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Arkansas Is Now the First State To Require That High Schools Teach Coding
SternisheFan writes Arkansas will be implementing a new law that requires public high schools to offer classes in computer science starting in the 2015-16 school year. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who signed the bill, believes it will provide "a workforce that's sure to attract businesses and jobs" to the state. $5 million of the governor's proposed budget will go towards this new program. For the districts incapable of of administering these classes due to lack of space or qualified teachers, the law has provisions for online courses to be offered through Virtual Arkansas. Although students will not be required to take computer science classes, the governor's goal is to give students the opportunity if they "want to take it." Presently, only one in 10 schools nationwide offer computer science classes. Not only will Arkansas teach these classes in every public high school and charter school serving upper grades, the courses will count towards the state's math graduation requirement as a further incentive for students. Training programs for teacher preparation will be available, but with the majority of the infrastructure already primed, the execution of this new law should hopefully be painless and seamless.
... do some other things first.
Arkansas is ranked 44.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
where letters = 'u' or letters = 's' or letters = 'a'
Let's force everyone to learn how to code! We need more bad programmers!
After all, people who think they know something without really knowing anything are the best!
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just like teaching how to read and write made everybody a novelist. But it will do to programming what the 90s did to web design: "Are you kidding me? How much? I think I'll get my 12 year old nephew to make our company homepage. He made one for his Quake clan too."
Into this. I'm glad they offer computer science classes. I would have taken one in high school if it was offered.
Forcing students to learn coding is like forcing students to learn Shakespeare, it's pointless to some and great to others. We need to radically restructure the education system so we teach towards the strengths of students and not force them to take some of everything.
In germany Computer Science is a topic in "high school" since 30 years.
Actually I belonged to the first class in my federate state who took it.
Or do you mean with "mandatory" that it is mandatory for pupils? If so: that is retarded.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Its crazy that coding is not already available in every high school. I graduated nearly 30 years ago ('88) and my high school had a well-established 2-year programming curriculum at the time (Basic / Pascal) with a pre-req of Typing (yes, on a typewriter).
Coding is not computer science, headline guy.
"Presently, only one in 10 schools nationwide offer computer science classes."
From 1992-1996 I went to a tiny high school in the middle of nowhere surrounded by corn fields, and even I had 4 computer programming courses - granted only like 5-6 kids were in the 4th class, they almost canceled it on us.
... when the problem is corporate greed that supports CEOs and shareholders.
The middle class is collapsing and it's in a panic. They know where the money is going and they want to prepare their kids so they will be able to play on that turf.
There's no money in coding and, only a tiny percentage of kids have a natural aptitude for it.
The money grab supported by Congress, PACs, Big Business, and SCOTUS has reached a critical mass where there are two layers to American society:
1.) The haves
3.) The have-nots
There are no realistic cures, either ... certainly not teaching children to code.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
"whop him low and whop him high, stick your finger in his eye, kick him in the shin, hit him in the head, hit him again if the critter ain't dead"
(I grew up in northwest Arkansas and am allowed to make this joke /= trolling)
Gently reply
my high school offered cs and programming courses, and required at least 1 trimester for graduation....... in the 1980s.. and no it wasn't some snobbish private school either.... a public high school in the central u.s.
I'm not sure what the big deal is. Between 1985 and 1989 in Louisiana public schools I took Apple BASIC and Pascal. While the programming courses were not required, they were available, and still are, though more current. The only required course at that time was the "Introduction to Computers / Computer History" which included some very basic BASIC programming. It seems to me that this kind of rule should be the responsibility of the school board, not the legislature.
sig sig sputnik?
A programming course can get you (maybe) a low-end, low-wage, no-future job, but that is it. Real CS skills are something else entirely.
We already have far too many bad coders, and far to many people that could be good at it not entering the field in the first place due to that and the low-wages, bad work environments and lacking career options that causes. Really, programming well is something that needs a lot of talent, skill and education. And we urgently need to restrict professional programming to those that have all that. Everything else is wasting a tremendous amount of time and money, due to multiplication effects inherent to software.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
If you're lucky, talented and well educated there's money in just about _anything_.
