The Role of CS Departments in The US President’s “CS for All” Initiative: Panel from #SIGCSE 2017

The Role of CS Departments in The US President’s “CS for All” Initiative: Panel from SIGCSE 2017 from Mark Guzdial

There was interest in our slides from the 2017 SIGCSE Panel, “The Role of CS Departments in The US President’s “CS for All” Initiative.”  They are linked above, and summarized below.

In January 2016, US President Barack Obama started an initiative to provide CS for All – with the goal that all school students should have access to computing education. Computing departments in higher education have a particularly important role to play in this initiative. It’s in our best interest to get involved, since the effort can potentially improve the quality of our incoming students. CS Departments have unique insights as subject-matter experts to inform the development of standards. We can provide leadership to inform and influence education policy. In this session, we will present a variety of ways in which departments and faculty can support CS for All and will answer audience questions about the initiative. Our goal is to provide concrete positive actions for faculty.

Barbara Ericson spoke on influencing our incoming students and using outreach to improve the number and diversity of students and to improve the number and quality of teachers.

Rick Adrion spoke on CS faculty providing subject-matter expertise to standards efforts. A key role for CS faculty is to help teachers, administrators, and public policy makers to understand what CS is.

Megean Garvin spoke on how CS faculty can provide a leadership role. Faculty have a particular privileged position to draw together diverse stakeholders to advance CS Education.