America’s Untapped

Opportunity

Cameron Wilson COO/VP for Government Affairs, Code.org

• Get everybody excited about the future of K-12 computer science education

• Tell you more about what we’re planning at Code.org, what role we hope to play

• Enlist your help

MY GOALS FOR THIS PRESENTATION

Movie here

The Disconnect

WHERE THE JOBS WILL BE

60% 40%

JOBS

All other math and sciences:

Computing Jobs

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

$0

$10,000

$20,000

$30,000

$40,000

$50,000

$60,000

$70,000

$80,000

$90,000

Computing Occupations All Occupations

Annual Mean Wages

AND THESE ARE HIGH PAYING JOBS

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

BUT THIS ISN’T JUST ABOUT THE IT SECTOR

According to the College Board, studying AP Computer Science can open the pathway to 130 career areas and 48 college majors.

Computing occupations by sector:

• 9 percent are in information services,

• 12 percent are in financial services,

• 36 percent are in professional and business services,

• 7 percent are in government and public education services, and

• 12 percent are in manufacturing

• This is fundamental knowledge for the 21st Century because of “CS + X”

• Hot new fields of study:

– Computational Biology

– Computational Logistics

– Computational Physics

– Computational Journalism???

CS IS FUNDAMENTAL

“Knowledge of computer programming is as important as knowledge of anatomy when it comes to medical research or clinical care” Larry Corey, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

2012 HIGH SCHOOL A.P. ENROLLMENT

Exposure to CS leads to the best-paying jobs in the world. But it’s only available in 5% of

high schools

Source: College Board

Only 4% of this tiny box are African Americans,

or Hispanics

98%

2%

STUDENTS

Students Taking K-12 AP CS Courses

All other math and sciences:

60% 40%

JOBS

All other math and sciences:

Computing Jobs

THE JOB/STUDENT GAP IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

Sources: College Board, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Science Foundation

WHAT NEXT?

A public-private partnership built on years of foundation laid by partner organizations, and capitalizing on amazing consumer momentum

CODE.ORG’S AUDACIOUS GOALS

Short-term:

(1) Get computer science into more U.S. classrooms

(2) Change the rules in the easiest states

(3) Inspire students, parents

Medium-term: (1) Every school in the

US offers some form of computer science instruction

Long term: (1) Computer Science

is in the “core”

1. Educate: Get CS into schools

– Work with supportive districts to provide for the professional development, mentorship, and policy support to set up and sustain computer science classes

– Demo cities before expanding more broadly

– Develop curriculum in a few areas that can help all teachers

– Building on work by NSF and NSF-funded projects

2. Advocate: change the rules.

– Get all 50 states to count computer science toward graduation

– Use a coalition of tech companies and other orgs for lobbying

– with Computing in the Core as sister-org, partnering with CSTA

3. Celebrate: inspire youth (and parents) to learn

– An “Hour of Code” for Computer Science Education Week

– Continue using social media, celebrities, videos, to inspire students

– Run regional, state, and national events to reward/recognize CS in K-12, esp for women and minorities

THE NEXT DECADE: 3 MAIN AREAS OF ACTIVITY

• Pat Yongpradit (pat@code.org), Director of Education

– His job #1 is to help us pick “demo” cities

– Establish programs to prepare math, science, CTE teachers to teach CS next year

– We want to work together with NSF and NSF-funded efforts (CS-P, ECS, NMSI, and others)

• Curriculum:

– Exploring Computer Science

– AP Computer Science Principles

– 100% free, open-source, web-based, zero-install

“EDUCATE”: GETTING CS INTO SCHOOLS

ADVOCATE: FEDERAL AGENDA/STATE AGENDA

• Federal -- Computer Science Education Act (H.R. 2536, S. 1407)

• State:

• Make Computer Science “Count”

• Address Teacher Certification Issues

• Ensure standards are tied to CS knowledge and skills

Sources: ACM, College Board

ADVOCATE: CHANGING POLICIES IN EVERY STATE

• In 36 of 50 states, computer science doesn’t even count towards high school graduation requirements. (in China: it’s required to graduate)

• In states that recognize it, C.S. enrollment is 50% higher

Sources: ACM, College Board

2013 present-day. (WA just flipped)

• In Washington State: HB-1472 passed with nearly unanimous support

– 95-3 in Democratic house

– 45-1 in Republican controlled Senate

– CS now counts towards math or science graduation credits

• Idaho State Board of Education adopted a new “make computer science count” policy

• In the US House of Representatives, the Computer Science Education Act was introduced by a bi-partisan group of sponsors.

ADVOCATE: RECENT SUCCESS

• In 2005, NCAA proactively rejected C.S. for academic credit

• Today, NCAA will give academic credit to any rigorous CS class IF the school itself counts it for math/science credit.

• If you teach AP CS in these states, get it to count (in your school, and NCAA)

ADVOCATE: RECENT SUCCESS WITH NCAA

Georgia Indiana Missouri New York North Carolina

Oklahoma Oregon Rhode Island Texas Utah

Vermont Virginia Washington Washington DC

WE WANT

YOUR HELP

OUR INCREDIBLY AUDACIOUS MARKETING GOAL

• We want to work with policymakers to make CS “count”

• An Hour of Code for

every student in

America

• We want to recruit 100,000 teachers to offer their students “an Hour of Code”

• What’s “an Hour of Code”?

– Introductory Computer Science / programming (NOT HTML!)

– Enough to give a student a taste, and to demystify CS.

– If you’re a CS teacher, you can come up with what that means.

– If you’re not, we’ll curate curriculum options for all grades

– Web-based. Smartphone. Even unplugged

• We’ll recruit sponsors, prizes, rewards for participating schools, teachers, and students

• EVERYBODY wants to help: Tech companies, Entertainment companies, Politicians, Celebrities, Athletes

CS ED WEEK 2013

• If you are in this room, we want you to participate

• Think about who you can recruit to help, how to get an Hour of Code to every student in your school

• Sign up at http://csedweek.org

• We can’t do it all, we’ll provide enough structure to allow all sorts of other people and organizations help

CS ED WEEK 2013

CODE.ORG VISION

CHALLENGE PLAN US YOU

Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science

cameron@code.org

Visit Code.org for videos, infographics, one-sheets