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Chicago Public Schools Make Computer Science a Requirement For a HS Diploma
theodp writes: Less than 48 hours after the Chicago Public Schools hosted a three-hour "soiree" at Google's brand-new Chicago HQ, the CPS Board of Education voted unanimously to make computer science a graduation requirement for all high school students in the nation's third largest school district. Starting with next school year's freshman class, CPS students will be required to complete curriculum around computer science before graduating. "Requiring computer science as a core requirement will ensure that our graduates are proficient in the language of the 21st century so that they can compete for the jobs of the future," said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. CPS is working with tech bankrolled and led Code.org and other organizations to further develop a CS education curriculum to implement across all its high schools. Nationwide, President Obama has a $4B proposal on the table to bring CS education to all K-12 schools across the nation, which is also spurring action at the state level, Officials from Code.org, Microsoft and Google joined Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee at the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington D.C. on Sunday to kick off a new partnership aimed at promoting CS. The new GovsForCS website notes that the Governors will be relying on Code.org for advice, explaining that the nonprofit "will provide the Partnership with resources related to best practices in policy and programs, and will facilitate collaboration among Governors and their staff, in person and virtually."
They are not teaching computer science. It will be computer programming. Neither is a core course and should not be required. This will not ensure anyone has jobs because you need a freakin' college degree plus computer jobs go to people with H1B Visas!
The problem with this is that Computer Science will likely go though another paradigm shift within the next decade. Never mind what ALM the MBA's will be spouting in 10 years. But maths and English will likely be the same.
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When I was a Senior in High School (1996), I already had 2 computers and a BBS, surprisingly when a teacher asked the class who had a computer at home only myself and one other student did. The teacher was trying to make the class realize that computers were going to be critical to their future careers but it largely fell on deaf ears. The only mandatory computer "training" the school required of students was for them to write an English paper using WordPerfect in the computer lab. Most students wrote the majority of their papers either with pen and paper or using a typewriter. Some would use a computer in the library to type and print out their reports but only a few did. While going to college over the next 3 years things quickly progressed to the point that one student was asking if she could bring her laptop into the classroom to type notes and the students having a fit about the "loud typing" distracting them.
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Chicago public schools have a graduation rate of below 70%. They'd be better off making sure their students had a grasp of fundamental skills than adding additional CS requirements to graduation.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Ah, but you see ... this will give them even more ammunition to say "we're training them, but they're still not qualified to do the job", and then demand even more H1B visas.
Letting code.org drive the show here is basically putting the direction of education in the hands of corporations. That really won't end well. I can imagine a generation of kids getting screwed out of a relevant education, and forced to take subjects they're not interested in to get a high school degree.
That kid who is going to be an electrician or a plumber because he's not so into school? He might not be able to get his high-school diploma if he can't follow along.
Not everybody needs this, and this is entirely for self-serving outcomes of a couple of tech giants who have been allowed to hijack education.
Terrible idea.
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If we only followed Chicago's example of progressive government for the people and by the people, we would have eliminated inequality, police violence, high homicide rates, failing schools, and corruption across the nation long ago! Why can't people see that???
It will be computer programming.
More like *one-click-shopping* It will be a home economics course. And you're right. None of it has anything to do with basic education. You gotta learn physics and basic electricity first.
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I don't agree. This link gives you a better idea of what type of course it will likely be. Seems to be fairly reasonable as a computer science curriculum. I can tell you from personal experience that a real master's degree in computer science from a major university is not very useful anyway. I have yet to find a practical application of Rice's Theorem in my day job.
They're tired of paying middle class wages for code monkeys and the Indians are getting pricy. Plus there's a slim chance American IT will wake up and demand an end to the H1b program. The people pushing this plan for everything. Unlike us IT workers :(
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More importantly, It requires step by step logical thinking and not everyone can learn to do it in the first place. I will never forget this poor girl who got stuffed into my grade 11 CompSci course. I'm sure to this day her parents were pushing her into it because she could go to Silicon Valley and make a fortune (this was right before the .com crash) She was bright in all of her other courses and she really tried but just couldn't manage the course. The stress brought her to tears on multiple occasions.
Even plumbers need some computer skills these days. If for nothing else than to create those head snapping bills you get when they show up to your house to "fix" your emergency leak.
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Think of how many people are terrified of math, and struggle with basic arithmetic. Now they're going to make these people take an intro to programming course. They will hate computers as much as they hate math.
Maybe Chicago schools should focus on literacy and arithmetic before they start requiring everyone to program.
They would focus on math more. In particular, they would focus on financial math. In this class, they would be taught why credit cards are not doing them any favors. How compound interest works, how to create a budget you will actually follow. How to estimate your expenses. What the local cost of living index is, and why they should look it up for an area they want to work in. What a ROI is, and if certain fields of education have, on average, a good ROI for the education they require.
That would help ensure they are competitive in the workplace.
not
int main (){
cout "Hellow World";
return 0;
}
Because knowing it works won't do anyone any favors. Know HOW it works might help - but will probably be out of the scope of any HS level class.
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Or any major field of science like Biology, Chemistry, etc;
Calculus?
"Oh, not all students are smart enough to handle those subjects."
But they're smart enough for Computer Science? Do students really need to know how to design a new sorting algorithm? Understand what O(n) means (oops, there's that advanced math again...) Or does "computer science" mean learning them thar kids to program and make purty web pages. That's fine but that's a TRADE skill, not a SCIENCE skill just like industrial design, typesetting and auto-mechanics.
In ancient times, when I was a compsci major, Computer Science meant stuff like "Analysis of Algorithms."
As I understand it, today Comp Sci 101 might be learning MS-Office.
Programming also seems to have a different meaning. I am not sure that clicking on something, to change the color of a cartoon cat, is what I would call "programming." It may help with learning to use a computer, but not really programming.
I have no problem with basic computer skills .. I have a problem with calling it computer science, and actually expecting you're going to teach everybody to code.
Basic computer literacy is a fine and dandy thing, but unless they're just using an over-inflated terminology, "computer science" and programming have no relevance for most of these kids.
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Many posters here are asking what "use" the curriculum could reasonably be expected to have for the students. They are taking the wrong perspective.
As with math classes, chemistry classes, and even literature classes, the point of this would be to have students graduate with a general awareness of how the world works. Those who need a professional level of understanding will almost all enjoy deeper subject material in college.
Here on Slashdot, we often bemoan how the average citizen is uninformed about security, how business managers don't understand why some problems are hard (http://xkcd.com/1425/), and what sorts of things coders need to think about. A class like this is aimed at mitigating those problems.
I wonder if it's just going to be much more than how to turn one on, use a browser, and then maybe figure out email and an office suite? I could get behind the idea of a real CS requirement, albeit a basic-ish one, where they learn about computers including the history of computers.
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this particular CS should also include some ideas about security and things like protocols, the history of the web, and things of that nature. I've typed out a longer list but I'm not gonna go dig it out.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Don't laugh. I have a brother who's as much a geek as I and actually has two years of CS under his belt. He *is* a plumber and lots of what he does is computerized these days. He often does the systems on larger buildings, not just residential but also commercial, and those things are pretty complicated - or can be. He actually makes pretty decent money at it. 'Snot a bad choice.
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