have emerged that provide rigorous computing experiences using Alice software, media computation, and other innovative approaches to teaching computer science. Though these courses are very promising, most have not yet become institutionalized as part of district or state college-preparatory curriculum.
In Los Angeles, my colleagues and I, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), have spent the past several years committed to broadening the participation in computing among high school students, particularly minorities and female students. Due to the rigorous nature of AP Computer Science, and its status as a college-preparatory course, we originally organized our professional development programs and student outreach efforts around this course. The initial results of our strategy were rapid and dramatic; in three years, the participation of girls tripled, the participation of Latinos quadrupled, and the districtwide overall enrollment in the course doubled. But, due to the ongoing challenges with the AP course discussed previously, we are now changing directions and developing a new college-preparatory computer science course, “Exploring Computer Science.” This effort, also supported by the NSF, presents a more engaging introduction to major computing concepts.
Building upon the curricular topics recommended by the ACM Model Curriculum for K– 12 Computer Science, “Exploring Computer Science” blends major concepts relating to “Computer Science in the Modern World” (Level II) and “Computer Science as Analysis and Design” (Level III). This course includes units on human-computer interaction, problem-solving methodologies, Web design, programming with Scratch software, data modeling, and robotics. The curriculum adopts an inquiry-based instructional approach and will engage students in unit projects so they can apply their emerging computing knowledge to real-world problems. Diverse representations of computing concepts and computer scientists are integrated throughout the course. In addition, career options that utilize major concepts will be highlighted to address concerns
about the nature of the computer science job market.
Rather than attracting only a small subset of students, this course will be integrated into the college-preparatory curriculum across district high schools as an academic elective and will thus enroll a much larger group of students than the AP course. Ongoing professional development for teachers will accompany this new course and formative and summative research will document the strengths and weaknesses of this curriculum in introducing computing topics. We believe this comprehensive approach will help students and teachers understand and appreciate the multiple facets of computing instead of equating computer science solely with computer programming. It is essential to point out that this course development would not have been possible without a strong district/university partnership with Los Angeles Unified School District, particularly the district Director of Secondary Science and his staff.
This new course will also help prepare students who are interested in enrolling in AP Computer Science. I am hopeful the committee selected to redesign the AP Computer Science “A” course will also broaden its conception of what topics and pedagogical approaches should be integrated into the revised course outline in an effort to attract more students, particularly traditionally underrepresented groups of students, to the redesigned course. Maintaining the rigor of AP
Computer Science is important, but the course should also be made relevant, meaningful, and engaging for a diverse body of students. However, as noted earlier, this committee’s ability to reform the content of this AP course is constrained by the results of the College Board’s survey of college and universities first-year course curriculum.
Strengthening college preparatory computer science courses is essential for the health of the computer science discipline at the college level and beyond. The number of newly declared college majors in computer science dropped 44% from 2000 to 2006, likely due to a lack of representative exposure to the field before college and misinformation regarding computing careers. Although the numbers of students studying computer science in high school and college has decreased over several years and only recently flattened out, the Bureau of Labor Statistics lists computer science as the fastest-growing professional sector in the next 10 years. In fact, of the six fastest-growing professions that rely on a college education, five require computer science degrees.
Given the importance of computer science to academic, economic, and security sectors globally, it is imperative that we begin rethinking the computer science educational opportunities provided to students at the beginning of the computing pipeline—in middle school and high school. We must provide students an engaging curriculum that goes beyond programming and represents the imaginative, creative, collaborative, and complex character of computing. This will likely increase overall enrollment, attract more diverse students to the field, and provide a much-needed image makeover to what it means to study computer science. However, this is certainly something that we cannot expect K– 12 educators to do on their own. Reprogramming the computer science curriculum will require strong K–12/university partnerships, working the entire pipeline of computer science education.
Joanna Goode ( goodej@uoregon.edu) is an assistant professor in the department of teacher education at the university of oregon, eugene, or.
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