Powering Up: The campaign to teach computer science to a digital nation

Code.org, the non-profit organization that has gotten children as young as five years old to try computer coding, has joined with the College Board to try to expand computer education in US public schools, particularly to girls and minorities. Seattle (WA)-based Code.org, founded by two tech entrepreneurs, and the College Board, the New York-based non-profit that administers the SAT and Advanced Placement tests, are offering to help 35 of the country’s largest school districts teach new computer science classes. Too many students, particularly girls and teens of color, attend high schools that do not teach computer science, or they are not encouraged to take those classes if they are offered, said Hadi Partovi, a co-founder of Code.org.

Of the students in the high school class of 2014 who took the PSAT, more than 165,000 girls showed the capacity to learn computer science but just 2.5 percent enrolled in the AP Computer Science course and exam, according to the College Board. Thirty-three thousand African American and Hispanic students also showed aptitude for computer science, but just 4.7 percent took the AP course. To try to broaden the appeal of computer science, Code.org has designed a new AP Computer Science Principles class for the College Board that will be piloted in the fall and offered nationwide in 2016.