The College Board Pushes To Make Computer Science a High School Graduation Requirement

theodp writes: Education Week reports that the College Board wants high schools to make it mandatory for students to take computer science before they graduate. The call came as the College Board touted the astonishing growth in its Advanced Placement (AP) computer science courses, which was attributed to the success of its new AP Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) class, a "lite" alternative to the Java-based AP CS A course. "The College Board is willing to invest serious resources in making this viable -- much more so than is in our economic interest to do so," said College Board President David Coleman. "To governors, legislators, to others -- if you will help us make this part of the life of schools, we will help fund it."

Just two days before Coleman's funds-for-compulsory-CS offer, Education Week cast a skeptical eye at the tech sector's role in creating a tremendous surge of enthusiasm for K-12 CS education. Last spring, The College Board struck a partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with a goal of making AP CSP available in every U.S. school district. Also contributing to the success of the College Board's high school AP CS programs over the years has been tech-bankrolled Code.org, as well as tech giants Microsoft and Google. The idea of a national computer programming language requirement for high school students was prominently floated in a Google-curated Q&A session with President Obama (video) following the 2013 State of the Union address.

Comments

CS isn't for everyone

[Mr D from 63]

There is a difference between Compute Science and computer skills. All students should have computer skills, but not all need computer science.

Re:CS isn't for everyone

[0100010001010011]

Math isn't for everyone. We have a math requirement.

English isn't for everyone. We have an English requirement.

Government, biology, physics, chemistry, foreign languages, etc aren't for everyone either. But it's a requirement of HS to give people exposure to them.

Re:CS isn't for everyone

[i.r.id10t]

I'd be happy with basic file management and office suite skills and an understanding of security and best practices regarding usernames/passwords, what to look for or do as an end user to keep yourself secure.

Re:CS isn't for everyone

[El Cubano]

Everything you say is true. However, anybody with a quality liberal arts education can see the value in those things. Besides, not long ago Greek, Latin, and Classics were considered requirements. Today they are not.

I would argue that anyone proposing making computer science a hard requirement should have to explain how computer science contributes to a broad-based liberal arts education. For reference, here is a quote from Dijkstra on the topic:

As a result, the topic became â" primarily in the USA â" prematurely known as âcomputer scienceâ(TM) â" which, actually, is like referring to surgery as âknife scienceâ(TM) â" and it was firmly implanted in peopleâ(TM)s minds that computing science is about machines and their peripheral equipment.

That is not to say that it wouldn't be handy to have courses on computing and computer programming. However, many high schools also have courses in automotive maintenance, wood shop, welding, and other trades. None of those are anywhere close to being considered hard requirements for high school graduation, despite the fact that nearly every person in the use drives an automobile on a daily basis, for example. The flavor computer science being advocated by the College Board is closer to automotive maintenance than it is to a core liberal arts subject.

Re:CS isn't for everyone

[Anonymous Coward]

All students should have computer skills, but not all need computer science.

Agreed. Cover fundamentals so that the kids aren't in awe of the never-to-be-questioned magic box, so that they understand that they're just dumb machines following a series of instructions. Introduce them to the basics of programming: basic logic, conditions, looping. Don't expect them to be computer geniuses, but do expect them to come out with a basic understanding of what computers are (and, more importantly, aren't), their capabilities and limitations.

If they're going to require knowledge of computer basics, they should also make a few other mandatory courses required for graduation:

• - basic accounting, so they can work out and maintain a budget
• - automotive basics, even if it's little more than how to change a tire and where to put what liquids (and for NJ students, how to pump your own gas)
• - shop/electrical/plumbing basics, so they can do basic home maintenance or at least have an idea of what's probably wrong if a problem exceeds their capabilities
• - basic kitchen competency, so they can cook more than just ramen when they leave home
• - how to change a toilet paper roll (it's infuriating how many people haven't figured that out on their own)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Computer Science is math

[rsilvergun]

that's really all there is to it. There is zero reason for "Computer Science" to be a graduation requirement. The math they cover is already more than sufficient. Anything more is a just a specialty branch of mathematics or just teaching people a trade. And there is zero reasons for computer focused trade schools. Between outsourcing and H1-Bs it's a dead end career. Sending someone off to computer themed trade schools is worse than cruel. It's a completely waste of everyone's time and money that only serves to devalue the wages of the few who've managed to eek out a meager living doing what's left of IT work in the States.

