Special issue of ACM TOCE on Computing in Schools

The ACM journal Transactions on Computing Education is going to have a special issue devoted to Computer Science Education in K-12 Schools.  Well worth exploring.

Recent activities in several countries, for example in the USA, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Korea, show a growing awareness of the importance of rigorous computer science education (CSE) for a successful, self-responsive and self-deciding life in the modern world. Consequently, serious efforts are made to introduce or to improve CSE in schools that will be followed by other countries, as we hope. Yet, for any country that wants to improve CSE in schools, it would be advisable to learn from the experiences that were made somewhere else. Nevertheless, those experiences were gathered under preconditions and circumstances that usually differ strongly from country to country. Unfortunately, the short format of conventional scientific papers prevents most reports about such experiences from covering all relevant aspects of the respective context. To produce relief, this Special Issue of TOCE aims to collect extensive, detailed case studies that discuss as many relevant aspects as possible, for example regarding the category system that was proposed in 2011 by the ITiCSE Working Group about Informatics in Secondary Education [1].

via Computer Science in Schools Solicitation Letter.

A Dream Deferred: How access to STEM is denied to many students before they get in the door

A realistic description of the barriers into STEM for students who are not from the schools that are expected to succeed.  I can believe that these kinds of problems exist. Figuring out a way around them is the hard part.

This type of pre-judging of students happens all too often. Students from poor and poorly performing school districts, students who wear sagging pants or speak slang or with accents, students that may not make good grades, students from single-parent/multi-generation homes – these kids are denied an opportunity to participate at the gate.  I cannot count the number of students I have encountered who have promise but absolutely no idea where to start or how to get started.

I have seen in at the high school and college level  – professors that turn away students with GEDs or those who struggle academically, but who show up anyway. So many students who have been dismissed or passed over by teachers, guidance counselors, and professors because s/he may not be polished enough for top-level science. (Whatever that means.)

via A Dream Deferred: How access to STEM is denied to many students before they get in the door good | The Urban Scientist, Scientific American Blog Network.