[Edu-sig] Significant drop in CS interest in high schools

[wesley chun]

AP CS Courses (and Students) on the Decline, CSTA Survey Finds

This spring, the 2009 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey
collected responses from some 1,100 high school Computer Science
teachers. The results: only 65 percent reported that their schools
offer introductory or pre-AP Computer Science classes, as compared
with 73 percent in 2007 and 78 percent in 2005. Only 27 percent
reported that their schools offer AP CS, as compared with 32 percent
in 2007 and 40 percent in 2005. And 74 percent offer CS content in
courses other than introductory or AP CS, down from 85 percent in
2007. "The continuing drop in students taking AP CS is a serious
warning sign about the state of computing in this country, as a
student taking AP typically indicates his or her interest in majoring
in that field in college or pursuing a career in that area," said
Chris Stephenson, executive director of the Computer Science Teachers
Association.

article (also see PDFcomparing 2005 vs. 2007 vs. 2009 results):
http://www.csta.acm.org/Research/sub/CSTAResearch.html

-- wesley
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Core Python Programming", Prentice Hall, (c)2007,2001
"Python Fundamentals", Prentice Hall, (c)2009
    http://corepython.com

wesley.j.chun :: wescpy-at-gmail.com
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