Computer Science in the K-12 Classroom

by Matt Rosenberg on April 15, 2014

Computer coding doesn’t have to be your core competency but increasingly it’s an important skill to have for scientists, engineers, economists, creatives and many more. The problem, one felt in Washington state and across the U.S., is that instructional time and resources dedicated to teaching students how to code are scant. Seattle-based Code.org has gained global acclaim for its work to help K-12 students and adults get a working grasp of computer coding. A recent New York Times piece, Adding Coding to the Curriculum, notes:

Code.org is pressing to get computer science into every American school, and is working on teacher training with some of the country’s biggest school districts, including New York, Chicago and Broward County in Florida. More than 35,000 teachers have signed up to use its tutorials in the classroom…

Washington state has ample room to improve K-12 coding resources but the question will be how to pay for that. Code.org provides an array of training resources for districts.

We’ll be exploring further here the penetration – or lack thereof – of computer coding into high school curriculums in Washington state, and what can be done to improve things. If you have expertise on the subject – and data – to share, please contact us.

Here’s Code.org’s “Hour of Code” video. Have you done yours yet?