[TOS] CS certification for K12 - what is out there?

[Matt Jadud]

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Don Davis <dondavis at reglue.org> wrote:
> 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?

If it helps create more teachers, possibly.

> 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.

Yep. Sad, but a reasonable compression.

> 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.)

I don't see it, either.

> 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?

I was talking with an unnamed senior member of an unnamed open source
company about their vision for open source and education---and their
hope was geometric growth of (CS) educators well versed in open
tools/engagement in the classroom. The problem, of course, is that
there's billions of people to adopt Twitter, and... how many CS
educators in the US? In the world? Not so many. You run out of
gemoetries to do geometric growth in very quickly.

However, if there was a sustained, meaningful, substantial effort on
the part of open (as in FOSS)-minded companies, then perhaps this is a
space where the tyranny of the closed (the AP system, etc.) might be
supplanted with a system that was fundamentally open and free. (Think
how many years, and the size of the community, that was required to
get industry to acknowledge open technologies as solutions.) However,
that would require a commitment of large dollars and a long-term, 10+
year vision. We can't casually do it as disparate practitioners (the
NSF doesn't provide that kind of support for HS and college faculty to
engage in that kind of design, development, lobbying, etc.), but we
could, perhaps, with a catalyst.

Of course, in an open framework, the question is "who wants to scratch
that itch?" The AP decided there was big money in it, if "done right."
But, it isn't clear to me if that approach is *right* w.r.t. good
education.

Those are some underdeveloped thoughts, but they popped in and I
thought I'd respond with them.

Cheers,
M