FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sara Appleyard
June 4, 2006
Phone: 202-667-0901
New Report to Improve How Computer Science is Taught
New York, NY, June 4, 2006
CSTA White Paper offers strategies for Policymakers, Educators, Administrators and Business Leaders
A new report issued today by the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) provides policymakers, educators, and business leaders with comprehensive strategies to ensure that computer science education plays a central role in the current national debate about America's competitiveness in the global economy.
This new report provides a checklist of steps to successfully implement a computer science education program. It also includes a "school-level reality check" for those responsible for implementing computer science education, and describes how to identify the intended outcomes of the curriculum. These tools help make the case for its importance to those who make scheduling and staffing decisions.
Funded with support from the National Science Foundation, The New Educational Imperative: Improving High School Computer Science gathers important findings about computer science education. For example:
- Only 26 percent of U.S. schools require students to take computer science courses, even though computers pervade nearly every aspect of our lives;
- Lack of time in students' schedules is cited as the reason for declining enrollment in high school courses; and
- Computer science education is plagued by public misperceptions including a students' misunderstanding that it is all about playing video games and surfing the Internet.
"The United States cannot ignore the fact that there will be a shortage of qualified candidates for the 1.5 million computer and information technology jobs by 2012," stated co-author of the report and CSTA President Chris Stephenson. "This report provides a call to action for a variety of audiences to help others acknowledge computer science as the fundamental field that it is. We outline practical and achievable strategies to create computer science education programs that match the needs of our technology-driven society and workforce."
The report articulates the critical roles computer science education plays from four key perspectives.
- State of computer science education in American high schools
- Comparison to computer science education abroad.
- Best practices of successful curriculum implementations in Canada, Israel, Scotland, South Africa and the United States.
- Curriculum framework and implementation plan for the U.S.
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About CSTA
The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) is a membership organization that supports and promotes the teaching
of computer science and the other computing disciplines by providing opportunities for K-12 teachers and students to
better understand the computing disciplines and to more successfully prepare themselves to teach and to learn.
http://csta.acm.org. CSTA provides its over 400 members with resources, research, and
professional development opportunities.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, http://www.acm.org, is an educational and
scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share
resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the profession's collective voice through strong leadership,
promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its
members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development and professional networking opportunities.
