Fed Policy is Not STEM Friendly

Code.org co-founder and CEO Hadi Partovi testified about how federal education programs effectively discourage computer science instruction at a subcommittee hearing on today, and urged Congress to think about ways to fold computer science instruction into STEM and other education programs.

“There are countless federal, state and local policies that determine what is ultimately taught in our schools,” Partovi said, and they tend to leave computer science out. Computer science isn’t treated as a “core academic subject” in ESEA and computer science teachers aren’t eligible for professional development programs that science and math teachers are. Partovi also said that getting certified to teach computer science is “an ambiguous and confusing process” for many teachers and is “almost impossible” in a few states.  
                                                                                                                                 
Relatively simple changes to existing federal programs, Partovi said, could make things “much easier.”

Last year, Partovi’s organization held its first “Hour of Code,” in which 20 million students across the country learned computer science for an hour. The event was widely covered in the media and promoted by companies such as Google and Apple.

Politico