At any rate I'm sure there's money in programming, because we wouldn't have so many businessman pushing people into it otherwise. If you see an education push into a field you can pretty much bet the reason is that somebody is tired of having to pay decent wages. The rich get supply and demand. I wish the working class did...
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Programming, for good or bad, is essential in the 21st century world. Students should be exposed to it, and learn a little bit about what it is, both to make a (slightly better) informed decision about careers and to have some appreciation of the role of coders in the economy.
But there seem to be a lot of people that think a student can take one high school course and have a guaranteed high-income career as a coder. This reveals a great ignorance and condescension on the part of the adults - I very much doubt if any of them also expect a high school law course or biology course will guarantee a successful career as a lawyer or doctor.
I graduated from high school in a relatively small town in Texas in 1995. We had computer science classes using Turbo Pascal. You weren't going to go out and get a job coding after taking them, but it was still taught. I thought if my high school offered it, every high school must offer it.
So, Arkansas Is Leading the Learn to Code Movement: "Currently, he [AR Governor Asa Hutchinson] says only about 20 teachers in the entire state are âoeproperly preparedâ to teach these new courses..."
Honestly...... I'd still prefer to work on a team with Arkansas coders than with H1Bs.
That is not surprising. Back then, probably almost every high school offered a programming course. However, since then they have removed the programming course in favor of the more generic "computers" course, which teaches nothing but web surfing and how to burn illegal copies of games and music.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
"I can code". Prepare for reduced salaries due to influx of people who really can't code.
Having lived in Arkansas, I think they will have problems with this.
Below is the Arkansas Reading Test that all High School Seniors must negotiate successful.
C M Dux?
M R not Dux.
O S A R.
C M Wangs.
L I B -- M R Dux
Every High Senior must pass the above comprehension test based on the above.
Then there is the English and Vocabulary Usage Test.
A sample question and answer are below.
Question: Use "officiate" in a sentence.
Answer: My uncle got sick from officiate.
Coding for Arkansans is a lost cause.
your missing the point of schooling. the point is to correct deficiencies, not to reinforce strengths.
My High School offered BASIC and Pascal in the 1990s, and I found it tremendously helpful. I'm a Software Engineer today, and I doubt if I would have gone in this career direction if it wasn't for the classes and mentor I found at my high school.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Saying "coding" instead of "programming" is like saying "ciphering" instead of "mathematics". Please stop. Imaging the headline, "Arkansas is now the first state to require that high schools teach ciphering". I'm not a computer programmer, but I think you guys are disrespecting your discipline by encouraging the word "coding".
The way to end malware isn't to end programming education. I'm discarding your entire hypothesis.
Your thought processes are scattered and logic is flimsy, even if the future matches your predictions I will question if you were on track or it was simply a coincidence. There is little in the connections you are trying to form that I can track to a reliable source, and little in what you present is reproducible.
Essentially you're asking that we accept you as an oracle. And that is simply not going to happen.
Never thought I would see the day where high school teach you to code, but not basic sexual understanding of the body. Weird.
And all the Mexicans? LOL.
while you may have to move away from Arkansas to where the jobs are
Which is why high schools need to start teaching home economics again. If people have to move away from parents before finding work, they'll need to learn to live on their own. And even then, where should a student fresh out of school find the cash to support himself during a move and job search?
Sounds like more teachers instructing students on something they barely understand. Given the low scholastic ranking the state holds, in-class teachers seem to have minimal "teacher preparation" and support.
[Kids these days] have pizza, computer games, cool shoes, and a parent that drives them everywhere.
Without a parent to drive them, how else are they supposed to get anywhere? A lot of places have pitiful public transport or none at all.
You're a dumbfuck that got shot down by apk and fact http://developers.slashdot.org...
Find, teach them to code.
The 1914 California Sixth Grade Reader
http://www.amazon.com/California-Sixth-Grade-Reader-Pournelle-ebook/dp/B00LZ7PB7E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426975998&sr=8-1&keywords=6th+grade+reader
lol wut
You need an IQ well above 100 to code well. 100 is average. That means don't teach coding to everyone. All they're doing is making people think they're good enough to get a really high paying job and then if they somehow succeed, you get awful programs as the result.
