Leadership magazine Sept/Oct 2015 V45 No 1 | Page 37

4. Code.org. This nonprofit computer science education organization behind Computer Science Education Week and the Hour of Code campaign is offering district partnerships with major urban school districts across the country. Code.org offers K-12 curriculum, tools, on-site training and funding to qualifying school districts. Code.org believes computer science and computer programming should be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, such as biology, physics, chemistry and algebra. For more information about Code.org district partnerships or other code.org resources, please visit www.code.org or contact [email protected]. • Update state standards for computer science education and advocate for computer science to count for core credit (math or science) in high school graduation and UC/ CSU eligibility and admissions. • Scale up successful K-12 computer science education models and curricula, such as Exploring Computer Science and CS: Principles, to be emulated throughout California and in other states. To stay informed about statewide strategies to broaden participation in computing, please visit www.access-ca.org and become a subscriber. n Gary Page is education programs consultant, California Department of Education. Julie Flapan is executive director of ACCESS. Statewide advocacy to support equity Scaling up computer science education requires local district implementation as well as statewide support structures to ensure computer science education is available to all students. The Alliance for California Computing Education for Students and Schools (ACCESS) works to bridge the needs of schools and to respond through statewide policy changes. ACCESS is a statewide network of computer scientists, K-12 teachers, professors from com munity colleges through universities, educational policy advocates, and related industry professionals. ACCESS is dedicated to advocating for high-quality K-12 computer science education in California and ensuring its accessibility to all students, specifically for traditionally underrepresented students: girls and students of color. The goals of ACCESS are to: • Secure and elevate the status of computer science education in California. • Establish a computer science certification pathway for K-12 teachers in California, and ensure that quality professional development is available to these teachers. ACCESS is currently proposing an updated computer science supplementary authorization to build the capacity of teachers to teach computer science. September/October 2015 37