2020 Momentum of Computer Science in Virginia
13 October, 2020
Computer science education in Virginia has and continues to make massive strides, even while overcoming obstacles presented during the last year, as illuminated in two reports released during October.
Each year, CodeVA is required by law to submit a data report to the Virginia General Assembly on the state of teacher professional development programs. Meanwhile, a joint national report, titled “2020 State of Computer Science Education: Illuminating Disparities,” is released annually by the National Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), Code.org and the Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance (ECEP Alliance). Both reports show gains for Virginia students and teachers in the state’s move towards complying with the mandate legislation passed in 2016 that added Computer Science to the Standards of Learning and Standards of Quality for all public schools as a required subject for all students.
“We’re very proud of the work Virginia teachers and school divisions have done in bringing computer science literacy to students,” said Virginia Secretary of Education Atif Qarni, of the reports’ findings. “And we’re very proud that Virginia’s computer science literacy initiative, a partnership between the Virginia Department of Education and CodeVA, continues to serve as an innovative national model in the CSforALL movement.”
As referenced in both reports released today, CodeVA’s state training effort, which provides free teacher professional development and school division resources through CodeVA, provided more than 20,000 hours of virtual professional learning to more than 1,000 teachers from over 300 schools across the state. These educators, according to the report, have nearly all reported that in spite of new challenges brought on by covid-19 and virtual instruction they plan to implement what they learned during the current school year.