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There are several changes anticipated in computer science (CS) education over the next decade, including updated student standards, rapidly changing impacts of artificial intelligence (AI), and an increasing number of school systems requiring a CS class for graduation. In order to prepare for these changes – as well as to address the equity issues that have plagued CS since its inception – we engaged in a project designed to reimagine content and pathways for high school CS education. As a collaborative project, we hosted multiple events for relevant parties (including K-12 educators and administrators, higher education faculty, industry professionals, state and district CS supervisors, and CS education researchers). These events were designed to collaboratively seek input for the creation of a series of reports recommending what a CS course that satisfies a high school graduation requirement should include, how that course should align with Advanced Placement (AP) and post-secondary CS instruction, and what pathways should exist for students after that introductory high school course. The portion of the project highlighted in this article contains an analysis of data collected from focus groups (n=21), interviews (n=10), and an in-person convening of participants from K-12, post-secondary, industry, and administrative roles (n=35). The data is centered on determining what CS content is essential for all high school students. Participants considered knowledge, skills, and dispositions across a range of CS and CS-adjacent topics and, through a variety of activities, described what new content should be taught when viewing through the lens of teaching CS to high school students in the year 2030 and what content should be prioritized. Our analysis sought to delineate and synthesize their sentiments. Six major priorities emerged from our analysis: societal impacts and ethical issues, algorithmic thinking, data and analysis, inclusive computing culture, AI, and career knowledge. The significance of our findings is that they present a broad overview of what a variety of relevant parties consider to be the most important CS content for high school students; this information is important for educators, administrators, and those who develop curriculum, standards, and/or teaching tools.
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Reimagining CS Pathways: High School and Beyond
At a time when computing continues to gain importance in society, it is more crucial than ever to ensure that computer science education meets the needs of all students. To this end, the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) is updating its K-12 computer science (CS) standards. As a prelude to the standards revision, CSTA – working with many partners – has launched a project, Reimagining CS Pathways: High School and Beyond, to articulate what CS content is essential for all high school graduates to know and to establish pathways for continued study of CS beyond that foundational content. The Reimagining project drew on the expertise and experiences of dozens of participants – including high school CS teachers, college CS faculty, state and local education leaders, CS education researchers, and those working for nonprofits and in the tech industry. These participants reflected diversity across many dimensions, including demographics, role, and expertise. They participated in focus groups, interviews, and in-person convenings, and they provided substantial asynchronous feedback. The result of these extensive efforts is contained in this report, which articulates the foundational CS content and resulting pathways. The foundational CS content is organized into Topic Areas, Pillars, and Dispositions. The Topic Areas, which reflect the content that is essential for all high school graduates, are 1) Algorithms, 2), Programming, 3) Data and Analysis, 4) Computing Systems and Security, and 5) Preparation for the Future. The Pillars, which reflect essential ideas and practices that cut across all of the Topic Areas, are 1) Impacts and Ethics, 2) Inclusive Collaboration, 3) Computational Thinking, and 4) Human-Centered Design. While they are not explicitly taught, the goal is to develop a set of specific dispositions in CS. These Dispositions are persistence, reflectiveness, creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, and sense of belonging in CS. There are many possible pathways stemming from this foundational content, ranging from Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence to X + CS (where another subject, such as Journalism or Biology, is integrated with the study of computing). Implementation of these pathways will vary significantly depending on community priorities and contexts. We recognize that schools will need to be selective in their implementation of CS pathways due to limited resources, and we make recommendations for how to select which options to implement. Woven throughout this work is a commitment to improving equity in CS education. This commitment to equity is embedded throughout both the process and the outcome of the Reimagining project. It manifests in an effort to reimagine CS to ensure opportunities for all students and to prepare them for a world increasingly powered by computing.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2311746
- PAR ID:
- 10643531
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 979-8-4007-1095-7
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Book:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3678016
