Providing computer science courses in the early grades has been touted in recent years as a path to better education in America’s public schools. But is it really?
Maybe not, according to recent study the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The Illinois researchers looked at educational performance in California schools where computer science courses have been mandatory. Their conclusion: “A greater emphasis on computer science education did not produce the anticipated spillover effects, neither improving nor harming students’ math or English language arts skills, according to school-level test scores.”
The researchers also found that increased enrollment in computing courses was accompanied by a decreased enrollment in humanities courses, such as the arts and social studies.
The Illinois study also revealed “significant racial and gender disparities among computer science students and teachers. Black, Hispanic and Native American youths often were less likely to attend schools that offered computer science courses than their Asian or white peers. But even when they had similar access to these courses, all girls and Black, Hispanic and Native American boys were underrepresented in computer science enrollments – disparities that the researchers believe are influenced by the relative scarcity of computer science teachers who are women or racial and ethnic minorities.”
What does all this mean? Well, among other things, it means that implementing computer science in the public schools may be more problematic than was generally thought. It also means that the public education system cannot assume that computing courses will improve other critical skills such as reading and math.
Research lead Dr. Colleen M. Lewis concluded, “Effective and equitable computer science implementation requires more than enrolling ever-growing numbers of students in ever-growing numbers of courses.”