I was certified in our state. The test was pretty simple pseudocode, some big O, and technical (e.g. file format) type questions.
Let's say there was a national set of standards for CS teacher certification - would that help more students get involved in CS or have a better CS education? Most of the 9-12 CS curriculum I've seen is all heavily Java centric based on AP test standards. Only a small percentage of the schools in my state have CS programs and the majority of the programs are near identical in scope, sequence, and materials - as it's done all in preparation for the AP CS test. This approach does little to benefit CS matriculation and little to increase diversity. It's seems that more CS0 programs are needed but schools won't support them as the only goal of a CS programming is to boost AP test taker numbers. (Of course there are some very nice exceptions to this in my state but they are the exception.) How might raising the bar on an already marginalized subject increase CS participation? (This isn't a strictly rhetorical question - perhaps there is a connection I do not see.) Oh and an appropriate question for this list - supposing there is a core standard - who tests it? which language do they use? Test companies make policy more often than educators - will we be locked into Java only for the next 20 years? .net? On 07/31/2012 01:50 PM, Karsten 'quaid' Wade wrote: > I was just talking with Selena Deckelmann about computer science in > K12, a conversation partially spurred by this report: > > http://www.acm.org/runningonempty/ > > We were talking about the advantage of having a national CS curriculum > definition and reference certification. (Recognizing that states set > their own standards, yet the vast majority haven't, so providing a > reference certification may have some value.) > > I'm curious if anyone knows of an existing K12 teacher certification > for computer science? > > In other words, does it exist and just needs promoting? Or does it > need creating? > > - Karsten _______________________________________________ tos mailing list [email protected] http://lists.teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos _______________________________________________ tos mailing list [email protected] http://lists.teachingopensource.org/mailman/listinfo/tos
