On April 11, the Colorado State Board of Education received recommendations to teach these topics within the subject of computer science to all grades. Recommendations to that effect have been in place at the high school level since 2018. The board is expected to render a decision when it reconvenes May 8-9, Jeremy Meyer, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Education, wrote in an email.
“Local school boards set their own requirements,” he wrote. “State legislation encourages this, but [it is] not a requirement.”
According to the Colorado Department of Education’s website, “the responsible use of social media platforms” would be part of digital citizenship instruction across grade levels.
Bobbie Bastian, a computer science instructor in the Adams 12 Five Star Schools District and chair of the Colorado Department of Education’s Computer Science Committee, said there is a strong push from educators statewide to give students more access to computer science classes. Some schools already offer instruction on programming, computational thinking and network systems at the lower grade levels based on standards recommended by the national Computer Science Teachers Association.
Computer science instruction at the elementary school level is crucial, she said, because students lose interest by middle school and are less likely to select computer science as an elective when they reach high school. Bastian’s committee has worked on computer science recommendations for nine years, with the past four dedicated to standards for the lower grades.
“If they don’t have exposure before high school, they just op out,” Bastian said, adding that she trains high school students in her district to teach computer science to lower grade levels. “If you haven’t been exposed to something, how do you know if you’re going to like it or not?”
Bastian said that in the past, there were proposals before the Colorado state Legislature to require computer science as a core subject like math, science, social studies and English language arts, but lawmakers lacked the political will to push it through.
Colorado is one of six U.S. states that does not have a statewide digital learning plan and does not require the implementation of such a plan at the district level, according to the State Educational Technology Directors Association.
Colorado is not the only state where education leaders are pushing for computer science instruction but stop short of mandating it. In New York state, the Department of Education noted earlier this year that it will phase in a required computer science teacher certification, and the state allows computer science courses to count as one unit of math or science toward high school graduation.
According to Code.org, a nonprofit that promotes the growth of computer science in grades K-12, most states do not yet require computer science for high school graduation, but all of them have shown progress — “a groundswell of interest” in encouraging the subject across various grade levels.
“Tens of thousands of teachers are going through professional development to bring computer science into their schools. Hundreds of school districts have embraced computer science in their curriculum. And in the past five years, every state has responded to this growing interest by passing policies to boost computer science,” Code.org’s website says.
