Congress has a well-earned reputation for doing little-to-nothing, legislatively speaking. When the newly installed Republican Congress promised to move on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), a bill that had not been reauthorized since No Child Left Behind was pasted into law in 2001, and had expired eight years ago, most people thought it would go nowhere. Over the last year Congress has proved the naysayers wrong.
On October 7th President Obama signed into law the STEM Education Act (Public Law No: 114-59; originally introduced as HR 1020). Among other things, the legisaltion expands the federal definition of STEM to specifically include computer science.
With their wildly successful 2013 drive under their belt, Code.org is ready to reach even more students with their 2014 Hour of Code (HOC) campaign. This year’s HOC, featuring Anna and Elsa from Disney’s Frozen, will be a one-hour activity where students, “will learn to write code to help Anna and Elsa create snowflakes and […]
If your Facebook and Twitter feeds are anything like mine, you’re no doubt already aware of the rather unfortunate August 27th column in the Washington Post penned by small-business owner Casey Ark headlined “I studied computer science, not English. I still can’t find a job.” In it, Ark laments that the degree he received at […]
The STEM Ed bill that would explicitly include CS in the definition of STEM will be on the House floor today on the “suspension” calendar, a status that allows the House to consider it in somewhat expedited fashion. This is reserved for non-controversial bills and limits debate on the bill to 40 minutes, doesn’t allow […]
Good news, computer science majors: you’ll make more money, on average, in your first job after college! According to a recent report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), engineering and computer science majors, on average, make twice as much as their humanities and social science peers in their starting jobs; they even […]
Despite strong current and projected future demand for computer science skills in nearly every field, most K-12 schools don’t offer computer science and most students don’t get exposure to it on any level, Code.org founder Hadi Partovi told a congressional panel last Thursday. Testifying before the House Science Subcommittee on Research and Technology hearing on […]
Code.org’s amazingly successful Hour of Code campaign will get some further congressional attention on Thursday as the House Science Subcommittee on Research and Technology will hear from Code.org founder Hadi Partovi as part of a hearing on “Private Sector Programs that Engage Students in STEM”. It starts at 10am and will be webcast live (check […]
The House STEM Education Caucus hosted a briefing on various STEM programs occurring at the undergraduate level, in conjunction with the Association of American Universities (AAU), Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), the Business Higher Education Forum, and the Research Corporation of Science Advancement. Each organization spoke about the need for such STEM […]
On Friday the House passed HR 5, the Student Success Act, by a vote of 221-207. The bill would rewrite many of the provisions of the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and include provisions helpful to computer science education and educators. These provisions were put in place because of an amendment […]
