Educating our kids for the 21st century

The House has been working this past week on passing two bills that I feel are significant as we address the needs of our future generation to be able to be successful in the 21st century. Both bills would, in the end, provide hands-on experience to our students whether they be college bound or career ready.

The House acted this week on a bill to reform Iowa?s Career and Technical Education (CTE) delivery system, passing it in a bipartisan manner. The bill was presented to the Legislature after two years? worth of effort on the part of the Task Force convened to look at the issue. The recommendations and legislation look at updating and modernizing what hasn?t been touched substantively since the late 1980s.

The current economy is increasingly driven by knowledge and innovation. Technological change and globalization are changing the state?s economy and the jobs being created today require a higher skill level than in the past. In some sectors, there are education and skill gaps which result in essential positions being left vacant, hampering economic growth. It is with this in mind that the Task Force was created.

The Secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) Task Force was established as part of House File 605 in 2013 to make recommendations to reduce skill shortages, enhance economic growth, and ensure that all students have access to high-quality, globally competitive career and technical education programs.

Consisting of 25 members covering businesses, industry, community partners, skilled trades, school districts, community colleges, economic development entities, licensing boards, labor unions, and the regents universities, the Task Force first met in December of 2013. It finished its work in October 2015 and delivered five recommendations to the Legislature for consideration.

The bill voted on by the House tried to capture the message sent in the Task Force report. It focuses on primarily secondary education, grades 9 through 12, ensuring students in those grades are not only college-ready, should they choose that route after high school, but also career-ready. It provides a mechanism through regional planning partnerships to ensure that school districts have the resources necessary to expose students to a wide variety of career options that might begin right there during their high school career with on-the-job opportunities in skilled occupations that are in need of employees in Iowa.

Much work is already going on in the state to create some of these opportunities for students. But it?s not everywhere and it?s often not consistent. These regional partnerships will ensure that the high-quality opportunities available to some students now are available to all students, making sure more are not left at a competitive disadvantage. The bill attempts to provide a cohesive framework in which these delivery systems can function while not prohibiting any of the good work already under way.

The bill passed unanimously and is now headed to the Senate for their consideration.

The House also passed a bill that addresses the need for computer science in our class rooms. Job opportunities for those with computer skills are growing by leaps and bounds every day. The future is bright for those who chose to stay in Iowa as well as elsewhere. Here are some statistics from a new report from the Computing Technology Industry Association that gives a snapshot on just how many Iowans are employed in technology:

More than 46,700 people were employed in the technology industry in 2015 in Iowa, according to the report. That?s up from about 45,750 in 2014 to about 42,800 in 2010. The tech occupations that employed the most Iowans in 2015 were software development, computer systems analysts, and network and computer systems administrators. The report also states that 12.6 percent of Iowans who work in the tech sector are defined as self-employed. Among all of the states, Iowa ranked 31st for its tech employment. California, the home to Silicon Valley, came in No. 1.

At the present time we have 36 school districts in Iowa that are offering some type of course that teaches coding and computer science. The bill passed by the Iowa House would put in motion a task force that would explore the opportunity to offer computer science in all Iowa schools. The bill would have the Director of the Department of Education convene a Computer Science Advisory Council. The council would be tasked with making recommendations to Iowa officials on how the state could integrate computer science curriculum into all of the state?s high schools.

The council would have to make recommendations by Oct. 1 under the idea that high schools would offer at least one ?high quality? computer science class by the 2018 school year.

Earlier this year I met with Mount Pleasant School Board member, Dave Christensen, about this issue of computer science in our high schools. He warned me ?don?t do a bill just about coding. A course of study must include more than just learning to code.? He referred me to an article he had read that said ?computing is greater than coding and if we want to build the pipeline in computer science, or even help our children be better thinkers and problem solvers, we need to broaden the scope of discourse from the narrow ?learn to code? view.?

Articles promoting the idea of kids learning to code often point to how it helps build computational thinking skills?a key skill for all in the digital age, not only computer scientists. Seven years ago, Jeannette Wing?s hugely influential article, ?Computational Thinking,? argued that to ?reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child?s analytical ability. The essence of computational thinking is in ?thinking like a computer scientist? when confronted with a problem. Among other things, this entails thinking logically and algorithmically?understanding not only notions of flow of control in a programmatic solution but also how to systematically break down a problem and then compose an algorithmic solution.?

It is my hope that this Computer Science Advisory Council recognizes that computing is greater than coding, and if we want to build a pipeline to computer science, or even help our children be better thinkers and problem solvers, we need to broaden the scope from the narrow ?learn to code? view. More than just coding, it is important to promote a way a thinking and problem solving, to use computing in intelligent ways in our children?s future careers; and yes, possibly get excited about computer science as a discipline and be primed for success should they chose to pursue computer science.

Visitors to the capitol this week were Russ Yoder, Wayland; Eric Yoder, Crawfordsville; Dave Weiss, Family Practice of Mount Pleasant, Michelle Rossell with Henry County Health Center;

If you have any issues or concerns, please contact me. Be sure to include your name and address with any communication to my office.

Dave Heaton, State Representative,

State House, Des Moines, Iowa 50319

Phone: 515-281-7327~Fax: 515-281-6958

E-mail: dave.heaton@legis.state.ia.us

Web page: http://www.daveheaton.net