Washington, D.C. – Friday, Representatives Tom Reed (NY-23)
and Derek Kilmer (WA-06) introduced the bipartisan Teacher Education for
Computer Science Act (the “Teach CS Act”) to help build a robust pipeline for
computer science education to ensure today’s students can be successful and
innovative in the workforce. The bill would establish “Centers of Excellence”
for teacher education programs in computer science at graduate schools for
higher education.
“There is no doubt jobs are changing, and computer science
skills are in high demand in every field,” said Tom. “We care about ensuring
America has the workforce to compete in the world in order to give both
American businesses and workers a fair shot at succeeding. By ensuring
additional computer science training in schools, we can ensure our kids are
prepared for the jobs of the future.”
“Education is the doorway to economic opportunity and we
need to ensure our teachers and our education system sets our kids up for
success,” said Rep. Kilmer. “Empowering teachers with the skills they need to
teach computer science will enable them to prepare our students for the
workforce of the future. These efforts to strengthen computer science programs
will provide more job opportunities for our kids, more qualified employees for
local employers, and more economic resiliency for our communities.”
The Centers of Excellence established by the bill would be
supported through competitive 5-year grants from the Department of Education,
with a matching requirement to incentivize public-private, state-federal, or
philanthropic partnerships.
The federal funding would enable schools to build long-term
sustainable programs. The funding would also allow schools to hire and retain
faculty to carry out robust computer science education research, train doctoral
students in this field, and educate graduate and undergraduate students
preparing to be teachers in computer science.
In addition, the Centers of Excellence would be able to
offer scholarships to students, particularly for students from traditionally
underrepresented groups in computer science and based on financial need.
This bill will also amend several provisions within the
Higher Education Act to include additional funding for teacher training in
computer science education and to increase the number of computer science
teachers.
The bill is supported by the National Education Association,
Code.org, CSforALL, Microsoft, and the Computer Science Education Coalition.
"For computer science education to be an integral part
of all students educational experience high quality teacher preparation is
essential. The bill proposed by Representative Kilmer helps higher education
institutions be supported with the tools and resources to prepare teachers for
their CS classrooms. CSforAll's work includes ALL teachers, and prepared
teachers are the only way to ensure all students have equitable pathways to a
bright future!” - Dr. Leigh Ann DeLyser, Co-Founder and Executive Director,
Computer Science for ALL Students (CSforALL).
“The Computer Science Education Coalition welcomes new
legislation introduced by Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) to make computer science
education more robust and accessible to our nation’s students. The Teacher
Education for Computer Science Act, authored by Rep. Kilmer, would address the
gap in qualified educators in computer science education. This gap is
particularly significant in rural and tribal schools. A key component of the
legislation - boosting training for graduate education programs in computer
science education - would represent a significant step forward in providing our
students with qualified computer science education teachers. Rep. Kilmer’s bill
is a welcome effort in making computer science education more accessible to
more Americans through training teachers.” - Computer Science Education
Coalition
“The growth and sustainability of K-12 computer science rely
on having an adequate number of well-prepared computer science teachers.
Code.org has prepared more than 87,000 classroom teachers to teach computer
science in the country’s elementary, middle and high schools. However, if every
student is to have access to computer science in K-12 schooling, colleges of
education must help. This important bipartisan proposal to encourage
institutions of higher education to establish rigorous computer science teacher
preparation programs is one that Code.org stands behind.” - Code.org.
