It was an exciting week in Sacramento for computer
science education last week. A handful
of CS-related bills were heard by the Assembly Education Committee along with
one by the Senate Education Committee.
ACCESS was on hand to help provide analysis and information. Many thanks to Josh Paley, a computer science
teacher at Gunn High School in Palo Alto and a CSTA advocacy and leadership
team member, who provided substantive testimony on two priority bills*, along
with Code.Org, Technet and Microsoft.
Josh provided compelling stories of students who had graduated and gone
on to solve important problems using their CS skills. All of the following CS-related bills passed
out of committee, all but one with unanimous approval:
1) AB 1764* (Olsen and Buchanan) would allow school
districts to award students credit for one mathematics course if they
successfully complete one course in computer science approved by the University
of California as a “category c” (math) requirement for admissions. Such credit would only be offered in
districts where the school district requires more than two courses in
mathematics for graduation, therefore, it does not replace core math
requirements.
2) AB 1539* (Hagman) would create computer science standards
that provide guidance for teaching computer science in grades 7-12.
3) AB 1540 (Hagman) establishes greater access to
concurrent enrollment in community
college computer science courses by high school students.
4) AB 1940 (Holden) establishes a pilot grant program to
support establishing or expanding AP curriculum in STEM (including computer science) in high schools
with such need (passed with two noes).
5) AB 2110 (Ting) requires computer science curriculum
content to be incorporated into curriculum frameworks when next revised.
6) SB1200 (Padilla) would require CSU and request UC to
establish a uniform set of academic standards for high school computer science
courses, to satisfy the “a-g” subject requirements, as defined, for the area of
mathematics ("c") for purposes of recognition for undergraduate
admission at their respective institutions.
7) ACR 108 (Wagner) would designate the week of December
8, 2014, as Computer Science Education Week (passed on consent).
AB 1530 (Chau), to be heard at a future Assembly
Education Committee meeting, would encourage the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to develop or, as needed, revise a model curriculum on computer
science, and to submit the model curriculum to the State Board of Education for
adoption (specifically focuses on grades 1-6).
Please let us know if you have any questions, comments or
suggestions. We'll keep you updated as
these bills move forward through additional committees and the full
legislature.
Finally, if you'd like to be a part our our Policy
Subcommittee to discuss the benefits and unintended consequences of various
legislative proposals, we welcome your input.
Thanks so much,
Julie and Debra
_____________
Debra Richardson
Professor of Informatics
Founding Dean, Donald Bren School of Information and
Computer Sciences Chair, Alliance for California Computing Education for
Students and Schools (ACCESS) PI, Expanding Computing Education Pathways -
California (ECEP-CA) University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697-3440
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