Communications of the ACM

tion Policy Committee, CSTA leaders
helped establish Computer Science
Education Week and worked as part of
the Computing in the Core Coalition
to build a powerful network of educa-
tion, association, and industry repre-
sentatives committed to improving
computer science education nation-
ally. Policy events in D.C. helped focus
attention on education and workforce
problems and connect computer sci-
ence education to the national con-
versation about jobs. This coalition,
including the National Science Foun-
dation, also was instrumental in
managing the first two CS Education
Weeks, supporting the CS 10K project,
and launching Code.org.”
Eventually, it made sense to merge
Computing in the Core and Code.org,
and ACM loaned Wilson to Code.org
for a year to help get the new orga-
nization off the ground. Since then,
said Wilson, now in the permanent
roles of COO and vice president of
Government Affairs for Code.org,
“What we’ve seen in the past three
years is this tremendous groundswell
of interest from teachers, from par-
ents, from students, and then from
hundreds of school districts and doz-
en of states, to take computer science
seriously or to do more to boost com-
puter science instruction.

“All of the things we did prior to
that helped contribute to that over-
all groundswell. That’s what the
cation generally, and the ones that do
exist are really about basic technology
literacy and using technology are not
focused on allowing students to create
technologies.” At the time, just nine
states allowed computer science to
count toward math or science require-
ments for high school graduation.

Around the same time, the EPC launched Computer Science Education Week as a collaborative, ( computing) community-based event around computer science education. The first Computer Science Education Week took place in December 2009 as a joint effort led and funded by ACM with the cooperation and deep involvement of CSTA, NCWIT, NSF, the Anita Borg Institute, the Computing Research Association, Google, Intel, and Microsoft.

Today, the annual Computer Science Education Week is supported by 350 partners and 100,000 educators worldwide, and includes the Hour of Code—a one-hour introduction to computer science designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. During 2014’s Computer Science Education Week, Obama became the first U.S. president to write a line of code as part of the Hour of Code.

“Computer Science Education Week came first, and then Running on Empty came out, and we bootstrapped both of those things into a new coalition of industry and non-profits called Computing in the Core,” said Wilson. “The main goal of Computing in the Core was to help be a steward for Computer Science Education Week, and to help advocate for policies at the state and federal level. At the time, we were just focused on federal policy because we were pretty small, with a shoestring budget, and we just didn’t have the resources to work at the state level.”

2013 saw the launch of Code.org,
a “non-profit dedicated to expanding
access to computer science, and in-
creasing participation by women and
underrepresented students of color.
Our vision is that every student in ev-
ery school should have the opportunity
to learn computer science. We believe
computer science should be part of core
curriculum, alongside other courses
such as biology, chemistry, or algebra.”
Recalled Stephenson, “Through
its participation in the ACM Educa-
President has really tapped into;
this is now clearly a national move-
ment that’s being state-led, and he
helped contribute a bully pulpit to
it, and also has proposed a substan-
tial amount of funding around this,
which Congress will ultimately have
to figure out whether they’re going to
appropriate or not. “
In a joint statement following
Obama’s announcement, ACM CEO
Schnabel and ACM president Alexan-
der L. Wolf observed that ACM “has
played a major, seminal role in raising
the visibility of computer science edu-
cation and the need for more attention
The association, they said, “is
dedicated to continuing to support
the progress of computing education
worldwide through its close relation-
ship with and support of CSTA, its
world-leading development of com-
puting curricula, and its conferences
and publications on computer science
education. It looks forward to build-
ing on the increased momentum cre-
ated by [the president’s] announce-
ment to partner with all groups that
are dedicated to increasing the quality
and availability of computing educa-
tion worldwide.”

Lawrence M. Fisher is Senior Editor/News for

Communications.

U. S. President Barack Obama’s proposal for the Computer Science for All initiative includes:

˲ $4 billion in funding for states in the federal budget for FY2017 (beginning Oct.

1 this year), as well as $100 million in funding directly for school districts that provide students greater access to computer science (CS) education. The president said the goal of this funding is to have “hands-on” computer science courses in every public high school, as well as expanding CS learning opportunities for students in elementary (grades K through 6) and middle schools (typically grades 7 through 9).

˲ The National Science Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service ( http://1.usa.gov/1QizE3h), “a federal agency that helps more than 5 million Americans improve the lives of their fellow citizens through service,” will invest more than $135 million over the next five years in training teachers to teach computer science.

˲ Expanding access to prior NSF-supported programs and professional learning communities through the CS10k Initiative ( https://cs10kcommunity.org/) that led to the creation of more inclusive and accessible CS curriculum .

˲ Obama asked governors, mayors, CEOs, philanthropists, creative media, technology professionals, and education leaders/professionals “to deepen their CS commitments” and for governments, education leaders, business leaders, and others to get involved.

The White House said 30 school districts, as well as the statewide district of Hawaii, already had committed to expanding opportunities for CS education in their schools, while Delaware has announced it will launch an online CS education class for its students. —L.M.F.