Sowing the Seeds: A Landscape Study on Assessment in Secondary Computer Science Education
This study summarizes what is known about assessment of student learning in high school Computer Science (CS) in the United States (US), reports on the results of the landscape study, and concludes with recommendations for advancing the state of assessment in K–12 CS. With support from Google, the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) Assessment Task Force conducted a study of secondary school educators to determine the state of computer science education assessment and how teachers assess student learning in their computer science classrooms. Based on interviews with computer science practitioners, we found that teachers use a variety of formative and summative assessment techniques, but also face a number of challenges finding valid and reliable assessments to use in their classrooms. See the Executive Summary and download the report here.
Ensuring Exemplary Teaching in an Essential Discipline: Addressing the Crisis in Computer Science Teacher Certification
There is a significant lack of consistency in computer science teacher certification standards in the United States and other countries worldwide. The standards for computer science licensure, a computer science teaching endorsement, and alternate licensure in computer science that are presented in this paper are designed to assist the state licensing departments responsible for issuing licenses to qualified education professionals within their respective states. The ultimate goal of this effort is to ensure that the standards for computer science teachers are clear, consistent, and are uniformly implemented in the United States as well as in other countries. It is critical that these standards be universally accepted and applied to the licensing of high school computer science teachers. View the executive summary and full report here.