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Learning Computer Science is for Every Student!

Computer-Science-for-Alaska-Logo

Our world is driven by technology. Computer Science has become a “new basic” skill necessary for all students. Alaska strives to provide all our K-12 students the access to high-quality Computer Science education, preparing them for both personal and professional success in the 21st century.

Learning Computer Science is for EVERY student!

Why Study Computer Science?

  • Digital literacy and technological fluency: By learning computer science, students gain a solid foundation in technology, coding, and problem-solving, enabling them to become confident and informed users of digital tools.

  • Future job opportunities: The demand for computer science professionals is rapidly growing across various industries. By introducing computer science at an early age, K-12 students can develop the skills and knowledge needed to pursue careers in fields like software development, data science, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and more. Learning computer science can open doors to lucrative and fulfilling job opportunities in the future.

  • Problem-solving and critical thinking skills: Computer science education promotes computational thinking, which involves breaking down complex problems into smaller, manageable parts and developing step-by-step solutions. These problem-solving skills are valuable not only in computer science but also in many other disciplines and real-life situations.

  • Creativity and innovation: Computer science encourages students to think creatively and explore their imagination. It provides a platform for students to design and develop their own software applications, games, websites, and other digital creations. Through coding and programming, students can express their creativity, bring ideas to life, and develop innovative solutions to real-world challenges.

  • Collaboration and teamwork: Computer science education often involves collaborative projects, where students work together to solve problems or create software applications. These collaborative experiences help students develop teamwork, communication, and interpersonal skills that help them share ideas, contribute to a team, and effectively collaborate with others.

  • Understanding the world around them: Computers and technology have become integral parts of our daily lives. By learning computer science, students gain a deeper understanding of the technologies they use and the digital systems that surround them. They become informed consumers of technology, capable of making responsible decisions about privacy, security, and the ethical implications of their digital interactions.

    How does DEED Support Alaska K-12 Computer Science?

    To make computer science a fundamental part of the state education system, Alaska Department of Education and Early Development focuses on nine policies that are aligned with the Alaska Education Challenges to expand computer science education in K-12 schools.

    Alaska-Computer-Science-Plan-diagram
    • Alaska adopted its first CS K-12 standards in March 2019.

    • On March 26, 2019, Commissioner of Education and Early Development Michael Johnson issued a letter[1] that districts may choose to allow a CS course (including advanced placement (AP)) to fulfill one of the following as part of the high school graduation requirements:

      • A credit requirement in mathematics;
      • A credit requirement in science;
      • A local elective requirement; or
      • A local CTE or technology requirement.

    • On August 22, 2022, the Statewide Coding and Computer Science Career Coordinator position was filled at the Department of Education and Early Development.

    • On June 8, 2023, the Alaska State Board of Education adopted the first Alaska Computer Science State Plan.

    • In June 2023, Computer Science endorsement and new Praxis required scores for Computer Science subject updated.

    [1] https://education.alaska.gov/edtech/pdf/cs-credits-letter.pdf

    The Alaska State Board of Education
    Adopts the Alaska Computer Science State Plan 

    Computer Science (CS) is driving innovation in almost every sector of the US economy. Findings show that over 80% of software engineers are currently working remotely full time and working from home is becoming the new normal work arrangement. All of these present to our Alaska students tremendous career opportunities with competitive pay while they continue to live and thrive in the communities that they and many generations before them grew up in.

    Alaska’s Education Challenge identified increasing career, technical, and culturally relevant education to meet student and workforce needs as one of its five strategic priorities. Computer Science education in K-12 is an essential part of this strategic priority.

    A state plan is invaluable for strategically thinking through complex CS policies and program implementations. A well-designed state plan provides coherence to the overall CS expansion effort, links individual policy with consistent purposes, and ensures an organized approach to all program implementations. 

    DEED initiated the effort on the Alaska Computer Science State Plan in October 2022 and went through the following major milestones:

    • Completed the initial draft of the plan in December 2022.

    • Established the CS State Plan Review Committee comprising representatives from school districts, school administrators, State Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, CS teachers, postsecondary CS and Education programs, indigenous education organizations, CS staff development agencies, and other CS support groups in the state.

