Where will Washington's future CS teachers (and CSTA members) come from?
For traditional pre-service programs, Central Washington University (CWU), Western Washington University (WWU), and Whitworth University host programs for undergraduates to receive their initial teaching certification with an endorsement to teach CS. However, many barriers remain to increasing participation in these programs.
The Central Washington program (est. 2019) requires students to compete a double major in Computer Science B.S. (107 credits) and STEM Teaching (48 credits). Some teaching candidates combine STEM Teaching with another STEM discipline, such as Math or ML Science, while also minoring in Applied Computer Science (38 credits).
The Western Washington program (est. 2021) requires students to complete 119 credits to receive a Computer Science - Secondary, BAE degree. The program requires 52 credits in secondary education, 8 computer science courses, and 12 credits in CS teaching methods and practicum. The CS teaching methods and practicum courses at WWU are one of the few courses of its type in the US.
The Whitworth University program (est. 2019) requires students to complete 24 semester credits in CS (> than a CS minor) plus the 37-51 semester credits necessary to obtain a teacher certification. Students may take additional coursework to gain endorsements in other subject areas. Whitworth is also investigating a new pathway targeted toward K-6 teachers.
Although faculty remain optimistic, participation in undergraduate CS Ed teacher training programs has been limited. Since 2019, CWU has only had seven students graduate with the CS endorsement and Whitworth only one. Much momentum was lost due to COVID. WWU is expecting its first two graduates at the end of the year. In addition to these graduates, CWU, WWU, and Whitworth each have one student currently in their pipelines.
The challenges to recruiting teaching candidates to seek a CS endorsement are numerous. Since the CS endorsement has only been available since 2018-19, most teaching candidates and hiring schools do not even know that it exists. Since less than 10% of Washington's middle and high school students take CS in a given year, there are very few full-time CS teaching positions available so teaching candidates must often seek additional endorsements to CS in an already full academic schedule. And teacher candidates who complete a rigorous CS curriculum are also candidates for lucrative industry jobs. Of the seven CWU CS education grads, only two went into the teaching profession after graduation.
Traditional pre-service pathways only graduate a few CS Ed teaching candidates nationwide. Washington is not alone. And some states do not even have a pathway for CS teachers.
Washington supports master's programs in CS Education at UW STEP CS and Whitworth University. Various pathways to become a CS teacher also exist through CTE, in-service teachers only need to pass the WEST CS Endorsement exam, and some teachers teach out of endorsement.
If you join PSCSTA between now and Halloween night, you will be entered in a drawing for a BBC micro:bit Club Pack (10 units) plus 1-2 hours virtual instruction from PSCSTA Physical Computing Workshop instructor Jacqueline Russell. Other prizes will also be available.
To join PSCSTA and for more details, visit our website at Join PSCSTA. Membership is free.
If you are unsure, check your membership status. Many receiving the PSCSTA Connector may think they are members but are not members of the Puget Sound chapter. Many may think they are members of the national CSTA but have let their free membership lapse due to inactivity.
As a bonus, members who upgrade to CSTA+ during this period receive an additional drawing entry.
If you are in eastern Washington (east of Cascades), you will receive an additional drawing entry if you join PSCSTA during this time. Come and visit our booth at the 2024 NCW CS & Tech Fair on Oct 17 in Moses Lake to find out more.
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Why do programmers love Halloween?
... They like to boo-lean
CS Endorsement Exam
Prep Course
Do you or someone you know want to get endorsed to teach CS in Washington?
Registration for the Jan 2025 cohort of the CS Endorsement Exam Prep Course for Washington State is now open. Scholarships covering $550 of the retail $650 cost are available to current public-school teachers and juniors/seniors in an undergraduate teacher prep program.
Teachers completing this course will receive 40 Washington state clock hours. Current public school teachers are also eligible to receive up to $3000 through the Educator Retooling Conditional Scholarship.
However, Ryan Kirzner, Congressional Operations Coordinator, has graciously provided the following resources for interested Washington teachers and students:
A key message from the video is that the CAC is a full-year competition. Any app developed after Nov 1, 2023, can be submitted for this year's competition. And apps that students are developing for this school year can be submitted for next year's challenge.
Fall PD Opportunities
from CSTA
PSCSTA provides free Washington clock hours to its members for all the self-paced, online courses on Coursera that CSTA offers. The fall session runs from Oct. 7 to Dec. 31, 2024. Registration is now open and will continue throughout this period.
A new course debuting this session is Empowering CS: Resources for New Teachers. This course is designed to provide new CS Educators with practical tips and tools creating effective resources, investigating funding, and finding community within the field.
These online Coursera courses are free for CSTA+ members.
