Tech Giants Are Right To Push Mandatory Computer Courses
Public education has long provided a foundation on which to foster and sustain the growth of the United States into an industrial power. Aside from teaching basic skills, schools became a training ground for teenagers who wanted to learn the skills that would make them more employable in the trades of the Industrial Age economy, such as manufacturing and printing.
That “old economy” has now given way to one based on information and information processing, which requires new skills and a more modern approach to education. So, the recent call by technology giants such as Google and Microsoft to mandate computer science courses in Massachusetts' public schools as early as the eighth grade is welcome, if not just for everyone's knowledge level but also to grow a pipeline of workers for a dominant and constantly changing industry that has become ubiquitous throughout society. It's especially important here because of the state's reputation as a center of technology and innovation.
Advocating for such a change is the easy part. The hard part is implementing it. That's where the industry needs to offer more than just words, and that's why their offering of money for infrastructure and teacher training is welcome, especially because many of the state's public school systems say they don't have enough money to provide their students with a quality education.
But the industry should also offer their expertise directly in the classroom to supplement what the teachers are teaching. That can give their proposal a valuable turbo boost by showing students how technology work gets done in a corporate setting, as well as how the technology education they receive can be applied in the workplace, offering an example of the potential impact their knowledge can have.
Here in Central Massachusetts, programs at Quinsigamond Community College and Mount Wachusett Community College are demonstrating how education and industry can work together effectively to help increase the skill levels of today's and tomorrow's work forces in Massachusetts. This latest call from the technology companies opens the door to a similar initiative, one that can complement recent efforts to emphasize instruction in the STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — at both the college and pre-collegiate levels. It's an initiative that, to date, Massachusetts has not gotten serious enough about.
The MassTLC Education Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates expansion of computer education, says the Bay State is one of 40 that have not adopted computer science standards for kindergarten through grade 12. And last year, it notes, less than 1 percent of graduating high school seniors took the advanced placement exam for computer science.
Actions Must Match Reputation
As a technology hub, Massachusetts should be a leader and not a laggard in both areas. While the state and local school districts would have to work out the details of mandating computer science into curricula (which means changing graduation requirements), this also offers the technology industry — and, by extension, the business community — a prime opportunity to build the skills that can help strengthen the state's leadership in technology and keep more technology talent here.
There's no excuse for not preparing our students for the new economy. Yet, the burden of improving that effort should not rest solely on educators.
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