Guest Blog – Barb Ericson on requiring CS for entry into college – prior experience helps a lot

To a question about Requiring CS for Entry into College? Barb Ericson posted this on the CSTA list recently. With her permission I’m reposting her comments here – they contain much of relevance to both high schools and colleges.

At Georgia Tech we do require every student to take and pass CS1 to graduate. I use this requirement to argue for more computing in high school. Advanced Placement Computer Science A does count as a science for high school graduation and this has helped increase the number of schools that offer AP CS A in Georgia (now 83 schools, up from 44 in 2004) and the number of students who take the AP CS A exam (over 1,000 in 2012 vs 422 in 2007). Yes, the quality of those teachers varies, but that is true in any field. I have been surprised how many schools have managed to find teachers who know at least some programming and are willing to learn more. Of course, there are also schools that have teachers who know little about computing and aren’t trying to learn more. But, I think that the schools and district should police this, not the universities.

Studies have shown that taking a programming class makes it much more likely for a student to pass a CS1 in college and this effect is even stronger for females (4 times more likely to succeed). Students who receive a 4 or 5 on the AP CS A exam don’t have to take any CS at Georgia Tech or can jump to the 2nd course if they want to continue. A survey that we did of students in introductory computing classes in colleges and universities in Georgia did find that many students and especially many minorities in computing did have prior experience in computing. A study by the College Board found that students who took AP CS in high school were more likely to take computing classes in college.

I believe that if we really want to substantially increase the percentage of females and minorities in computing then we should make computing required in high school. The Calculus AB exam is 48% female (vs 18% for CS A) in part because there is a perception that Calculus is required for any student who wants to go to college for any STEM subject. I think computer science is just as important as Calculus. However, Calculus still doesn’t have a large percentage of minorities, since it isn’t available at every school and doesn’t reach all students even at the schools were it is offered.

It would be great if every high school student had the opportunity to take computer science. The new CS Principles course should help increase the number of schools that offer computing.

Barbara Ericson
Director, Computing Outreach
College of Computing
Georgia Tech