague, I participated in a Google Hangout with my local CSTA Chapter President. I posed the question to him about what the chapter could do for CS Ed Week and Hour of Code. He suggested that we add a blog to the chapter website and invite members to write about their plans for this event.
I am beginning to formulate my plans. It is not too early to start. What are you doing for CS Ed Week and Hour of Code? We need to work together to help each other plan successful events to grow our programs.
Myra Deister
CSTA At-Large Representative

After teaching computer science and technology for over 13 years and not even reaching my forties, I started wondering how my teaching methods and style have changed throughout the years. I have written many anecdotal notes regarding my experiences and adventures in computer science teaching, hoping to use them one day and this seemed like a good opportunity to share some of those thoughts.
I’ve made many changes over the years, not only in how I teach, but also in what I teach. Because both computer science subject matter and technology change almost every day, keeping up to date on both is a major challenge for Computer Science teachers. In addition, the rate at which my students grasp the information I am providing is also increasing. The combination of these factors can sometimes feel overwhelming.
Although the standards for K-12 computer science have remained relatively constant over the years (allowing for revisions to keep up to date), the data required to address these standards has changed enormously. When I first started teaching, the hardware used to teach computer science was very limited. My school would basically use very basic Windows-based personal computers. Any programming language that I wanted to use had to be compatible with Windows (web-based programming was not even a dream yet). Because the programming languages we used were not kid friendly, we never considered teaching computer science to students not yet in high school. As a result, our elementary students learned only basic applications and touch-typing. With the growing availability of more varied hardware and programming language tools for education has now opened the doors for computer science courses in elementary school.
Now, students are able to learn coding even with a tablet or mobile device. This means that the level of knowledge that I must now possess and master as a computer science teacher, has been raised tremendously. I have to know what is out there and constantly be prepared to answer any inquiries that my students may have, even if it means that sometimes I have to tell my students that I must do some additional research before I can give them an accurate response. There is a greater responsibility to stay relevant, informed, and up to date and to filter what is potentially beneficial for kids of all ages.
There can be no doubt that this rapid rate of change is impacting what happens in my elementary classroom every day. My curriculum now includes topics such as computational thinking, robotics, video game design, coding and app building. Yes, it is stressful teaching in a field that is constantly changing, but it is also exciting and rewarding. I thought that being a CS teacher in the year 2000 was exciting because I was teaching my students the information for the “future”. Now, 13 years later I still believe that been a computer science teacher is the most exciting job there is because I am truly preparing my students for the future.
It is cool and challenging to have this great responsibility of navigating with my students through the uncharted waters of continuous change.
Michelle Lagos
International Representative
CSTA Board of Directors