Schools across the Upper Cumberland are adapting to a state mandate that requires all K-12 students to have one computer science credit before graduating.
All public school systems had to have a course available before the start of this school year. Putnam County Future Ready Supervisor Sam Brooks said the mandate originally caused for concern as the school system had to rush to get a course setup. Brooks said the school system was able to set up an online program. Early issues have been solved.
“Luckily I have a great team over at the future-ready office Lance Key and Adam West,” Brooks said. “And they were able to debug you know all the problems that existed along the way for our students both in middle school and High School so it ended up being a really good first semester for Putnam County.”
Overton County Schools CTE Supervisor Lesley Riddle said Overton County was a year ahead of the mandate. Still, Riddle said the system has trouble gauging what students know about computer science heading into the course.
“We were able to kind of get a head start with our equipment and with our teachers,” Riddle said. “But learning the bases of those students was a little bit of a challenge at first but I think we’re kind of on the right trajectory at this point.”
Brooks said the mandate has worked as intended. Brooks also said he believes the computer science course has been a great addition to the Putnam County School System.
“We had a situation in the past where I felt like many of the students maybe weren’t on a specific pathway and wondering why they were taking some courses or having to take some courses that didn’t really have anything to do with what they wanted to do in their future.,” Brooks said. “I think both the personal finance class that was started back in 2014 which was a mandated class and this computer science class you know we started this year are both two classes that gives the student hands-on experience that both of them are gonna help them in the future no matter what they do.”
White County Schools Secondary Supervisor Valerie Butcher said the course is implemented at the high school, middle school, and elementary school levels. Butcher said implementing a version of the course at the elementary level will help improve critical thinking skills at a younger age.
“We just felt like what the state was requiring to us maybe seemed like it was a good starting point but it was almost gonna be harder that way because there wasn’t gonna be as much support. Where this way we felt like giving it that broader support all the way through younger grades as well. We felt like our students would be more prepared for it by the time they got to high school.”
Riddle said computer science teaches students not only how to use a computer but also how to program various things such as robots and websites. Riddle said you cannot have enough computer science.
“That’s where our society is going and I don’t think you can ask the kids to learn too much computer science,” Riddle said. “I mean as an adult I’m having to learn all the time how to use some new platform or how to navigate some new spreadsheet or something like that and if these kids have that base they will be prepared for all of those challenges.”
Brooks said in Putnam County the class can also be used as a fourth-year math in high school. Riddle said currently Overton County only offers the class at the middle school level. Riddle said next year the class will be offered at the high school level and the credit can also count as a science credit.
