• Computer Science Courses on the Decline — THE Journal
  tags: computerscience
  • Computer science is on the decline in American high schools
  • 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 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.”
  • Thirty-one percent reported that NCLB had a negative impact on their CS programs
  • lack of teacher subject knowledge, lack of student subject knowledge, difficult subject matter, lack of student interest, and lack of hardware and software resources.
  • 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).

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