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Computer Science for Rhode Island Program Gains National Attention

The stated goal is to have a computer science course in all public schools, kindergarten through grade 12, by December 2017.

(TNS) — WEST WARWICK — Rhode Island is well along in Governor Gina Raimondo’s program to establish computer science classes in all public schools.

Her Computer Science for Rhode Island program, the governor said, drew U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. to the state Monday to celebrate Computer Science Education Week, which runs through Sunday.

At West Warwick High School, for example, principal Phil Solomon said 20 percent of students are taking computer science, up from 1 percent last year.

Because weather delayed his flight from Washington, D.C., King was late for an event at the high school. But he arrived in time to make a few remarks at a roundtable discussion in the library and to sit with students in a computer-coding class.

In the roundtable, 11th-grade student Austin Laramee described how students are collaborating with Stanford University to gather genetic information for the war on cancer. In the class, ninth grader Gabriel Calcagni told a reporter that students were using Python software to write code for a game called "Hangman."

Raimondo announced Computer Science for Rhode Island nine months ago. Now, there are computer science courses in 181 of 306 public schools in Rhode Island. Previously, the figure was not tracked.

Using another measure, Raimondo spokeswoman Marie Aberger said there were nine advanced-placement computer science courses at Rhode Island’s 60-plus high schools in 2015. Now, she said, there are 32.

The stated goal is to have a computer science course in all public schools, kindergarten through grade 12, by December 2017.

Raimondo said during the roundtable talk that by 2022, there will be a need to fill 4,000 computer science and mathematics jobs in Rhode Island and that students must qualify themselves for those jobs.

She announced that the University of Rhode Island, Johnson & Wales University, Rhode Island College and Bryant University will offer minor concentrations in web development in 2017, enabling students to earn the credential they will need to get those jobs.

"Because a minor doesn’t require additional tuition or time, it has the potential to increase significantly the number of students graduating with computer science training," state Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor said in a statement.

Said Nick Kishfy, chief executive officer of MojoTech, "Candidates who’ve completed computer science minors along with majors in other STEM fields have had great success with us." STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

King and Raimondo were joined at West Warwick High School by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, state Education Commissioner Ken Wagner and state Chief Innovation Officer Richard Culatta.

King and the others then went to Providence Career and Technical Academy to observe a welding demonstration and meet with participants in a career and technical training program done in partnership with General Dynamics Electric Boat.

When students graduate, Electric Boat would hire them to work on a replacement for the Ohio class of ballistic-missile submarines and continue their education at the Community College of Rhode Island and/or New England Institute of Technology.

In West Warwick, Reed declared, "There’s no way you’re going to escape computers," even for manual labor.

©2016 The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.