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Arkansas Declares a High School CS Education State of Emergency
theodp writes: Aiming to deliver on Governor Asa Hutchinson's inspired-by-Code.org-and-others Plan For Job Creation Through Technology Education, the Arkansas House voted 99-0 last week to require high schools to offer [but not require] a course in computer science, either in a traditional or online setting, starting this fall. Hutchinson learned last December that the state has only 6 qualified instructors to teach CS to high school students, so it's envisioned that the courses will be offered online through Virtual Arkansas ("where AR kids are Our kids").
Interestingly, House Bill 1183 includes a pretty dire-sounding Emergency Clause: "It is found and determined by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas that computer science and technology skills are of vital importance to meet the growing needs of the workforce; that public school students need opportunities to develop computer science and technology skills in order to be competitive in the future; and that this act is immediately necessary to ensure that the Department of Education has the time necessary to develop and modify academic standards for computer science courses before beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. Therefore, an emergency is declared to exist, and this act being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, and safety shall become effective on: (1) The date of its approval by the Governor."
Interestingly, House Bill 1183 includes a pretty dire-sounding Emergency Clause: "It is found and determined by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas that computer science and technology skills are of vital importance to meet the growing needs of the workforce; that public school students need opportunities to develop computer science and technology skills in order to be competitive in the future; and that this act is immediately necessary to ensure that the Department of Education has the time necessary to develop and modify academic standards for computer science courses before beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. Therefore, an emergency is declared to exist, and this act being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, and safety shall become effective on: (1) The date of its approval by the Governor."
CS grads, assemble! We must all assemble and hurry to the blighted lands of Arkansas, where we shall seek to restore some stability through our arcane understandings of algorithmic complexity and the like.
Good thing parachute drops and hand to hand knife fighting were required courses in my CS program! Boy did I think that wasn't going to be applicable in real life. Keep that in mind college CS students the next time you are learning something that seems impractical.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My programming skill was honed not in the classroom setting, rather, I got it from reading books, manuals, studying code examples of others, posting questions on programming forum, asking friends, experimenting, lots and lots of testing and experimenting
Since I never have any experience from attending 'programming classes' I won't comment on the merit or the de-merit of it, but I would like to ask the gurus over here ---
Do you think it is more beneficial for one to learn programming from a more structural form, in the classroom setting?
The emergency language is probably just there for a legal reason--it's going to either free up certain funds for it, allow a body to act that otherwise wouldn't be able to, allow applications for certain funds, allow some other kind of budgeting change, or change the timeline determining when the legislation can become effective.
Is Arkansas unusual in having 6 CS teachers? Do non-magnet high schools regular teach the Comp Sci AP these days?
Judging from the title alone, at first I thought they were being far too over-dramatic in calling any kind of CS education situation an "emergency."
But after seeing that they only have 6 qualified CS teachers, I have to change my tune. Something is very, very wrong if a state of 3 million people only has 6 CS teachers.
For all the fledgling nerds-to-be in AR, I hope they can find a good, long-term solution to the problem.
Americans love declaring "wars" on situations and things, or regional/national "emergencies" don't they?
Why all the drama?
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
When I was in high school, we learned QBasic on IBM PS/2s. What's the current equivalent today? Nobody's completed the .net help file, so who has the book to teach it?
Sounds like a phone it in solution compared to the language used in stating the problem. Although given what they pay teachers compared to what you could get actually working in cs it's not too surprising. On the plus side at least they haven't tried to offer online gym classes.
Just like the way they teach science and history, it's a group reading of a textbook and having a computer in front of you to test theories. I've sat through 4 of them. (6th Grade Applesoft Basic, 9th Grade QBasic, 10th Grade Pascal, Freshman College level C) They all teach the same concepts like sorting, even though most people these days ask a database program to do sorting work with an ORDER BY command in SQL.
Passing a law like this with a 90 wait would mean the course wouldn't be ready until next school year.
It's another hack-fest from theodp - the beater of the single horse.
Sometimes it's important, sometimes it's not. Mostly not.
Do we need to be reminded about every event? No. Do we need to be reminded from time to time when things turn nasty? I'd say yes.
Still, mostly no.
