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Today at the biennial Snowbird Conference, Jan Cuny (NSF), Owen Astrachan (U. of Virginia), and Larry Snyder (U. Washington) gave an inspiring talk about a new advanced placement  course in computer science that is being developed by a group sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the College Board.
The new “AP Computer Science: Principles” course is designed to expose students to computer science as a creative and intellectually rich endeavor that has an impact on society.

The Principles course comes in response to the observation that the current offerings at most high schools are not appealing to many students.  These courses are either on computing literacy (e.g. using word processors and spreadsheets) or are traditional computer programming courses.  The former is largely vocational and the latter is perceived by many students as being dry, irrelevant, and requiring previous background.

In 2008, approximately 15,000 high school students took the AP Computer Science whereas approximately 7 times as many students took AP Statistics, 10 times as many took AP Biology, and 15 times as many took AP Calculus AB.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the number of students arriving at college and indicating an intention to major in a computing discipline is only a few percent and only 0.3% for women.

One aspect of this initiative is to add 10,000 new computer science high school teachers in 10,000 schools in the United States by 2015.

To learn more about the rationale, design, and implementation of the new course
go to www.csprinciples.org.  To participate in the online community for this initiative go to www.computingportal.org/cs10k.

Every second year, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a ten-year forecast of job growth in all fields of employment.  The most recent forecast, released in November 2009 and covering the period 2008-2018, may be found here (pdf).  Among the highlights:

• Among the 10 major BLS occupational groups, the “Professional and related” category (which includes computer science occupations) is projected to grow by the largest percentage between now and 2018 — by 16.8%.  (The average growth projected across all occupations is 10.1%.)

• Focusing in on the “Professional and related” occupations, of the 8 occupational clusters that are included, “Computer and mathematical” occupations are projected to grow by the largest percentage between now and 2018 — by 22.2%.  In other words, “Computer and mathematical” occupations are the fastest growing occupational cluster within the fastest growing major occupational group.

• Looking at all science and engineering occupations — “Computer and mathematical,” “Architecture and engineering,” and “Life, physical, and social science” — computer science occupations are projected to be responsible for nearly 60% of all job growth between now and 2018.  The next largest contributor — all fields of Engineering combined — is projected to contribute 13.4% of total growth.  All of the life sciences combined:  5.6%.  All of the physical sciences combined:  3.1%.  In other words, among all occupations in all fields of science and engineering, computer science occupations are projected to account for nearly 60% of all job growth between now and 2018.

Congress has resolved that the week of December 7 will be designated as “National Computer Science Education Week.”  Organizations such as the ACM, CRA, and NCWIT, along with industrial partners, are planning to use this week to promote awareness of computer science education.

The NSF has invested in a number of programs that seek to  re-envision K-12 and undergraduate computer science education.  A recent article by Jeannette Wing, Assistant Director of NSF for CISE, summarizes the rationale, the challenges, and some of the specific initiatives.

We’re eager to hear your ideas on ways that computer science education could be improved, both at the K-12  and college level.  We’re also  interested in hearing your thoughts on how the importance of computer science might be more effectively communicated to a broad audience.

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