High School Computer Science Surveys

Across the U.S., there are growing concerns about computer science in high schools. While there are many anecdotal reports about dropping enrollments and state-level teaching certification battles, there is a critical lack of solid information. In an effort to provide research-based information for educators, decision-makers, and researchers, CSTA conducts regular national surveys of high school computer science teachers and disseminates the results of these surveys to the educational community. Click on a survey title to view a report on its results, or use our new rolling map to download the results from a single state.


This document provides the comparative results for the CSTA 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011 National Secondary Computer Science Surveys. For the results of the individual surveys, see below.


This document provides the raw results of the 2011 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey. This survey, examining core questions relating to high school computer science education, was developed by CSTA's Research Committee and was distributed in spring 2011 to 19,280 high school teachers who defined themselves as: computer science, computer programming, or AP computer science teachers. Notices of the survey were mailed to teachers across the United States and recipient teachers were directed to an online survey instrument. A total of 1561 teachers responded to the survey (a response rate of 8.1%). Of the original responses, 1384 were useable.

2011 CSTA Survey Results By State

Darker states in the map below had more respondents. Click on a state to download its full report as a PDF.




This document provides the raw results of the 2009 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey. This survey, examining core questions relating to high school computer science education, was developed by CSTA's Research Committee and was distributed in spring 2008 to 14,000 high school teachers who defined themselves as: computer science, computer programming, or AP computer science teachers. Notices of the survey were mailed to teachers across the United States and recipient teachers were directed to an online survey instrument. A total of 1153 teachers responded to the survey (a response rate of 8.2%). Of the original responses, 1094 were useable.


This document provides the raw results of the 2007 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey. This survey, examining core questions relating to high school computer science education was developed by CSTA's Research Committee and was distributed in spring 2007 to 13,000 high school teachers who defined themselves as: computer science, computer programming, or AP computer science teachers. Notices of the survey were mailed to teachers across the United States and recipient teachers were directed to an online survey instrument. A total of 1080 teachers responded to the survey (a response rate of 8.3%).

State-level data from the 2007 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey

This section provides a series of snapshots of the state-level results to selected questions from CSTA's 2007 survey. These questions were selected because they allow for a level of comparison between states. No effort has been made yet to determine possible correlations between this data and population data from the individual states. It should be noted that these reports include only states in which 10 or more survey respondents said that their schools provide such courses.

Course Content for CSTA Pre-AP by State
For pre-AP CS courses: curriculum content

Course Credit Pre-AP by State
For pre-AP CS courses: area of credit granted and enrollment figures

AP CS by State
Enrollment statistics for AP CS courses

Other CS Courses by State: Table
Curriculum content of "other CS courses" (in addition to pre-AP and AP)

Other CS Courses by State: Graph
A bar graph representation of the curriculum content in Other CS Courses by State (Note: this graph will not display completely if printed.)


This document provides the raw results of the 2005 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey, and represents the first of our attempts to create a more comprehensive and evolving understanding of high school computer science education. This survey, examining core questions relating to high school computer science education, was developed by CSTA's Research Committee and was administered in fall 2004 to 14,000 high school teachers who defined themselves as computer science, computer programming, or AP computer science teachers. Surveys were mailed to teachers across the United States. A total of 1047 teachers responded to the survey (a response rate of 7.5%).


This document provides an important analysis which the CSTA Research Committee members believe will be able to help you make more sense of the raw results. This document examines some of the key questions and possible conclusions that can be drawn from the data and points out areas where the data can be misleading or incomplete. It also identifies data gaps and important questions that should be examined in future surveys.


   

CSTA works at many levels to support computing education.

Elementary and Middle school
(problem solving &
computational thinking)

High school
(computing &
computer science)

College/university
(enrollment &
transition)

Industry
(engagement &
preparation)