University of California pressured to count computer science
Source: Katy Murphy and Sharon Noguchi
Claire Shorall, teacher and computer science manager for the Oakland Unified School District, helps some of her students on a coding exercise in their computer science class at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Dec. 4, 2015. Shorall co-teaches the class with full-time teacher ...
It's the backbone of Silicon Valley's world-changing tech industry, but -- like journalism and geography -- computer science is considered just another high school elective by the University of California.
Now, a powerful coalition of technology leaders, state politicians and high school teachers has taken aim at the university's influential set of high school courses required for admission, pressuring UC to count computer science as advanced math, alongside calculus and statistics.
They say elevating computer science would encourage more California high schools to offer it -- and more students to sign up, preparing them to enter fields with few women and minorities.
"So many students have asked me if they get science credit for computer science, and when I respond 'No,' they just give me a puzzled look," said John Old, a computer science teacher at Willow Glen High in San Jose. "If I could say that you can take this class instead of a traditional math class, we would have off-the-charts enrollment."
But so far, the faculty committee that sets the so-called "a to g" course requirements for admission to UC and California State University has been reluctant to make any sweeping changes that it feels would not advance students' mathematical preparation for college.
Even AP Computer Science, submitted for UC's consideration last year by the College Board, was denied a spot in the math category. A computer science course heavy on coding, UC's policy says, is simply not mathematical enough to count as math.
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