CS Miseducation

Computer science enrollment is down. Is it really because of outsourcing? Sure, that's probably a factor, but maybe it is because no one really knows what computer science is when they are choosing what they want to do with their lives. In most high schools, computer science is not given the same attention as other sciences like biology or chemistry. From personal experience, it seems the most common reason students chose CS is because they like fixing computers or they really like computer games. They get to school and find out that they'll never touch hardware and no one is going to teach them how to create the next great MMORPG. I talked to a freshman the other day who happened to be on campus for some "College for a day" type thing. He was very concerned with what kind of languages he would learn and whether or not they teach you how to make video games. CS education in high schools usually consists of some HTML, VB, and maybe some Java. At the high school level they focus on programming languages. That's it. No wonder enrollment is down. The computer classes at high schools make it seem like such a boring and dry major. All you do is sit in front of a computer and type lines of code all day? How boring. They do not show the bigger picture. They do not show what kind of interesting problems are being solved with computers. Students therefore think that computer science is programming; that it is sitting in a cubicle alone from 9-5 updating some bank's software for the Y2K bug.

How can this be fixed? I think colleges/universities have a lot of work to do. They need to participate with local high schools to help expose students to CS. They need to help high schools develop a real computer science curriculum for their classes. Maybe send some grad students over to help teach. This costs money though, and since enrollment is down many departments can't get the money to do anything about it so enrollment will stay down. It's a Catch-22. High school CS teachers need to be more qualified and better educated, but I'd image it is quite difficult for someone with a CS degree to go into teaching at the high school level. A survey done by the CSTA revealed that many CS teachers do not feel comfortable with the material. At my school, the CS teachers were math teachers trying very hard to stay one step head of the class.

CS is becoming an integral part of many other disciplines and each year it has a greater and greater impact on the world. If something isn't done for CS education in high schools enrollment in colleges will continue its current trend.