Is taking the lead in an education initiative. WTF just happened here?
Crime didn't go up in the "great depression", eh?
Please show me where I discussed the Great Depression at all. Maybe you shouldn't resort to a strawman fallacy.
HOWEVER: That's apparently not true, according to you though so, argue with that above & history!
"past results not indicative future performance"
I don't know what "sheltered world" you live in, but I'm in & have been in an inner urban environs all over the USA most of my life & I can tell you that it's worse than ever now than it ever was (especially in an economically depressed city I live in now)
Doesn't that prove you live in a sheltered world and are now just realizing the privileged lift you [once] have lived?
P.S.=> However/Again: We'll see. I already have based on what I noted.
refer to my earlier statement "even if the future matches your predictions I will question if you were on track or it was simply a coincidence"
pxp
ps: I didn't even need sources to shut down another crank poster. PEACE!
Make it an option and not a must, technology is the past, the here and the now. 1's and 0's
We need new coding languages and ENCRYPTION!.
When times get tough people turn to crime when unemployed. Keep offshoring? It'll happen.
* History & human nature show us that already from the site I cited... which, per my subject-line above, IS more than your line of b.s. here constantly!
That all said & aside? Especially since YOU demanded I prove something from a valid source?? THIS from YOU, made ME seriously laugh:
"ps: I didn't even need sources to shut down another crank poster." - by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21, 2015 @06:43PM (#49310221)
Oh boy folks: He's "tossing names" & was quoting logic? That's an ad hominem attack right there... see my p.s., it describes trolls like you perfectly.
APK
P.S.=> You're not too intelligent if you can't gather that much - so quit wasting my time, ok? Thanks... apk
A bit slow there guys. Where I live it was part of year ten advanced math in the 1980s.
Maybe they should be required to teach minor surgery? Psychology? Space flight?
This is all part of a job to reduce the value and prestige of the software engineering field. WHen someone refers to us as "coders", you should be offended. They fling "coder" around like it's a triviality. Like it's something anyone can do after reading a pamphlet. And they will treat you and pay you as such going forward, as a result.
One one hand, I am convinced school should teach basic skills and that there is a lot to improve there.
On the other hand, I came to computing because of that the exact same kind of initiative in the 80's. The difference with today may be that it was not so obvious to have access to a computer at that time.
The issue is that what you consider the "golden age" of the middle class was a bit of a historical anomaly. At the time, because labor was relatively scarce compared to the other factors of production, is was relatively valuable and received a larger slice of the profits.
Now, there's automation, computers, the Internet, and competition from Mexico and China. American labor is getting destroyed.
Take a look at yourself and objectively explain how you are 10 times more productive than a Mexican or Chinaman. If you can't do it, then don't expect to make 10 times what he makes.
Furthermore, coding could be part of the solution. As other posters have pointed out, teaching BASIC at a young age reinforces logical and systematic thinking. Rather important skills if you want to be productive.
Can't you read? Your replies by ac and sudden downmods to apk's posts don't hide your fuckup troll.
I moved to California for a job.
Why am I here when everything I do these days is on the internet?
donnie Freyer you can shut up now
I'm not a developer, but I can sling some code if I need to figure something out programmatically or parse goodies. My 15yr daughter (with no prompting from me) asked last week how to code. I showed her some simple looping-logic on "Hello, world!" (in Perl baby!) and she took it from there. I think teaching kids how to work the machine - simple branching and looping ideas - will help them learn to think. No, it ain't CS (I have a masters in that), but it's a start. Mandatory? Sure, why not - algebra and biology are. Cheers, -T
We live in a world of information. So let us teach them about information first. What is information? How has it been encoded, stored, reproduced, processed and transmitted throughout history? What is encryption? How trustworthy is a source of information? How do we assess that?
It should definitely include some material about the concept of processing information by an algorithm. I am not sure that actual coding is really for everyone - but being literate about information definitely is.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
Coding classes should NOT count towards math requirements. That's stupid as crap. Coding uses math, yes, in general. But it simply cannot take the place of a full Algebra course.
