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Updated at 12:45 p.m., Oct. 18, 2016.
The next step in California’s efforts to introduce computer science standards into the school curriculum over the next few years came Monday as a national coalition of educators, academics, industry professionals and nonprofits unveiled a framework for states to adopt.
The framework grew out of a national effort to attract more girls and minorities into the underrepresented field of computer science. The framework is an essential step toward increasing the number of computer science courses offered as part of the K-12 curriculum.
The national framework is something that individual states – including California – will have the option of approving in some form as they each work to develop their own standards to help guide how computer science is taught.
“The framework gives the power to the states to figure out what kind of standards they want,” said Pat Yongpradit, chief academic officer at Code.org, a national nonprofit working to expand access to computer science and to increase participation among women and minorities. “The standards that are developed will be up to California. They can go many ways. They will be tasked with creating standards that are given to the districts.”
Code.org was one of several organizations that helped write the framework, along with the Association for Computing Machinery, Computer Science Teachers Association, Cyber Innovation Center and the National Math + Science Initiative.
The framework provides guidance, but does not define the standards themselves. The framework represents overall computer science ideas and concepts, such as what students are expected to have learned by the end of a course, grade level, or grade. To be developed over the next few years, they are not expected to describe any particular teaching practice, curriculum or assessment method.
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This is a continuing EdSource series on proven innovations in higher education that relate to the problems facing California’s higher education systems.
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David 7 years ago7 years ago
Amazing article, I love how you guys are implementing this type of course at such an early age. I am a firm believer that if you peak the kid’s interest they will be more than willing to learn the material regardless of difficulty. I wish they had this type of class when I was a kid, I’m so jealous. 🙂
Casey Agena 7 years ago7 years ago
Silicon Valley Education Foundation (SVEF) will be hosting an K12 CS Framework event for School District Leaders and the Curricular teams (free) on November 15 from 9AM to 12 noon at Microsoft Silicon Valley in Mountain View - svef.com/csk12 Among those on the panel: Pat Yongpradit (Code.org), Michael Kirst (CA State Board), Trish Williams (Member & CS Lead, CA State Board of Education), Kaustav Mitra (VP of Innovative Ecosystems, Infosys Foundation), Mehran Sahami (Chair Association … Read More
Silicon Valley Education Foundation (SVEF) will be hosting an K12 CS Framework event for School District Leaders and the Curricular teams (free) on November 15 from 9AM to 12 noon at Microsoft Silicon Valley in Mountain View – svef.com/csk12
Among those on the panel: Pat Yongpradit (Code.org), Michael Kirst (CA State Board), Trish Williams (Member & CS Lead, CA State Board of Education), Kaustav Mitra (VP of Innovative Ecosystems, Infosys Foundation), Mehran Sahami (Chair Association of Computer Machinery, Department of Computer Science at Stanford University), Tom Adams (Deputy Superintendent, Instruction & Learning Support Branch, CA Dept of Education) and many others.
All Bay Area (and beyond) school leaders are invited to attend this event – to help them “demystify” K12 CS, the Framework and learn how other districts have implemented CS in their districts (particularly from San Francisco Unified and Oakland)