Way to go, Ohio! State adopts computer science standards and curriculum
On Dec. 11, the Ohio Board of Education took a huge step forward by adopting K-12 computer science standards and model curriculum — the first ever for the state!
Adopting these standards illustrates Ohio’s commitment to ensuring a quality computer science education for all of its students. “We know there are half a dozen states that passed similar legislation, and there is a deficiency in this skill set among K-12 students, especially in Ohio,” said Ohio Rep. Rick Carfagna, a sponsor of the bill, in an interview with Education Week.
In addition to K-8 grade level and high school foundational and advanced standards, the model curriculum includes expectations for learning, as well as content elaboration for each topic. The standards are divided into the following concepts: Computing Systems, Networks and the Internet, Data and Analysis, Algorithmic Thinking and Programming, and Impacts of Computing.
The standards were required by House Bill 170, which passed in 2017 thanks to the support of Rep. Carfagna and his co-sponsor, Rep. Duffey. Over the past year, dozens of educators across the state worked in teams to craft the standards with the support of the Ohio Department of Education.
The adoption of the standards means Ohio has now adopted four out of nine policies that support CS education in states, according to the State of CS report released earlier this year by the Code.org Advocacy Coalition and the Computer Science Teachers Association.
The state saw 1137 computer science graduates in 2015, with eighteen percent of those graduates being female students. Only 141 schools (19 percent of schools with AP programs) offered any AP Computer Science course in 2017–2018, which is 10 more schools than the previous year.
Implementation of the new standards will occur in the 2019–2020 school year. Congratulations on taking this important step Ohio!
