Standardized Tests Blamed, Asian Students Ignored In Google-Gallup K-12 CS Study

theodp writes: According to a study released Thursday by Google and Gallup, standardized tests may be holding back the next generation of computer programmers. The Google-Gallup Searching for Computer Science: Access and Barriers in U.S. K-12 Education report (PDF) found that the main reason given by a "comprehensive but not representative" sample of 9,693 K-12 principals and 1,865 school district superintendents in the U.S. for their schools not offering computer science "is the limited time they have to devote to classes that are not tied to testing requirements." Which makes one wonder if Google now views Bill Gates as part of the problem and/or part of the solution of K-12 CS education. The Google-Gallup report also explores race/ethnicity differences to access and learning opportunities among White, Black and Hispanic students — but not Asian students — a curious omission considering that Google's own Diversity Disclosure shows that 35% of its U.S. tech workforce is Asian, making it by far the most overrepresented race/ethnicity group at Google when compared to the U.S. K-12 public school population. Which raises the question: Why would the Google-Gallup study ignore the access and learning opportunities of the race/ethnicity subgroup that has enjoyed the greatest success at Google? Not unsurprisingly, the Google-Gallup report winds up by concluding that what U.S. K-12 education really needs is more CS cowbell.

Comments

Re:I don't think K-12 CS is a good idea anyway

[circletimessquare]

so what's a better way?

wander around and learn as you want? most kids will do nothing. autodidactics are rare

so you need to cajole the kids into learning. the other choice is morons sitting there learning nothing. and that's worse than kids pressed to learn, and only some douchebag kids resenting that

criticism in a vacuum, that is, just complaining about what is wrong, without considering what is wrong with the other choices, is intellectually dishonest and immature. the simple fact is difficult problems in this world are choices between various subtle shades of grey. you get

1. slightly crappy,
2. slightly more crappy, maybe
3. maybe slightly less crappy, hard to tell

if you sit there and just criticizing choice 1, without even mentioning the downsides of 2, or 3, or admitting the upsides of 1, or proposing your own solution, is fucking pathetic and useless

you see this on many problems: drug policy, energy policy, policy on crime and punishment: people whine and bitch about the downsides of a status quo or a possible solution, and ignore the upsides, and ignore the downsides of the other options. ineffective, mediocre, and merit-less words and thoughts

so, ironically, you sound like the product of a bad education: you lack a truly critical mind