California's push for computer science education examined

Date:
February 24, 2022
Source:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Summary:
Despite California's computer science education policies, gender,
racial and ethnic disparities persist among the high schools that
offer these courses, the students enrolled in them and the faculty
who teach them.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
New studies of computer science education at California high schools found
that a greater emphasis on computer science education did not produce the anticipated spillover effects, neither improving or harming students' math
or English language arts skills, according to school-level test scores.


========================================================================== However, one trade-off of increased enrollments in computing courses
may be that students are taking fewer humanities courses such as the
arts and social studies, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found.

Paul Bruno and Colleen M. Lewis examined the implications of California's recent state policies promoting computer science education and the proliferation of these courses in the state's high schools. Bruno is a professor of education policy, organization and leadership, and Lewis is
a professor of computer science in the Grainger College of Engineering,
both at Illinois.

Using data that schools reported to the California Department of Education
from 2003-2019, the researchers explored the effects on student test
scores and the curricular trade-offs of student enrollments in computer
science courses. That study was published in the journal Educational Administration Quarterly.

In a related project, the couple -- who are marital as well as research partners -- explored equity and diversity among California's computer
science teachers and their students. That study was published in Policy
Futures in Education.

The Google Computer Science Education Research Program supported both
projects.



========================================================================== California has been near the forefront of a nationwide movement
prioritizing technology curricula at the kindergarten-12th grade levels.

In 2018, the state adopted computer science standards for K-12 students,
and the following year implemented a statewide strategic plan to expand
access to computer science education.

The proportion of students attending California high schools that offered
at least one computer science course jumped from 45% in 2003 to more
than 79% in 2019, the data indicated.

"As someone who works in school administration, it raises a lot of
questions about how schools -- especially high schools -- are going to implement this rapid change and offer these new courses effectively,"
Bruno said. "Schools are already having trouble offering all the
courses that they need for students to graduate and go on to college
-- and finding enough qualified instructors to teach them, especially
in science, technology, engineering and math subjects." While school
systems often promote computing courses as cultivating competencies and
skills that improve student achievement in subjects such as math and
reading, the researchers found no significant improvements in school-
level standardized test scores in these subject areas.



========================================================================== Although they were not able to study individual students' test scores,
a limitation they plan to address in their ongoing work, Bruno and Lewis
said test scores are not all that matters.

"Ultimately, all students deserve the opportunity to understand the computational world around them, which computer science courses provide,"
Lewis said. "But in the U.S., low-income students and students who
identify as Black, Hispanic and/or Indigenous are less likely to have
access to computer science courses at their high school." One trade-off
of California high school students' increased enrollments in computer
science courses has been that their enrollments in humanities courses
and electives declined.

"We're not able to see why or how schools or students are making these
kinds of choices, but we think that's an important consideration," Bruno
said. "If we want students to take more computer science, what are we comfortable with there being less of in the curriculum?" Some school
districts allow computer science courses to count toward graduation requirements in mathematics and foreign languages, while other schools
haven't yet determined how to incorporate them, he said.

As schools add or expand computer science curricula, Bruno said it's
important to be aware of the demands placed on the students' and schools'
time and resources to ensure that these courses are offered in ways that benefit students, teachers and their communities.

"That means thinking carefully about who we have to teach these courses
and how we adjust the curricula to make room for them. All of these things
are important in thinking about what the actual costs and benefits of
computer science education are," Bruno said.

With school districts across the country grappling with teacher shortages, flexible authorization requirements enabled California schools to staff
their computer science courses with faculty members who had a wide range
of credentials and experience, such as backgrounds in math, science or vocational education.

Yet, as a profession, computer science education is disproportionately
white and male.

And Bruno and Lewis found significant racial and gender disparities
among computer science students and teachers. Black, Hispanic and Native American youths often were less likely to attend schools that offered
computer science courses than their Asian or white peers. But even
when they had similar access to these courses, all girls and Black,
Hispanic and Native American boys were underrepresented in computer
science enrollments -- disparities that the researchers believe are
influenced by the relative scarcity of computer science teachers who
are women or racial and ethnic minorities.

"Effective and equitable computer science implementation
requires more than enrolling ever-growing numbers of students in
ever-growing numbers of courses," Lewis said. "Going forward,
it will be increasingly important to develop better measures
of computer science teacher quality that can be used to assess
both the average strength of these teachers and the prevalence
of gaps in teaching quality between differing groups of students."
special promotion Explore the latest scientific research on sleep and
dreams in this free online course from New Scientist -- Sign_up_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana-Champaign,_News_Bureau.

Original written by Sharita Forrest. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Paul Bruno, Colleen M. Lewis. Computer Science Trends and
Trade-offs in
California High Schools. Educational Administration Quarterly,
2021; 0013161X2110548 DOI: 10.1177/0013161X211054801 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220224113751.htm

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