What exactly are they going to be taught?

[wyattstorch516]

Reminds me of the Cisco Networking Academy. The idea was to prepare kids to step into all of the Network Engineering jobs that were going to be created in the coming years.

Funny thing happened, between virtualization, containers, and cloud computing demand for this skill plummeted. Now you have a bunch of kids who spent years learning Cisco's technology only to find no jobs waiting for them.

I suppose they could teach classical Computer Science (algorithms, data structures, etc.), but given the typical drop out rate in college after one semester of Computer Science I doubt it will stick for many students. The ones that do well would likely have done so without the requirement.

Probability and Statistics

[enrique556]

What democratic countries really need to teach their kids is a bit of statistics and probability. Armed with a basic understanding of both, people will make better choices at the polling booth, be less prone to gambling, and less susceptible to marketing fluff. Humans do not have an instinctive understanding of these topics, especially where orders of magnitude are involved, making it very easy to deceive and mislead them.

CS != Programming

[DRichardHipp]

Perhaps by "CS" they mean something other than programming. Topics might include:

1. The history of computing
2. Binary arithmetic, and why numbers like 1024 come up so often in connection with computers.
3. Representing text as numbers using ASCII or Unicode
4. What is an IP address?
5. What is a TCP port?
6. What is the difference between "the internet" and "the world-wide web"?
7. What is HTTP? Homework involves viewing HTTP traffic, or perhaps even fetching a webpage using nothing more than telnet.
8. What is HTML? Homework is to create an HTML file using a basic (no syntax highlighting) text editor.
9. DNS: What is it and why is it important?
10. Computability. Some problems are unsolvable by computers. Other problems are provably hard (NP-complete).
11. Cryptography. What is a one-time pad? A substitution cypher? What is the difference between symmetric and public-key crypto?
12. What is a "filesystem"?
13. What is a "process" and a "thread"?
14. How to operate a computer using a command-line shell, and without a GUI.
15. What is "network neutrality"?

There is a lot more of the above. This is stuff ./-ers take for granted, but most people have no clue about any of it. And yet it is important for citizens in a modern society to know. Hence, it needs to be taught in school.

Math skills are necessary to life.

[bussdriver]

Math skills are necessary to life. Education is NOT only about employment!

A functioning democracy REQUIRES a basic education for the people to be able to rule themselves and do some critical thinking. The REAL reason you need free public education is because it is a fundamental requirement for a healthy democracy. You may not have a functional democracy anymore, but you can not keep one without it.

Critical thinking, ethics, and civics are infinitely more important to bring back for the sake of democracy, society and possibly even humanity itself. We did not get to where we are today by evolution - there is nothing separating us from primitive societies 10,000 years ago except the momentum of society progressing forward.

If you want some basic CS conceptual coverage, integrate some of that into a better MATH education. People who are good at math have an easier time picking up CS (especially the real classic CS which IS math! CS started out from the math dept in most places.)

What's really needed in HS

[Solandri]

Is a simple one-semester "basic life skills" course. It should cover:

• Time management / prioritizing.
• Home finance management and basic accounting. So people know how to file taxes (or know they're supposed to file taxes), know when to get insurance and when not to, won't go nuts with their first credit card, won't take out unrealistic student loans, won't get ripped off with exorbitant hidden interest rates.
• Recognizing common scams, logical fallacies, and counter-intuitive statistical quirks like Simpson's Paradox.
• Negotiation, compromise, personal communications / interpersonal relationships - otherwise they graduate HS thinking the popularity hierarchy is the norm.
• College, scholarships, internships, and job interviews. I immigrated as a child and my parents knew none of this so I had to figure it all out on my own (before the Internet).
• Basic mechanics and electronics. So people can handle simple household repairs, and know why your car needs regular oil changes. Should cover basics of energy and power (subset of physics) so people don't believe silly things like making batteries out of lemons (the energy comes from the refined metals you stick into the lemon, not the lemon).
• Basic cooking. So people don't waste money on fast food all their lives.
• Basics of statistics. Mainly some of the fundamentals of probability including the gambler's fallacy, correlation is not causation. prisoners dilemma (including when it doesn't apply), and tragedy of the commons.
• Basic first aid/survival and self defense. For when the zombie apocalypse comes.