Computer Science Courses on the Decline -- THE Journal

Research

Computer Science Courses on the Decline

By David Nagel
08/04/09

Computer science is on the decline in American high schools. According to new research from the Computer Science Teachers Association, not only have the number of students enrolled in computer science has dropped significantly in the last four years and so have the number of AP computer science courses offered at high schools.

The survey, the 2009 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey, collected responses from some 1,100 high school computer science teachers conducted in spring 2009. Of those, only 65 percent reported that their schools offer introductory or pre-AP computer science classes. This compares with 73 percent in 2007 and 78 percent in 2005.

Only 27 percent reported that their schools offer AP computer science. This compares with 32 percent in 2007 and 40 percent in 2005.

The survey also asked participants whether their schools offered computer science content in courses other than introductory or AP computer science classes. Seventy-four percent reported that their schools do, compared with 85 percent in 2007. (Numbers were not available from 2005.) These classes included Web design (67 percent), computer graphics (51 percent), communications (40 percent), programming (39 percent), networking (16 percent)), and applications (11 percent), among several others.

"The continuing drop in students taking AP CS is a serious warning sign about the state of computing in this country, as a student taking AP typically indicates his or her interest in majoring in that field in college or pursuing a career in that area," said Chris Stephenson, CSTA executive director, in a statement released Monday. "Our innovation economy requires that students take an interest in computing, but a host of factors point in the other direction."

But among schools that offer CS courses, enrollments have not seemed to change much over the last three years. Of those participating in the survey, 23 percent reported that CS enrollments have increased; 22 percent said CS enrollments have decreased; and 55 percent reported no real change in enrollments. But a full 70 percent said there are qualified students who are not taking the CS courses offered by their schools.

So what are the challenges that are leading to the decline in computer science?

Thirty-one percent reported that NCLB had a negative impact on their CS programs, with the bulk (62 percent) saying it had no impact. Participants also cited lack of teacher subject knowledge, lack of student subject knowledge, difficult subject matter, lack of student interest, and lack of hardware and software resources. But the top 3 reasons cited for the decline were lack of curriculum resources (No. 3), lack of staff support or interest (No. 2), and rapidly changing technology (No. 1).

"Computer science teachers are calling out for more effective professional development opportunities, such as workshops, conferences and networking opportunities, to keep up with the state of the field and offer rigorous and challenging courses that engage students," CSTA's Stephenson said.

The hindrances to professional development cited by participants included facilities and resources, training opportunities, training cost, and, at No. 1, time for training.

Complete results from the 2009 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey, as well as comparative results from previous surveys, can be found here.

About the Author

David Nagel is the executive producer for 1105 Media's online K-12 and higher education publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com. He can now be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/THEJournalDave (K-12) or http://twitter.com/CampusTechDave (higher education).

Comments

Mon, Aug 10, 2009 Editor

Regarding the objection to the graphic, your issue has been addressed with a revised version. --D. Nagel

Mon, Aug 10, 2009 Systems Engineer Iowa

As an engineer in the industrial systems field and parent to children enrolled in high school and college, you have to actively watch the job market; not only for yourself but for your kids too. There has been and continues to be a great deal of outsourcing for software development to countries like India to reduce costs in corporate America to help cover high executive salaries. So instead of keeping these jobs local, they get farmed out and as a parent, you have to provide advice to your kids as to where the CS field is headed...out of America. So why would kids want to enroll in something whose job market is being outsourced?

Mon, Aug 10, 2009 CA

The graphic by David Nagel at the head of the article seriously misrepresents the facts. It suggests that 65% of US schools offer Intro & AP Computer Science. THE SURVEY DOESN'T REPRESENT ALL HIGH SCHOOLS! JUST THOSE WHICH HAVE A COMPUTER SCIENCE TEACHER ON STAFF. I hope it doesn't come as too much of a shock - this might be as low as 10% of high schools. Mr. Nagel should correct his error, and redo the graph giving the correct fraction of ALL US High schools offering computer science. Otherwise, this mistake will just lull an already complacent public into thinking things are OK....they're clearly not OK for a technological country like the US to be riding on 40-year old standards that were drawn up before computers and software became so important to our way of life.

Fri, Aug 7, 2009

from the article: "a student taking AP typically indicates his or her interest in majoring in that field in college or pursuing a career in that area" Really? Most of the students in our school take six or more APs. Taking an AP seems to indicate an interest in having it on the transcript rather than pursuing a particular area of study. It would be nice to see the discussion of declining enrollment in CS based on something other than AP class numbers.....

Fri, Aug 7, 2009 CS Teacher Texas

I disagree with the number of CS teachers in Texas. I do not know which school districts that you surveyed, but if you have ever gone to a State TCEA Programming Competition, you will see there are over 75 CS teachers there with their teams (ranging from very small schools to the largest ones in Texas--there are also quite a few private schools that compete as well).These numbers increase yearly. Look at all the UIL Computer Science teams competing in each division. Sure, there are some schools that do not have qualified teachers, but at least there is some sort of program in their school. We have reached out to the schools in our district to help the Computer Science teachers with their curriculum. In the Houston area alone, there are about 50 CS teachers alone that are teaching CS all day. I can say the same about the Austin and Dallas areas. If you look at the number of students who take the AP Computer Science test--Texas has the most takers in the US. We are the "Computer Science role model" for our entire nation. I was recently at CMU for their AP workshop and the others who were attending (from various other states) wanted to know what Texas was "doing right" in the computer science arena. We have many CS advocates who lobbied to get AP CS as a math credit in our state. Overall, I do not see Texas in a computer science crisis. I do agree that counselors have an impact on our enrollment -- they do not understand our courses. This is our responsibility to educate them and let them know that anyone who is interested in going into engineering or any of the STEM fields need to take a Computer Science course. I do not have the problem of counselors telling students NOT to take the AP exams--in fact, our school is a big advocate of AP tests. In spite of the option of dual credit courses, our AP numbers have soared over the past five years.

Fri, Aug 7, 2009 Tom Maryland

I've been teaching CS in Public Schools for 8 years, having retired as a working Computer Scientist to do something that I thought would make a difference. What I see is a systemic failure: 1) The American political system lacks the knowledge and the political will (courage) to confront the basic problem that we see not just in CS, but in Mathematics and Science across the board. Instead, they cling to whichever lobbying group either promises the fattest payoff or threatens political reprisals. Their children don't attend these schools ... trust me. 2) The American people want a world class education system but don't want to pay for it---this includes cultural as well as economic costs. The Reagan-era narrative (fiction) of greed and fear has created a cultural atmosphere that is backward as opposed to forward looking. 3) The Public School system has been under a constant state of assault thanks to NCLB for nearly 10 years. Consequently, Administrators are in a state of retrenchment, and teachers are caught between angry, concerned parents and stressed-out Administrators. Many good teachers are leaving, even in these dire times, because the application of factory-floor tactics have reduced (de-skilled) teaching. 4) Teachers, as a group, have failed to organize or advocate; this is largely the result of laws passed by right-wing lobbying groups whose primary interests are not educational, and balkanization brought about by NCLB's artificial distinction among core-content areas ---so-called "Highly qualified" versus all others. In summary: it's astonishing that we have any students who still study Computer Science ... . I will close in noting that a majority of mine are NOT American citizens. American students seem more interested in careers that offer profit that comes out of the efforts of others (think Securities Brokers, Investment Bankers, the very people who have brought us to this state of affairs), than those which require long-term education and the development of products.

Thu, Aug 6, 2009 High School CS Teacher Oregon

For the last six years I have been teaching curriculum developed by the TeachScheme!/ReachJava group. This organization addreses many of the reasons for decline in CS enrollment. They offer first-rate professional workshops throughout the country , a great curriculum and an IDE designed for beginners. I have seen enrollment in my pre-AP course go from 15 to 50+ with this approach. The curriculum and IDE are free and available online. More information can be had at http://www.teach-scheme.org/.

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 IT/CS Teacher BC, Canada

Teens in this age are very independent. They have access to information, software, music, movies, etc exponentially more than any previous generation. Along within the internet comes a plethora of self help tutorials. Along with the students’ high self efficacy, students don’t need a course, or certificate, or degree, they can do it all with Google and their home computer.
Almost every “Gifted” CS student also has their idea of what they want to do and learn instead of the curriculum.
In addition, the pace of technology change is staggering. As a fellow teacher once told me, “Teaching Computers is like teaching Social Studies, when there is a new world war to study each year”

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 CS Teacher Texas

An ongoing battle over my last 15 years has been Counselors who deliberately push gifted students in other directions. I have had counselors tell students there is no need to take the AP Exam. This to a student who would have passed it easily. School administration is just nearly as bad. Too many principals and administrators make no effort to consider it in four year plans and often schedule it against required courses. Add to it the lack of Qualified people entering the CS teaching areas and it becomes a program that is slowly working towards non existence. In a survey of 120+ High schools in Texas - there was a total of 11 CS teachers. Half of those are of age and experience to retire in the next 5-8 years. Schools that lose CS teachers in Texas - rarely get them replaced - there is a dramatic shortage. It may be that high schools have to turn to colleges and teach dual credit with a college professor. ... OOPs - in that 120 schools I surveyed - there was less that 20% within reach of a college or university that had a CS Program. So the outsourcing will continue. Cause the US is not taking steps to meet the demands.

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 Parent in MN Twin Cities, MN

My son graduated from a good college in MN in 2006 with a BS in computer science (programming). He got a great job and is doing well. There were apparently many jobs available for each graduate at that time. The following year the college dropped a number of their courses because so few students were enrolling in the courses. The entire computer science program is now nearly dead. The profs were very good, too. My son attributes this decline to what high school counselors are telling students about the prospects for jobs in that field. Back when he was in high school the counselors heard that job prospects were not very good in that field. Students shifted their focus and interest in other directions as a result. If high school counselors are more up to date about the direction of this industry, perhaps more students would have pursued this field. Who informs these people about trends? How accurate is that information and are they considering time delays in the quality/validity of their information?

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 Kids Talk Radio Long Beach, California

We have to think different about how we use computers in the classrooms and how we teach computer science. At this point we are going to have to survey the students. I would put my money on project based learning and integrate the teaching of technology in a very creative way that leads to world of work. I agree that NCLB is in need of a serious update.

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