    • Led the CS State Plan Review Committee’s review of the initial draft of the CS State Plan offline in three one-hour virtual meetings and incorporated the committee’s comments and recommendations into the revised CS State Plan.

    • Announced the CS State Plan in its annual Perkins Application Workshop during February 8-9, 2023.

    • Presented the CS State Plan on February 18, 2023, during the Education Rewired ASTE 2023 Conference and held a Q&A session.

    • Presented the CS State Plan on March 29, 2023, in the State Board CTE Committee meeting and revised the CS State Plan to address all the comments from the meeting.

    • Published the CS State Plan on the Online Public Notice (http://notice.alaska.gov/210495) for public comments from Friday, March 31, 2023 to Monday, May 1, 2023, at 5:00 PM; Revised the CS State Plan to address all the comments and responded to each comment individually.

    • Completed the final draft of the CS State Plan on May 5, 2023.

    • Presented the CS State Plan on June 8, 2023 to the Alaska State Board of Education during the Board’s regular Quarterly Meeting (June 7-8, 2023) in Soldotna, Alaska.

    On June 8, the Alaska State Board of Education adopted the first Alaska Computer Science State Plan.

    State-Wide Coding in Minecraft Curriculum Offering

    DEED is excited to offer the 2nd year state-wide availability of the ‘Coding in Minecraft’ program to all our Alaska teachers and students for the school year of 2023 – 2024!

    ‘Coding in Minecraft’ is a computer science credential program with supporting curriculum, delivered through Minecraft: Education Edition. It engages young and diverse learners through game-based learning in an immersive computer science and coding curriculum and rewards their learning with credentials. Students learn in a safe and open digital environment where they complete learning activities either individually or collaboratively. It is also an easy to teach solution enabling educators with little or no computer science experience to deliver an up-to-date computer science curriculum. State-wide availability of the ‘Coding in Minecraft program’ gives each student in every school in the State an equal opportunity to get engaged in computer science and achieve credentials aligned to the Alaskan CS Standards, starting pathways to CTE, other industry certifications and employment opportunities.

    Here are a list of advantages of this curriculum, some of which are especially beneficial to small/rural schools (all at no costs to schools/districts):

    • Professional learning scheduled throughout the year.
    • Live lessons taught by Coding in Minecraft specialists.
    • Coding in Minecraft curriculum.
    • Minecraft Education Edition license to schools that do not have Minecraft through Microsoft licenses from the districts.
    • Coding lessons running in the Minecraft Education Edition environment – teachers do not need to be Minecraft experts or coding experts to teach the class.
    • Students go through the curriculums and earn credentials to ensure good learning outcomes.

     

    In the school year of 2022-2023, ‘Coding in Minecraft’ made great impact in our state:

    • 237 School Licenses Deployed across Alaska
      • 25 school licenses to schools with less than 50 students
      • 48 school licenses to schools with less than 100 students
    • 225 teachers signed up for information sessions and 65 of the teachers completed the 6-hour professional learning. (Note 1)
    • 543 new Minecraft in Education student licenses distributed by DEED (Note 2)

    Note 1:  Coding in Minecraft is very teacher friendly, so teachers familiar with Minecraft can use the curriculum without taking professional learning.

    Note 2:  Schools with Minecraft Education site licenses do not need Minecraft Education student licenses from DEED.

    The following is some of the feedbacks from teachers/schools that used the curriculum in the school year of 2022-2023. (Note: the Susan B English school has 48 students with 8 teachers)

    Educator-Feedback

    Please contact Faye Tanner (anthony.white@alaska.gov) for licenses, professional learning, and CEU through DEED’s Coding in Minecraft program.

