Computer science: It's where the jobs are, but schools don't teach it

By Dan Lewis

Special to the San Jose Mercury News
POSTED: 09/12/2014 10:00:00 AM PDT

Fifty-six percent of California public high schools don't offer a single course in computer science or programming. Why should you care?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says 1.4 million new jobs in computing will be created this decade. That's more than all the new jobs in all other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields combined.

Yet only about 400,000 students are expected to earn bachelor's degrees in computing during the same period. There won't be enough graduates to fill these jobs. By contrast, in engineering, life sciences, physical sciences and mathematics, the number of college graduates will exceed the number of jobs.

There's a lot of talk within K-12 about the importance of STEM. But when it comes to curricula, computer science doesn't count toward California high school graduation requirements or toward the admission requirements in math or science for admission to the University of California. Computer science only counts as a free elective.

The Legislature just passed two bills to address these issues. Senate Bill 1200 allows (but does not require) the University of California to count computer science toward the math requirements for admission. However, there's been a lot of push back from UC on this, so for now, all we really have is an expression of intent from the Legislature. Thankfully, AB 1764 allows high schools to count computer science toward graduation requirements. Of course, that may not mean much for students applying to UC.

For these reasons, computer science isn't a priority for students. Nor is it a priority for schools when determining course offerings based on limited budgets: While California high school enrollment has risen 15 percent since 2000, the number of classes on computer science or programming fell 34 percent, and the number of teachers assigned to those courses fell 51 percent.

California prides itself as being home to Silicon Valley, but our schools can do little to prepare our students for a career in computing. Schools have no state or federal curriculum standards to follow for computer science -- not as part of Common Core, nor in the Next Generation Science Standards.

When teachers are assigned to teach computer science, California has no computer science certification to insure that they have the appropriate content knowledge. The closest thing to certification is a supplementary authorization in "computer applications and methods" -- in other words, a certificate that says a teacher knows how to use Microsoft Office. That's not computer science. It's not even about computer programming.

Today only 175 of California's 1,325 public high schools offer the advanced placement (AP) course in computer science. More than half of the students are Hispanic or Latino, yet they make up less than 8 percent of those who take the AP exam in computer science. African-Americans represent 6.7 percent of high school students, but they are only 1.5 percent of those taking the AP exam.

In part, it's an issue of equity and access. When computer science is offered, it's usually in the more affluent suburban schools where Latino and African-American students are underrepresented.

Change only happens in response to demand. If your local high school doesn't offer computer science, let the principal or superintendent know how important it is. Build demand. Raise the issue at PTA meetings, and start a parent petition to your school board. And ask lawmakers to establish curriculum standards and teacher certifications in computer science.

Dan Lewis is an associate professor of computer science at Santa Clara University and a founding member of the Alliance for California Computing Education for Students and School (ACCESS). He wrote this for this newspaper.