Every Student Deserves a Chance to Study Computer Science

Today many of California’s top business leaders and educators join forces with a message: we must work to give more students access to computer science in our schools.

Representatives from Microsoft, Google, as well as Jack Dorsey, Reid Hoffman, Marc Benioff, Reed Hastings, Drew Houston, Jeff Weiner, and John Doerr are among signatories of a letter asking to work with California Governor Jerry Brown to make a “meaningful investment” to expand computer science in the state’s K-12 schools. They are joined by superintendents of San Francisco, Oakland, as well as the President of Stanford.

This comes on the heels of Code.org announcing partnerships with school districts reaching more than 2 million students to expand computer science programs. (Sadly, none of these partnerships were in California, but I hope we can establish partnerships in the Bay Area and Los Angeles for the 2015 school year.)

In the past week we also passed many new milestones: 34 million students have tried an Hour of Code since the campaign launched in December. 1 million of these students continued on to try Code.org’s follow-on course. And we helped computer science make the covers of The Economist and Washington Post.

Great.. But why EVERY student?

People often ask me “does every student need to code?” and the answer is “no.” But every student in this country must have at least the opportunity to learn - an opportunity that is unavailable in 90% of US schools. America has always been the land of opportunity, but our schools must adapt to hold on to that claim. Today 90% of schools deny students the chance to study computer science. Given the impact of technology and the opportunities in the field, this is increasingly a civil rights issue.

Also, the point isn’t to “learn to code.” The point is to learn how technology works, to learn basic computer science and the associated problem solving skills. Our schools teach students how electricity works or how to dissect a frog because these foundational skills explain how the world works and prepare students for their future. Software is changing everything. To prepare students for the 21st century, shouldn’t our schools also equip them with an understanding of how the Internet works, how to analyze big data, or how to “dissect an app?”

I hope we can all agree it’s time for our schools to catch up to demands of the software century. Fortunately, this work should pay for itself and more, because of the astonishing job/student gap in computer science.

The job/student gap in Computer Science is truly astounding

There’s a debate about whether or not there is a skills gap in STEM (science technology engineering math). That’s because STEM is the wrong lens to look at. The real job gap is in computer science, which drives more than half the jobs across all STEM fields.

Right now in California, computing jobs statewide outnumber annual computer science graduates by 16-to-1. In Texas, it’s 13-to-1 and in Washington: 27-to-1! This issue impacts every single state, and nationwide the ratio is roughly 3-to-1.

Computer programming positions go unfilled in this country every day, in every single industry. If you compare the field’s projected job growth to the graduation rate of students over 10 years, it adds up to 1 million more jobs than students. That’s a $500 billion missed opportunity for our nation. This is not just a California problem. And it’s not a tech-industry problem when two-thirds of these jobs are in other fields.

To make things worse, women and students of color are severely underrepresented in this foundational field. Although they represent 75% of our nation's population, they only account for 20% of the students in the field.

Evidence shows that students are 6 times more likely to try computer science in university if they have a chance to try it when they’re younger. To change these shocking statistics, we need to give students access to computer science in high school or sooner. Code.org has proven that students can learn the basics as early as 6 years old. It’s time we allowed all our students this opportunity, not just the lucky 10%.

The last 12 months: a sea-change in US education

As a result of partnerships with Code.org, students in cities from New York City to Chicago to Denver, stretching from Broward County, Florida to Spokane, Washington, will begin learning computer science this fall. Code.org will provide curriculum, professional development and mentorship support for teachers, enabling these districts to make computer science a standard part of the public school curriculum. And our online course for students in elementary and middle schools has already been adopted in 20,000 classrooms within its first 4 months of availability.

Looking back at the last 12 months, I’m encouraged to report that Code.org has helped influence policy in 10 US states to better support computer science programs for high school students. Last month, Texas updated its education code to require every high school to offer two computer science courses.

Right now in California — where less than 5 percent of public K-12 schools teach computer science — there are six active bills aimed at expanding access to computer science in K-12 schools. The Los Angeles Unified School District Board has called on the Superintendent to report on a strategy for expanding access to computer science within 90 days.

This momentum gives us a lot to be excited about. But there are huge gaps still to fill.

With the support of business leaders, parents, educators, politicians and students, we’re taking necessary first steps to close the computer-science-skills gap. Every student deserves the opportunity to be prepared for the 21st century workforce. Let’s keep going.

If you want to support this work, sign the petition at https://code.org. Help us reach 2 million signatures. Or if you’re a bit more adventurous, try an Hour of Code, preferably with your son, daughter, niece, or nephew. Or ask your local teacher, principal, or district superintendent to add computer science to the classroom.

Hadi Partovi
CEO, Code.org