From Our Friends in Oregon
The Washington CSEd Community is invited to attend the Oregon CSTA 2024 Virtual FALL CONFERENCE on October 5, 2024 from 9:00am to12:30pm
Jared Miller-Price teaches at the Washington State School for the Blind (WSSB), a residential school in Vancouver, WA serving blind and low-vision students throughout Washington. Teachers at WSSB are trained to meet students' vision needs, and all classrooms are adapted to provide full access to students for general and special education. In 2023-24, 65 students attended WSSB.
Course Schedule
Jerry started teaching an Intro to Computer Science course in 2023-24 with TEALS support to 6 students, 3 of whom were totally blind. TEALS offered him an excellent opportunity to learn and teach CS by working closely with TEALS volunteer teachers and TAs.
This school year, Jerry teaches the same Intro to Computer Science course to five students on his own. In addition, five of the six students from the Intro class are now in an "Intermediate Computer Science" course that is taught with support of much of the TEALS team of the previous year. 18% of current WSSB students are now taking CS.
The adaptations used by WSSB CS classes include screen reading software (JAWS) and refreshable braille displays for totally blind students. Low-vision students took advantage of screen magnification software and accessibility features such as reverse contrast. The biggest challenge was finding a way to code that was accessible. WSSB classes adopted Notepad++, and Jerry and one of the TEALS volunteers did significant work setting up accessibility features (verbosity, line navigation, keystrokes, etc.). Course pacing was deliberately slow and steady.
In addition to teaching CS, Jerry teaches four math classes and labs.
Extra-curricular activities
Powerlifting is great! Outside of the classroom, Jerry is the powerlifting coach at WSSB. Last year, WSSB had nine students qualify for Worlds.
Last school year, WSSB also had a team attend the Make48 product development competition in Kansas City, Kansas. WSSB won our first competition and will be returning to Kansas City in November for the championship!
Jerry is starting a workout club at WSSB this year, and currently working on developing an accessible gaming center in tandem with one of its TEALS volunteers.
What are you the most proud of your CS program?
"I am really proud of how invested my students were in CS last year. They were always so eager to learn and always put significant effort into their projects. In fact, many of them were always looking for ways to make their programs personalized and would often think of their own strategies for making that happen! To me, that suggests the students are applying their learning in engaging ways that they find applicable to their own lives. There are many students who are eager to take the class this year, and many middle school students who are excited to take the class when they get to high school."
Importance of TEALS support? School administration support?
"TEALS support was immensely beneficial! There wouldn’t be CS at WSSB without it. So, in terms of that, I can’t thank TEALS enough. It has been amazing. Regarding the support from the WSSB admin, they really listened when I expressed my hesitance to teach CS without any background in the subject. They are the ones who actively sought out TEALS and got us set up with the program. They have been supportive since day one, especially with the class field trip we were able to take. I feel quite fortunate for their continued support."
Data Corner: 2018-23 Washington CS Education Enrollment Dashboard
The August 2024 Connector highlighted the OSPI's publication of the 2022-23 K–12 Computer Science Education Data Summary Report (XLSX). The 2022-23 report expanded on previous reports by providing restated data for the last five school years (since 2018-19) and data on all public schools with grades 6-12.
The public Tableau visualization 2022-23 K–12 Computer Science Education Data Summary Report created by PSCSTA Treasurer/Advocacy Lead Lawrence Tanimoto helps visualize and understand this raw data for all five years and provides breakdowns by school type - high school and middle school - and rollups at the district and ESD level that are not easily available through the OSPI report.
Rubber Duck Spotlight:
It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
The "It seemed like a good idea at the time" panel at CSTA 2024 was such a hit that we are reprising it for CSTA 2025! The panel began with three teachers telling their stories of seemingly innocuous lesson plans (counting binary on your hands, the peanut butter and jelly algorithm, and creating web pages) that went wrong for various reasons. We followed up with a hearty think-pair-share style discussion with the audience, which really was quite funny and cathartic. As one of the panelists Jenny Styer said “I totally enjoyed sharing my mistakes with a room full of interested teachers. It was my goal that they do not make the same mistakes.” Mauree Haage also pointed out “A mistake is a mistake unless you learn from it and through our panel, we helped ourselves reflect on those mistakes but also helped enlighten others. It was great to have a room full of people not only curious about our mistakes but acknowledge them, tell us they’ve had some similar issues, and discuss ways to avoid those mistakes."
Please respond to this survey if you are currently teaching K-12 computer science. The results will inform recommendations to improve support for CS teachers. You do not need to be a CSTA member to respond. The survey will require 20-25 minutes to answer. The first 4,000 responses will receive a $10 gift card, and all responses will be entered in a drawing for more prizes.
The Puget Sound Computer Science Teachers Association Connector is a monthly newsletter containing relevant information, upcoming events, learning, and connection opportunities for local CS Educators. Previous issues can be viewed by following the "News" tab on the PSCSTA homepage. If you have any comments about the current edition or ideas for future editions, please email csta.pugetsound@gmail.com. If you wish to not be receiving the monthly PSCSTA Connector unsubscribe from them HERE.
