State board adopts computer science standards for Florida schools
Source: Leslie PostalLeslie Postal
Florida now has official computer science standards, which schools could use to devise lessons and classes in that field. The State Board of Education on Friday added computer science to its science standards adopted in 2008.
Florida is the first state in the nation to adopt computer science standards, Brian Dassler, a deputy chancellor at the Florida Department of Education, wrote on Twitter after the board's vote.
But the computer-science benchmarks are not required instruction and will not be part of Florida's standardized science tests, department officials said last month.
Still state leaders hope the new standards will encourage schools to teach a subject that could help students prepare for careers in a field where jobs are plentiful.
Florida has been debating how to encourage more students to study computer science ever since a South Florida lawmaker unsuccessfully pushed legislation this spring that would have allowed high school students to swap computer coding classes for required foreign language ones.
New standards don't really matter, however, argues Paul Cottle, a physics professor at Florida State University and an advocate for improved K-12 science education.
In a series of recent blog posts, he says Florida needs to focus more on finding and recruiting talented math, science and computing teachers, if it wants students to excel in those fields. Policy makers should push those efforts, he said.
New standards, he wrote, "matter very little to the quality of education in math, science and computing in Florida. Skilled teachers and educational leaders matter much more, as do gutsy policy-makers. Florida is experiencing a shortage of all of these."
Cottle also noted that only 19 of 67 school districts offered AP computer science classes this year, with Seminole County posting the highest enrollment and Orange County coming in at fourth. The limited course offerings stem in part from the difficulty in finding teachers to lead an AP computer science course, he said.
We reported in November that even as enrollment in AP computer science has surged, the class is still not offered at many local high schools. In both Orange and Seminole, for example, less than half of the high schools had an AP computer science class this school year.
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