LAUSD plans to expand computer science to every grade by 2020. Posted by Mike Szymanski on November 4, 2015, on LA School Report. At a time of high employment demand for computer experts, fewer than half of LA Unified’s 98 traditional high schools offer computer science classes. “We could have students go through LAUSD without any access to computer science at all,” Suyen Moncada-Machado, a district instructional specialist told a […]
Is Coding the New Literacy? Why America’s schools need to train a generation of hackers. By Tasneem Raja, published on Mother Jones on Jun. 16, 2014. In the winter of 2011, a handful of software engineers landed in Boston just ahead of a crippling snowstorm. They were there as part of Code for America, a program that places idealistic young coders and designers in city halls across the country for […]
Schools need to focus on what makes computers work, not just on how to use them. By Jane Margolis and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, published January 19, 2014 as an opinion piece in the LA Times Computer science is driving innovation across all fields, so it makes sense that the Los Angeles Board of Education wants to provide its students with access to the latest technology. Students who develop expertise in […]
With shortage of computer science classes, students in Bell code after school. By Annie Gilbertson, published Jan. 7, 2014 on 89.3 KPCC. CyberPatriot is possibly the geekiest high school club in history. Sponsored by the Air Force Association, a dozen teens from the city of Bell meet after school to learn to code. Like most of the club members, senior Erika Aguiluz aspires to become a computer scientist. Aguiluz said […]
Published Dec. 10, 2013 on CBS LA. LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles City Council has officially declared this week Computer Science Week. The University of California Los Angeles, the mayor’s office, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nonprofit Code.org and several other groups kicked off the week Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. at the UCLA Community School. The event highlighted the “Hour of Code” campaign, which gives K-12 […]
By Joanie Harmon, published Dec. 9, 2013 on UCLA Ed & IS Ampersand. UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the nonprofit Code.org collectively launched the Los Angeles segment of National Computer Science Education Week at the UCLA Community School on Dec. 10 at the Paul Schrade Library at UCLA Community School, with local and state lawmakers, and industry leaders from Microsoft, […]
ECS Day: Center X’s Computing Initiative Welcomes LAUSD High Schools, Spelman’s Female Robotics Team. The Exploring Computer Science program brings computer science, academic confidence to female students, students of color. By Joanie Harmon, published Feb. 28, 2013 on UCLA Ed & IS Ampersand. On January 31, the ECS team hosted the 4th annual ECS Day at UCLA. Over 400 students, teachers, and administrators from LAUSD attended the event along with […]
Members of the ECS team were recently published in ACM Inroads. ACM Inroads is a magazine intended for professionals interested in advancing computing education in the world. The article is titled Beyond access: Broadening participation in high school computer science. “Broadening participation” and “equity” are now common parlance among computer science reform educators who are challenging the underrepresentation in computer science. However, what do we all mean by these words […]
By Andra Lim, published April 18, 2010 on the UCLA Daily Bruin. Until this semester, high school junior Sharon Friedman used her computer to do homework and socialize with friends. But when she started taking Exploring Computer Science, a class created by UCLA in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District, she began to see that computers are more than just a portal to the Internet. Read the article
Partnership with LAUSD addresses need for high-quality CS instruction. By Shaena Engle, published October 1, 2009 on the UCLA Newsroom. UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a professional development program for computer science teachers in Los Angeles high schools. The new program, Teachers Are Key, brings together education reform researchers and faculty from UCLA and the […]