    CS Endorsement for Teacher Certification

    As of June 2023, computer science teacher in the state of Alaska can add CS endorsement to their teacher certifications through “Content Area Knowledge & Teaching Experience” method. This method requires two years of teaching experience (three years for elementary education) in the content area and passing scores on the endorsement-related content area exam. Only where content area exam(s) have been identified may endorsements be added with this method. For computer science endorsement, the following exams and passing scores are required:

    Praxis Exam II

    Test Code

    Required Score

    Computer Science

    5651

    171

    Computer Science

    5652

    149

     

    Praxis CS exam 5652 study materials are available, please contact Anthony White (anthony.white@alaska.gov)

    New Job Assignment Added for CS Specific Courses:

    Computer Science Special Topics: Cyber Security, Data Science, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, etc.

    Areas in computer science that are not included in course codes 212 and 178. Topics include but are not limited to the following:

    Cyber security: concepts and techniques of defending devices, software, electronic systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks.

    Data science: concepts of data and data sets. Tools and methods used to extract meaningful and valuable information from collected data.

    Robotics: designing, implementing, and testing robots and robotic systems to perform specific tasks.

    Artificial Intelligence (AI):  concepts of AI and the process by that computers perceive the world using sensors, establish and maintain representations of the world with the data collected and learn from the data.

     

    AP Computer Science includes AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A classes.

    AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) is an introductory class to CS. It focuses on computational thinking and encourages students to explore how computer software and other technology can be used to solve problems. This course does not designate one specific programming language but explores problem-solving using block-based and text-based programming languages.

    AP Computer Science A (CSA) is a programming class in Java. Java is used to build server-side applications, games, financial applications, and android mobile applications. The course focuses on problem-solving, design strategies and methodologies, data structure, and data analysis using algorithms.

     

    2023-2024

     

     

    Assignment Name

    Assignment Number

    Grade Level

    AP Computer Science

    410

    S

    Computer Science Special Projects

    213

    B

    State Approved Alaska Staff Development Network CS Professional Learning

    Help your students become super heros image

    Alaska Department of Education and Early Development supports Alaska Staff Development Network (ASDN) to bring Computer Science education to Alaska students through Code.org. ASDN is Alaska's Code.org Regional partner and provides professional learning for K-12 educators in Alaska.

    Code.org provides free-forever scaffolded curriculum for K-12 students including the following levels:

    Computer Science Fundamentals K-5

    Computer Science Discoveries. 6-10

    Computer Science Principles (with option AP) 9-12

    CSA (AP)

    For information about Code.org opportunities, districts, school, staff, or students, please contact 

    Cheryl Bobo, Alaska Code.org Regional Manager, at cbobo@alaskaacsa.org 

    Alaska Education Exchange Platform for Sharing Teaching Resources

    Alaska-Education-Exchange-image

    Alaska Education Exchange

    Alaska Education Exchange is a platform created by the joint support from Alaska Association for Career & Technical Education and Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. The platform provides Alaska education agencies and educators the means to:

    • Distribute and manage resources with a robust repository
    • Join and Engage diverse communities of practice
    • Access, create and share curriculum.

    Please register for a free account and join the Information Technology Group to see the latest resources for K-12 Computer Science education. 

    Alaska Digital Citizenship Week

    AP Computer Science

    AP Computer Principles image.jpg

    Providing Equity in Computer Science Coursework through offering AP Computer Science Principle to all Alaska high school students

    Recording -- Passcode: 39MN^cd@

    We would like to invite all high school students to take part in the AP Computer Science Principle. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me any time if I can help in any way. There are also many AP CSP endorsed providers that are providing their curriculum at no cost to schools and districts with PD opportunities. Please email anthony.white@alaska.gov if you would like more information.

    Computer Science and Technology Resourses

    Policy and Initiative

    Professional Learning

    Curriculum Resources

    What most schools don’t teach (from industry leaders)

    Career Opportunities in Computer Science

    Computer science is a critical field in our current and future industry. The Computer Science Jobs Overview document presents a list of the current jobs in the industry. The first part of the list uses the BLS data to identify the different career pathways available in computer science. The second list will focus on the current job market and positions.

    View Computer Science Jobs Overview

     

    Not all computer science jobs require college degrees. Many companies will hire students with associate degrees or certifications for many entry-level positions. This list will continue to grow as new specializations and concentrations arise. 

    View Computer Science Jobs Education Band