Empowering Leadership Alliances Seeks High School Students of Color Interested in Computing Fields

In conjunction with Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), the Empowering Leadership Alliance (ELA) is starting an initiative to reach out to high school seniors interested in computing fields before they matriculate on their respective university campuses.

ELA is an NSF-funded program that engages underrepresented minority (URM) students in computing disciplines at research institutions in a nationwide network composed of leading universities including Rice University, UC Berkeley, and UT Austin.

Their mission is to increase the number of students from groups with long-standing under-representation that receive undergraduate and graduate degrees in the computing disciplines.

We are asking BDPA members and supporters to inform minority seniors who are interested in pursuing computing-related fields about EL Alliance.  Ideally they should register with the online EL Alliance registration form.

After students register, they will be contacted by ELA staff who will invite them to:

• Ask questions about computing or classes or university academic life
• Participate in university student-led teleconferences where college students would answer the high school students’ questions,
• Be matched with a current college student,
• Participate in mentoring teleconferences, among other possibilities.

We think that CSTA and EL Alliance can help bridge the fragile pipeline from high school through college and graduate school so that our nation can benefit from these future minority leaders in computing. If you have any questions about the EL Alliance, please contact Alice Fisher.

Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age

A new report published by Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) provide the findings of year-long research project that looked at how computer science education standards were reflected in current state standards and the results are both startling and worrisome.

Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age finds that roughly two-thirds of the country have few computer science education standards for secondary school education, and most states treat high school computer science courses as simply an elective and not part of a student's core education. The results are particularly shocking because computer science and the technologies it enables now lie at the heart of our economy, our daily lives, and scientific enterprise. As the digital age has transformed the world and workforce, U.S. K-12 education has fallen woefully behind in preparing students with the fundamental computer science knowledge and skills they need for future success. To be a well-educated citizen as we move toward an ever-more computing-intensive world and to be prepared for the jobs of the 21st Century, students must have a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of computer science.

In addition to providing the general results of the research, the authors have created a report card for each state which shows the extent to which the national standards provided in the ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science Education are (or are not) reflected in the state business, computing, math, science, and technology standards. They have created an online roll over map showing these results by state.

National Computer Science Education Week

The U.S. House of Representatives recently designated December 6–12, 2009 as Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) in recognition of the transformative role of computing and necessity of rigorous computer science education at all levels.

The CSEdWeek website launches the week of Dec. 6 to be a hub for computer science education resources and social networking.

The development of CSEdWeek is a joint effort led by Association of Computer Machinery with the cooperation and deep involvement of the Computer Science Teachers Association, the Computing Research Association, the National Center for Women & Information Technology, the Anita Borg Institute, the National Science Foundation, Google, Intel, and Microsoft.