Let's see... give a bunch of college students a $99 license for Visual Basic 6.0 after it had been out for a year and what results on the campus of Syracuse University?
For a blow-by-blow account, check your Slashdot archives.
It's like squeezing blood from a stone. They're not going to get it from business taxes, that's for sure.
You don't think Walmart's lobbyists from Bentonville aren't earning their keep in Little Rock? The Waltons are not about to share a dime they don't have removed from their pockets at gunpoint.
John
At some point in the next 10 years or so, people will realize it is too expensive and risky to remotely manage offshore development, especially as the wages of India and China go up and the wages of local workers goes down. At that time, then there will be a glut of companies bringing development back onshore.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
In 1999 my ohio public high school CS class was still using Apple IIes to program in BASIC.
Teaching doesn't pay. Scores are leaving the profession, and fewer and fewer graduates are going into it.
Education has now spent a decade as one of the five lowest-paying masters degrees in the country.
(Music Education and Social Work, perennially topping the list.)
For a degree that can easily cost a quarter-million dollars or more to obtain, starting salaries are scarcely competitive with the night manager at McDonalds.
If they want real talent, the state is going to need to change their compensation system in a meaningful way.
--- Little Atomo - The Amazing Thinking Robot from Atomocom! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIP9KisHi4k
In Arkansas acts passed by the legislature that don't declare an "emergency" take effect 90 days after the legislative session ends (usually in April) rather than immediately. This was designed to give time for a popular referendum to repeal legislative acts before they become law. Yes, the "emergency" clauses can get pretty comical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, Never drive a car when you're dead
When I was a school (many many years ago) computers were metal boxes with black and white (or green) screens and a flashing cursor. That's it. We were taught logic, binary and all that stuff. In school. We learned structured programming, some minor graphics but mostly it was how to do calculations, and make decisions etc. That set me up to pick up multiple programming languages over the years, and I moved from 8 bit through to 64 bit computers with ease. A decade or so after I had finished, schools were focussing on teaching computer skills which pretty much focussed on how to do 'things' in Windows or on a Mac and no-one knew jack about how the computer worked, especially the teachers. The result has been a generation of people who really know nothing about computers or computer science. If we taught other sciences like this we would still be thinking of elements like 'air' and 'fire' etc. Students need to know what is going on rather than skipping all that and focussing on making powerpoints.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
If not many, then Arkansas may be exporting a lot of Computer Science literate young residents.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
No, there is no benefit especially in high school. High school is about control, not actually educating people. Teach rigid solutions to simple problems, and collect a paycheck. Mandated quarterly and monthly testing ensures that free thinking does not happen in public schools. Only the tests matter. If teachers attempt to teach their students, their students will do poorly on the tests. The tests are designed so that all steps must be followed to get a correct answer, even if those steps can be simplified. The tests are how teachers keep their jobs, and get raises. The only thing the administrators need to understand to do their job is make sure that the test scores are good.
There is no carrot and stick, there are only whips. Count how many administrators are required to operate outside of the school. That is the number of whippings each teacher faces whenever they attempt to act on their professional skills and "teach" a child in a school.
Sure, there are exceptions but you didn't ask about the exception. The normal is what I describe, just talk to a teacher who has been in the public school system for more than 5 years.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
why is this modded down? its a legit question to be asked. I learned the same way as you coming up about tech (im more of a networking guy than programming) Ive sat in classes, and ive done it on my own (cisco classes and others) and I found benifits to both
Learning on my own, there was less stress to get things done, which is a double edged sword. While I was free to do what I wanted, I had to have the mentality to keep myself on track though.
on the other hand in class, it made it easier to simply ask for help when i was stuck on something. and in my case, having access to actual cisco hardware vs emulators made a huge difference as well
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
The Waltons outsource everything to China anyway. So why does Arkansas need programmers.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
No, no. You don't understand how the system works. Let me help you:
It's genius, really.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
luser$ grep -i "evolution" bible.txt
luser$
Told ya Jethro, ain't no such thing, cyphrin machine done proved it.
