csta letter
DOI: 10.1145/1610252.1610253
Chris Stephenson
For many, the recent news that enrollments in undergraduate
computer science programs are no longer on a downward slide
is reassuring, but I seriously hope that it doesn’t begin to undo
the good that has come out of our mutual fear, most
it is a Pivotal time for
K– 12 Computer Science

especially that it does not diminish the

commitment across all educational lev-

els to address the serious issues in K– 12

computer science education.

Creating real, sustainable change in

any area of education is a frustratingly

slow process. Public education is a com-

plex bureaucracy where competing ide-

ologies, philosophies, ontologies, and

pedagogies vie for attention and con-

trol. It is subject to extreme pressures.

As a profession, teaching is simultane-

ously professionalized and devalued.

And, in most cases, the employees are

overworked, underpaid, and severely

under-resourced.

But change is possible. Five years

ago, ACM founded the Computer Sci-

ence Teachers Association (CSTA) with

the goal of addressing serious concerns

in K– 12 computer science education,

including the lack of curriculum stan-

dards, poor professional development

for teachers, common misunderstand-

ings about computer science, student

and parent perceptions that there are

no jobs in the computing field, and the

complete mess that is computer science

teacher certification.

Today, CSTA stands as an example

that faith, funding, and a whole lot of

volunteer support from the top to the

bottom can achieve something close

to miracles. The guidelines in the ACM

Model Curriculum for K– 12 Computer Sci-

ence are now recognized as the defacto

national computer science curriculum

standards. Thanks to its partnership

with colleges and universities through

the JET T and TECS programs, CSTA has

held more than 96 professional devel-

opment workshops for teachers across

the U.S. The annual Computer Science

& Information Technology symposium

is the closest thing we have to an annual

national conference for K– 12 computer

science and information technology

educators. CSTA’s white paper The New

Educational Imperative: Improving High

School Computer Science Education pro-

vides a cogent, research-supported ar-

gument for the role that computer sci-

ence must play in the K– 12 academic

canon. Careers in computing resources

developed by CSTA and the ACM Edu-

cation Board have now made their way

into every school in the U.S. and sev-

eral other countries as well. Finally,

CSTA’s new report on teacher certifica-

tion (Ensuring Exemplary Teaching in

an Essential Discipline) proposes a new

framework for guaranteeing we have

the teachers we require with the skills

we need in our classrooms.

But something equally important

came out of the enrollment crisis. Col-

leges and universities facing dwindling

class sizes began reaching out to K– 12

computer science educators and stu-

dents in order to recruit students direct-

ly into their programs, and in doing so,

many faculty learned that the assump-

tions they had been making about what

it is like to teach computer science in

K– 12 were misguided at best and pater-

nalistic at worst.

Many colleges and universities now

have ongoing outreach and mentoring

programs because they understand that

waiting for students to come to them is

a recipe for disaster. Interest in comput-

er science must begin long before stu-

dents sign up for their first university or

college courses. It begins in K– 12 where

other academic disciplines first sow the

seeds of interest and engagement.

This increased interest in direct

outreach to K– 12 has also prompted

a greater level of understanding and a

spirit of cooperation across educational

levels that will benefit us greatly in the

long run, but only if we do not lose sight

of what we are doing and return to our

former isolated complacency.

The next year will be a pivotal one for

us. Talk (and hopes) of a new, relevant,

rigorous, and more engaging sequence

of high school computer science courses

(including a new gold standard Advance

Placement computing course) and an

ambitious plan for teacher professional

development could mean a real renais-

sance for our discipline and field.

As we begin to work toward these

goals, the challenges will be enormous

as will the temptation to circle the wag-

ons and fire inward. I hope our com-

munity has the vision to rise above frag-

mentation and discord so we can work

together to do something important

and valuable. We did it when we formed

CSTA and I think we can do it again to

reframe computer science education.

Chris Stephenson ( [e-mail]) is the executive director of Computer Science Teachers Association.

© 2009 ACM 0001-0782/09/1200 $10.00