Thread by @chrissanders88

A nice, concise table from the @codeorg State of CS Ed report this year showing the adoption of the 9 key CS policies at the individual state level.

How does your state rank there? Are you surprised by any of it?

Here are the 9 policies referenced in the table. The Code.org advocacy coalition recommends these things be in place at a state level to make computer science a fundamental part of the state's education system.

Basically, there's a lot more to getting CS in schools than the state govt telling districts to do it or making a requirement. There needs to be curriculum and goals, teachers need to be trained and certified (pre and in-service), and all that has to be paid for and coordinated.

No, the idea is not that every kid should have to take a lot of CS classes. Rather, it's that all kids get some exposure to the field so that they have the opportunity to be curious. Then, they have options to pursue these classes further.

And as a periodic reminder, here's how CS is defined for this purpose:

"Computer science is the study of computers and algorithms, including their principles, their hardware and software designs, their implementation, and their impact on society."

CS in this sense is not what you think of when you think about university majors. It's ultimately simple about using computers to solve problems. That includes coding, but also security, architecture, systems, networks, and even things like robotics.

Here's the policy breakdown from my home state. Still work to be done, particularly in preservice training and having all HS's offer CS courses.

I see lots of correlation between these state level stats and our @RuralTechFund work. States with more of these policies in place typically generate more requests to us for support than others. That's a good thing -- they're pushing tech ed forward in their districts.

Not only that, these states also request more advanced technology at younger ages. A 9 policy state might see more schools start a robotics team at the elementary level, whereas states further behind see schools less likely to do that until HS or at all.

All told, I generally support these policies and their state-level adoption. They can take different forms and some are better than others, but they push CS ed access forward. More access to more people.

Even better as that these policies generally have bipartisan support and are less likely to be reversed when elected offices flip.

That means these policy areas are one of the (less and less frequent) places where you can speak to your elected reps and they'll probably be somewhat supportive regardless of broader wedge positions the national parties go nuts about.

You can read the State of CS Ed 2021 report here and look up information about your state and where y'all stand in relation to access and policies: advocacy.code.org/stateofcs.

No registration is required.