Because those jobs are not staying overseas. Some of the companies that tried outsourcing their entire IT departments are now feeling the competitive disadvantage of not having the same amount of control they would get by owning custom systems. Sending a bunch of requirements to a contractor and getting a crusty system eight months later just doesn't cut it in today's business world.
John
right after they finish up the creationism curriculum.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
There is NO shortage of teachers trained in CS. There is a GLUT of middle aged people who were former programmers and engineers [in old programming languages which are out of date] who have decided to become teachers. I don't think that most of them are incapable of picking up Java or C# in one year to be able to teach kids. Maybe after learning a new language, they again become employable and leave.
Visit your local IEEE or ACM meetings.
Seriously, rather than focusing on CS, which is a relatively narrow focus, they should consider Robotics instead.
That is the future.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Your demonstrated lack of command with language and metaphor can only be seen as ironic . If your only measure for success is how much cash you made last year, you are a sociopath. My claim is exemplified by your metaphor which portrays humans as something you can eat or discard as you desire. Seek professional help.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Former Arkansas Governor Huckabee wants to run for president and is currently beating the drum denying climate change.
Arkansas is a state where verifiable scientific facts are ignored in favor of religiously endorsed stupidity. Trying to drop a high technology mandate into such a system will not work. Critical thinking has been replaced by magical thinking. Keeping rational thinking unpolluted by fanatical belief is a loosing battle. The best that they will get is skilled technicians.
Think about it. Would you hire someone who was primarily educated in a madrasa, a place where religion was emphasized over any other subject? Hiring a person who was mostly educated in Arkansas is the American version. No matter how smart a person is, unless they are capable of critical thinking they will never be in the top tier. So unless someone from Arkansas leaves the state and overcomes their bad early training, they are not someone who can be trusted to make rational decisions.
Although this sounds harsh, if you think about it rationally it's difficult to come to any other conclusion.
Why is Snark Required?
Teaching is one of the easiest jobs someone can get - you get 3 months off a year,
Between 2 and 2 1/2 (depending on the state). Unpaid.
you work at most 6 hours a day,
8-10, when you include lesson planning and grading papers (yes, this is "work")
you can't be fired,
Tenure only comes after several years of sucking up to the administration (five in the district I worked in), during which you can be fired, either at will or by nonrenewal of your (annual) contract.
and you get a tax payer funded pension at something like 80% of your final years salary.
This part is correct, at least.
Teachers pay absolutely nothing for healthcare.
Varies by district. In mine, I had to pick up 100% of the costs, and all the plans were crazy expensive because of all the old retirees who were also part of the group (and the expectations for how plush the insurance was supposed to be for them). Now in the private sector I'm paying a hell of a lot less out of pocket.
Picking up a worthless masters in education
I'll give you that. That's a problem with teacher training, though, not the school system. It's not exactly as if schools could just start taking unqualified people and plop them in front of 30 people without raising hell (unless it's Teach for America and the school is in the ghetto, of course).
(earned by sitting in a classroom in the summer for 5 days and taking a saturday test)
No idea where you got that from. It's easy as far as master's degrees go, but it still involves a thesis.
gives you a guarenteed raise.
Is this a problem? Teaching is one field in which extra knowledge is inherently directly applicable to your day-to-day work. In any case, what of all the analogous opportunities in the private sector?
And finally - teachers DON"T WORK. 15 min of lecture and then assign homework which isn't graded.
Watching the kids and keeping them at work is much harder than actually presenting the material. (Planning out the lesson also involves a fair bit of work.) Have you ever tried watching 30 kids at once, never mind teaching them anything?
Jesus Christ - teachers even dress like slobs now!
This is mostly the case with those whom the kids walk all over. Either that or they're old, have been there forever, and can do whatever the hell they want because no one's going to give them shit for it. Again, same as in the private sector.
Teachers are completely overpaid!
And how would you recommend we come up with a more equitable way to determine teachers' salaries? Regardless of your own ideas about fairness, how do you reason that lowering teachers' salaries will improve American education? Do your ideas about salary reductions only apply to teachers, or do they apply also to your own field?
Finally, if teaching is such easy money, why didn't you pursue it?
By that logic let's just do away with school altogether. It costs a lot and everything you can learn there you can learn from books.
We are going for the glory.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley