Hi Wes -- I'm in agreement with points 7 & 8 in:
https://code.org/files/Making_CS_Fundamental.pdf i.e. the policy of making compsci courses count towards math requirements. NCTM has endorsed this approach as well, though maybe only luke-warmly. The above paper, Making Computer Science Fundamental to K–12 Education: Eight Policy Ideas. is linked from: https://k12cs.org/implementation-curriculum-course-pathways-and-teacher-development/ wherein it's suggested high schools offer "specialized courses" in addition to AP CS. That leaves the door open for some much needed innovation and curriculum development (what role will the teachers themselves play in that?). Here's my main question: will already on-the-job math teachers get it together to offer these "specialized courses" that include significant amounts of programming? Example titles these high school math teachers might use: Hacking Math Class by Peter Farrell http://www.farrellpolymath.com/ (uses Raspberry-Pi) Mathematics for the Digital Age & Programming in Python by Litvin & Litvin http://www.skylit.com/mathandpython.html Doing Math with Python by Amit Saha https://www.nostarch.com/doingmathwithpython In other words, what public policies will enable / empower math teachers to shift gears and get certification to teach these specialized compsci-like courses? As a consultant to the Oregon legislature, and lobbyist, I'm keen to provide such opportunities to Oregon's math teachers, in part so we don't have to wait for an all new compsci faculty to boot itself up within every high school. That'll take longer than offering free professional devel- opment to the math teachers we've already got. It's not either / or. https://medium.com/@kirbyurner/the-plight-of-high-school-math-teachers-c0faf0a6efe6#.7wj2ik8o3 Thoughts? Kirby PS: also, yes to teaching unit testing, testing in general, early. That's part of the "check your work" ethic already prevalent in math teaching. I show that approach in action here, about composition of functions. https://github.com/4dsolutions/Python5/blob/master/Abducted!.ipynb (see code cell #5)
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