Professor wants to double the number of computer science teachers in Wisconsin: Color me jealous

The headline that a professor wants to double the number of CS teachers is cool, but as I dug into the piece, I grew jealous.  Wisconsin has CS teacher certification! (Even if “confused, disparate, and sometimes absurd.”)  They have pre-service teacher programs!  They need more CS Teaching Methods classes — I’ve taught CS teaching methods!  Are they hiring?  (Oh, wait — I’ve heard about what’s happening to Wisconsin state universities.)  Except for that university part, Wisconsin sounds like it has it good!

The second piece of the plan consists of easing the process for computer science teachers to receive their license. Getting certified is difficult, according to Brylow. According to one report from the Computer Science Teachers Association, the process is described as “confused, disparate, and sometimes absurd.”UW-La Crosse and UW-Whitewater are the only universities left in the state that offer programs to get certified, after many universities began dropping the program in the 1990s. “Whitewater has graduated three computer science teachers in the past five years and La Crosse has graduated zero in the past five years,” Brylow said. “So we identified that one of the problems is nobody knows how to teach this one critical course called the Computer Science Teaching Methods course.

Source: Professor wants to double the number of computer science teachers in Wisconsin | Local Education | host.madison.com