CS counts as Math in new Core Standards

This is a big deal: The new Core Standards from the National Governors’ Association (an effort to create national standards for K-12 education from the state-level) includes computer science (as part of mathematics).  Having it appear here increases the pressure to include computing as part of K-12 standards in each state, which creates a market for K-12 computer science teachers, which leads to a need for certificates and endorsements, and so on.  It all starts with recognizing that computer science counts.

The Association for Computing Machinery ACM and the computing community—which includes academics and industry professionals—were pleased to see ‘computer science’ included as a senior-level high school course for students who meet the ‘readiness level’ by 11th grade within the latest draft of the Common Core Standards for Mathematics.

via ACM CEO Issues Statement on Inclusion of Computer Science in Draft Math Core Standards — Association for Computing Machinery.

New bill in Congress supporting K-12 engineering education

I wonder if this new bill could be used to support computing education, too.

To award planning grants and implementation grants to State educational agencies to enable the State educational agencies to complete comprehensive planning to carry out activities designed to integrate engineering education into K-12 instruction and curriculum and to provide evaluation grants to measure efficacy of K-12 engineering education.

via Search Results – THOMAS (Library of Congress).

One of findings is:

The introduction of engineering education has the potential to improve student learning and achievement in science and mathematics, increase awareness about what engineers do and of engineering as a potential career, and boost students’ technological literacy, according to a new report, `Engineering in K-12 Education‘ from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Research Council (NRC).

and it defines ‘technological literacy’ here:

Schools, policy makers, and other stakeholders often narrowly refer to the term `technologically literate’ as the ability to use educational technologies. Although educational technology is important, it is far from the only type of technology we depend on in a modern society. In 2006, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council’s report, `Technically Speaking’, outlined a broader view of `technological literacy’, one more consistent with how scientists, engineers, and technologists see the world. In this view, technological literacy includes–

(A) knowledge of technology, the engineering design process, and impacts on society;

(B) critical thinking and decisionmaking weighing benefits, risks, costs, and tradeoffs; and

(C) capability to use a variety of technologies, apply the design process, fix simple technological problems, and obtain and understand information about technological issues.