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

Posted by BeauHD on from the adapting-with-the-times dept.

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.

6 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. CS isn't for everyone by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    1. Re:CS isn't for everyone by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

  2. the overlords by TimMD909 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The overlords will never learn that they'll never be able to produce legions of cheap engineers, programmers, or whatever else.

  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. CS != Programming by DRichardHipp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  5. What's really needed in HS by Solandri · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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.