Tammy Andrew, President, Milford High School Joanne Lau, Vice President, Moultonborough Academy Dick Dumas, Treasurer, Gilford High School Mihaela Malita, University Liaison, St Anselm College
New Hampshire Chapter February 15, 2016 The Honorable Virginia M. Barry Commissioner of Education New Hampshire Department of Education 101 Pleasant Street Concord, NH 03301‐3494
Dear Commissioner Barry:
Our organization, the Computer Science Teachers Association New Hampshire Chapter (CSTA NH), represents computer science educators statewide since 2010. We are a group of dedicated teachers who are already actively providing teacher professional development opportunities in computer science (CS). These opportunities include quarterly meetings to share current events and opportunities in CS education, sponsoring a roundtable discussion for educators and interested parents during the High School Programming Contest hosted by St. Anselm’s College, and the Google‐funded Mobile Computer Science Principles teacher preparation offered through the STEM Discovery Lab at UNH Manchester.
In response to President Obama’s announcement of the Computer Science for All initiative on January 30th, 2016, we would like to express our full commitment to support New Hampshire’s comprehensive five‐year plan to give every P‐12 student the opportunity to learn computer science. As CS teachers, we understand the needs and challenges of achieving this goal: ● Less than .25% of high school students in NH took AP CS last year (144 out of 59,976); 1.25% of AP exam takers in NH took AP CS (144 out of 11,512). ● Only 12% of the AP CS exam takers were females; there was only one Hispanic/Latino AP CS exam taker and no Black/African American. ● Only 19 high schools in New Hampshire offered AP CS last year; 6 of these schools offered AP CS through third parties (Edhesive and Virtual Learning). ● There are not enough qualified CS teachers to expand CS education, especially with the new AP CS Principles course starting next year. ● Computer Science has been the fastest growing AP exam over the past 5 years across the country. ● There were 2217 open computing jobs in NH, but only 190 CS college graduates last year. ● The states that have the best CS education programs attract companies with the highest paying jobs. Median income for a computer scientist is $113,000 with a starting salary of $66,700. ● 24 of the top 25 starting salaries are in STEM careers.
Through the CSTA national organization we have access to valuable information, such as the CSTA K‐12 Computer Science Standards , and we are dedicated to both understanding these standards and providing quality CS professional development opportunities to other teachers.
We look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with the NH Department of Education in preparing the NH Computer Science for All 5‐year plan to implement CS‐expansion efforts across the state You may contact me directly through email
[email protected] .
Thank you, Tammy Andrew CSTA NH President https://sites.google.com/site/cstanh/