The start of the Computer Science for Alabama program (CS4Alabama) three years ago is one component for success for computer science education in Alabama schools.
And over the past two years, enrollment in computer science courses has nearly quintupled, according to the computer science department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) — and state educators say they hope continued investment will keep growing the number of Alabama children interested and prepared to take on careers in a growing field.
“CS4Alabama continues to be a team effort with support from the governor’s office, the legislature, the ALSDE, as well as support from state universities and education nonprofits,” said Amanda Dykes, computer science specialist at the Alabama Department of Education. “Having a strong team, legislation and policy and teacher support is really what has made the initiative so successful.”
During 2019, CS4Alabama met all nine of Code.org’s recommendations to improve computer science education and training in the state, becoming the sixth state to do so. In the same year, Alabama passed a certification to train more computer science educators, added funding for more professional development and began an effort that requires all schools to offer computer science, as well as other efforts to boost the field.
Curriculum from the site is used in 32 percent of elementary and high schools and 34 percent of middle schools. Here’s a look at the demographics of students in Alabama using Code.org curriculum last school year:
- 54 percent attend high needs schools
- 42 percent are in rural schools
- 45 percent are female students
- 23 percent are Black/ African American students
- 7 percent are Hispanic/Latino/Latina students
Yuliang Zheng, the department chair of computer science at UAB, emphasizes the importance of computer science college preparedness for teens in middle and high school.
“Graduates of UAB’s computer science program are highly sought-after by both industries and government agencies,” Zheng said. “They are employed as cybersecurity specialists, software engineers, data scientists, IT system administrators, mobile app developers and business application architects.”
There are currently 9,044 open computing jobs with an average salary of $86,870 in Alabama, according to Code.org.
“Legislation and policies in place really gave Alabama’s K-12 Computer Science efforts the push to make it all work,” said Dawn Morrison, another computer science specialist at ALSDE.
“Schools are required to have CS. The phased-in approach made the CS requirement more manageable.”
The Pathways for Alabama Computer Science program is another Alabama grant that just completed its first year of outreach. This is a $2.3 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to establish a statewide computer science pathway for high schools.
“The PACS grant is a partnership with the Alabama State Department of Education, University of Alabama, Haynie Research and Evaluation, Tuskegee University and AMSTI,” Morrison said.
“The research aspect of the grant is on the efficacy of implementing computer science pathways in rural Alabama high schools,” Dykes said. During the 2021-22 school year, 1,195 students participated and she expects these numbers to grow over the next few years.
“I encourage students in middle and high schools to nurture their interest in computer science by taking computing courses offered by schools. I also encourage students to do well in mathematics in general but calculus in particular,” Zheng said, “as success in [the] computing profession is closely correlated to performance in those courses.”
“Enrollment in the computer science program at UAB has quintupled in the past few years. We have recently welcomed over 1,250 new and returning students to the fall 2022 semester. We now probably have the largest CS program in the state,” he continued. “An additional unique advantage of computing profession is that an increasing number of employers offer remote and off-site work as an incentive to attract computing professionals, giving them a much wider range of choices for a desired job.”
Next steps for computer science education in Alabama include elementary school requirements and increasing student enrollment and CS pathway options in the schools.
“In 2022-2023, all elementary schools must provide computer science instruction. Once the data from each district comes back on Sept. 30, it will be easier to gauge where the biggest need for support will be,” Dykes said. “There were over 1,000 teachers trained this summer through A+ College Ready, AMSTI and our state Alabama Technology in Motion specialists.”
The 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 Alabama CS expansion reports can be viewed here:
2020-2021:
- Secondary Schools with CS course offerings = 367
- High Schools = 296
- Middle Schools = 119
- Students enrolled in CS courses = 18,171
2021-2022:
- Secondary Schools with CS course offerings = 514
- High Schools = 316
- Middle Schools = 336
- Students enrolled in CS courses = 35,709
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