California Passes New Computer Science Legislation
Recently California introduced legislation important to everyone with an interest in computer science education. Motivated by the economic need for computer talent and the educational benefits of early exposure to the types of programmatic thinking and problem solving demanded by computer science classes, California has pushed through three pieces of legislation that aim to expand and increase access to computer science education.
The first, AB 1764, makes it so students can earn school credit for mathematics for completing a UC approved CS course. This will make it so that more college bound students are motivated take a computer science course, and that schools feel secure offering them knowing that their students are receiving the credit that they deserve. Next, SB 1200 calls upon the UC and CSU systems to develop benchmarks that a high school computer science course needs to meet in order to satisfy the university’s admission standards for an advanced mathematics course, so that schools can more easily create great CS courses. Finally, AB 1539 requires that the Instructional Quality Commission, which advises the CA State Board of Education on content standards, curriculum, and instructional materials, considers developing CS content standards for kindergarten through 12th grade. This will help to further ensure that California students are getting access to great computer science classes.
Hopefully this is just the beginning–there are several more bills related to computer science waiting to be pushed through, and lots of work to do to make sure that a statewide curriculum is created and that it’s great. We’re committed to providing top notch curricular material for students not just in CA, but all over the world. We’re excited to see how the new plans for CA CS unfold, and hope to see more like this in the future.
Those looking for more information can check out the relevant press release from the Alliance for California Computing Education for Students and Schools, reproduced here. Those looking for full text of the bills can find them at the following links: AB-1764, SB-1200, and AB-1539.
–Will
Originally published at blog.codehs.com on October 9, 2014.
