Industry leaders, state education leaders, and policymakers should join forces in preparing students for the growing computing workforce that drives innovation and sustains economic growth. Working together, they should design and implement comprehensive computer science education and computing workforce development plans that increase opportunities for academic and career technology education programs. These plans should align state policies, programs, and resources to foster computer science education requirements that enable K-12 students to succeed in postsecondary degree programs in computer science and other computing-related fields. In support of that goal, ten recommendations in the report provide guidance to these leaders to develop plans in their own context.
Overall Recommendation
Each state needs to have an education and computing workforce development plan that includes K-12 computer science education, and should align state policy, programs, and resources to support the plan.
Detailed Recommendations
Each state's plan should have strategies to fill its computing workforce needs in the growing number of computing-dependent occupations both inside and outside traditional high-technology industries.
All students should have access to, and be encouraged to complete, a rigorous computer science course in high school.
Rigorous computer science courses should count as a core high school graduation requirement in computer science, mathematics, or science.
States or localities should adopt a clear definition of rigorous computer science grounded in the CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards and should establish clear, relevant, and attainable requirements for computer science teacher certification.
States and major school districts should adopt education paths for computer science within both academic and career technical education programs.
College and university admissions requirements should allow incoming students to count a rigorous computer science course as a core credit.
Community colleges, four-year colleges, and universities should create clear articulation agreements for the transfer of computer science courses.
Each state's computer science education and computing workforce development plan should include explicit actions for obtaining the full participation of females and other underrepresented populations.
State and local STEM councils should include computer science representation.
Business and government leaders should clearly articulate the importance of the computing field to the economy and to community wellbeing.
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