Doesn't that prove you live in a sheltered world and are now just realizing the privileged lift you [once] have lived?
You need serious remedial writing sessions! What is that vomit?
His logic's better than your illogic logic ad hominem attacks here http://developers.slashdot.org...
“Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” -- Edsger Dijkstra
Last people who should be setting policy about education, are people like this.
Making 'coding' mandatory does not produce a good workforce.
Give me a mathematician/physicist and I can teach them to code in 2 weeks. In fact you could teach them a new language every month if you so desired.
Give me someone who's learned the syntax of a programming language but doesn't understand transitive properties of numbers, the difference between an integer and a real, and I wouldn't be able to get them to program an excel spreadsheet.
A programming language is a TOOL to create an outcome. Different languages with different libraries make development easier for certain tasks, but the language is a TOOL only.
Next he's going to make getting your driver's license mandatory, since that will improve the automotive engineering workforce?
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"ps: I didn't even need sources to shut down another crank poster"- by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21, 2015 @06:43PM (#49310221)
See subject: WTF was that then from you, eh?
APK
P.S.=> This took the cake from you - pure "forums ILLOGIC logic":
"Please show me where I discussed the Great Depression at all.."- by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21, 2015 @06:43PM (#49310221)
You didn't, I did - it's a historical proof of what happens when jobs get offshored in today's history & kids come out of school NOT finding jobs in the CS field... they'll turn to crime. You, for SOME reason (I suspect illiteracy or poor reading comprehension, if not mere trolling on your part is the cause of that), can't see the parallel for the analogy I used... it's human nature being your oracle, along with prior history.
"Maybe you shouldn't resort to a strawman fallacy."- by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21, 2015 @06:43PM (#49310221)
Right... have you even TAKEN formal logic, proofs & all? I have (part of a CS degree) - calling me (even 'insinuating it' which IS probably the bs you'll resort to next imo) that is an ad hominem attack & invalid logic in and of itself from YOU - quit wasting our time, but more importantly, your own - you don't HAVE what it takes to "outwit me"... apk
Somewhere in the South Pacific I was taking computer classes voluntarily at what Americans call "middle school" in 1996, and mandatory computer (general, then programming) classes when I started high-school in 1998.
Then I moved to a country somewhere in Asia in 2001 and the mandatory computer classes were even more programming-centric (mostly Java and other high-level languages) because it was generally accepted that students knew how to use a computer by then.
Frankly I'm surprised it's taken this long for *any* state in the US - the most powerful/rich/etc country in the world - to mandate programming courses.
Requiring schools to offer it isn't the same as requiring students to try it. Schools around me have offered some kind of real programming since the 80s, but few students take those classes, nor is the subject integrated into other types of classes, AFAIK.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, President George W. Bush's education-reform bill, was signed into law on Jan. 8, 2002.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Crime didn't go up in the "great depression", eh? Ok, since you "demand" sources (even though common-sense & 1/2 a century of life here has shown me otherwise)?? Here you go:
"The Great Depression brought a rapid rise in the crime rate as many unemployed workers resorted to petty theft to put food on the table." FROM -> http://www.ushistory.org/us/48...
HOWEVER: That's apparently not true, according to you though so, argue with that above & history!
I don't know what "sheltered world" you live in, but I'm in & have been in an inner urban environs all over the USA most of my life & I can tell you that it's worse than ever now than it ever was (especially in an economically depressed city I live in now) - cameras everywhere, & 10x as many police hired? Didn't stall it 1 bit... murder rate here in the last decade alone?? It's way, Way, WAY up...
THAT IS WHAT FOOLS LIKE YOU ('fine leaders in business & politics' example & REAL agenda, thievery) ARE CREATING.
By the way: Downmodding the last time I posted this you weasel (posting by ac now when you have a real account) http://developers.slashdot.org... ? It doesn't change a thing. Most here view below the bs "moderation system" 0 threshold. You lose.
APK
P.S.=> However/Again: We'll see. I already have based on what I noted. The more people learned about tech, the more online criminals we received for it. Pretty simple. Especially when they find not nearly as many jobs for programming out there due to the offshoring of jobs here in the USA... apk