Tech EDGE: CS4NE with Special Guest, Shaun Young

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08/09/2024 Added

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CS4NE, Computer Science for Nebraska with Special Guest, Shaun Young. University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Technology (Tech) Education In Digital and Global Environments (EDGE) Innovation in Teacher Education College of Education and Human Sciences | Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education

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[00:00:00.000](soft music)
[00:00:06.270]Hi, I am Guy Trainin.
[00:00:07.500]And I'm Kimberly Ingraham-Beck.
[00:00:09.000]And this is "CS4NE" from Teched.
[00:00:12.240]And today we have a special guest.
[00:00:14.160]Who is it?
[00:00:14.993]So we have Shaun Young from the
[00:00:16.590]Nebraska Department of Education joining us.
[00:00:18.900]That's fantastic.
[00:00:19.980]And he's going to talk a little bit about legislation,
[00:00:24.000]about the requirements,
[00:00:25.350]about the resources that are out there.
[00:00:26.930]He is gonna talk about money.
[00:00:28.650]He's going to blow your mind.
[00:00:31.920]Now, joining us is Shaun from the Nebraska
[00:00:33.810]Department of Education.
[00:00:35.405]What is your title with NDE?
[00:00:38.480]I am the Computer Science and Technology
[00:00:39.750]Education Specialist.
[00:00:41.040]So I work inside the Department of Career
[00:00:43.740]and Technical Education,
[00:00:44.820]but a lot of my focus is on this recently passed legislation
[00:00:48.840]around computer science and K-12 education.
[00:00:51.330]Awesome.
[00:00:52.290]So what's your background with computer science?
[00:00:54.958]I taught computer science
[00:00:56.580]before that, I didn't start teaching until I was about 30.
[00:00:59.198]Before that I went to school for economics
[00:01:01.680]and when I was doing that,
[00:01:02.700]I got into the data analytics side of things.
[00:01:05.250]So learning a lot of like SQL and R and Python
[00:01:08.520]and stuff got me really interested in it.
[00:01:10.590]And then I kind of got the teaching bug due
[00:01:12.870]to some past experiences.
[00:01:14.100]My wife and mom were teachers.
[00:01:16.290]So then I taught Computer science
[00:01:17.970]and PAPILLION for seven years.
[00:01:19.830]Before I joined the NDE.
[00:01:21.090]Alright, thanks.
[00:01:22.830]So why was this legislation passed?
[00:01:25.410]So 2022, it was the initial bill was passed.
[00:01:30.858]It was brought largely by business
[00:01:32.940]and industry due to the tech worker shortage.
[00:01:35.340]Just not enough people in the workspace in Nebraska we're
[00:01:38.730]short in a lot of areas, especially
[00:01:40.230]technology related fields.
[00:01:42.270]So the hope is
[00:01:43.560]that passing this requirement gets more kids exposed
[00:01:46.410]to computer science education and then on through to college
[00:01:50.460]and into the workforce.
[00:01:51.720]Wonderful.
[00:01:52.553]Yeah.
[00:01:53.386]So what exactly does this legislation require?
[00:01:55.620]Okay, so there's three main requirements.
[00:01:58.380]The first one,
[00:01:59.880]chronologically is in the 25-26 school year schools need
[00:02:03.000]to start including computer science as part
[00:02:04.950]of their K-12 instructional programs.
[00:02:07.410]And then by December of 2026, and then every year
[00:02:10.159]after schools need to report on the status
[00:02:13.494]of computer science education in their districts
[00:02:16.858]to both their local school board
[00:02:19.110]and to the Department of Education.
[00:02:21.120]And then finally chronologically,
[00:02:22.920]but the most upcoming is that starting with the class
[00:02:26.040]of 2028, every public school student needs
[00:02:28.980]to complete at least one semester
[00:02:31.020]of computer science education prior to graduation.
[00:02:33.930]So that's the farthest out chronologically,
[00:02:36.120]but that is this coming school year's freshman class.
[00:02:39.120]So that's the one that schools are focused on the most
[00:02:41.550]because this is gonna be for most schools, either a eighth,
[00:02:45.990]ninth, or 10th grade class.
[00:02:47.670]So that's those students right now
[00:02:49.860]that they have coming up this year that are gonna need that.
[00:02:52.500]So those are the three main requirements.
[00:02:54.990]The the biggest one obviously
[00:02:57.150]is that graduation requirement,
[00:02:58.590]but those other ones are gonna take a lot
[00:02:59.850]of work for some schools too.
[00:03:01.500]Yeah, thanks.
[00:03:03.000]So who can teach this new required course?
[00:03:06.492]Well, the way the legislation's written
[00:03:09.240]is there's no one specific required course.
[00:03:12.394]That was the original 2022 legislation required a
[00:03:16.890]semester course.
[00:03:17.910]Basically to add more flexibility,
[00:03:20.820]they amended the legislation in 2023.
[00:03:23.370]And now instead of a course,
[00:03:25.674]students need a semester's worth
[00:03:28.350]of education over some content standards
[00:03:30.660]that were just developed
[00:03:32.580]and approved by the State Board of Education
[00:03:35.338]in February of this year.
[00:03:37.230]So those standards can be embedded in any course really.
[00:03:42.840]We're probably not gonna advocate
[00:03:44.130]that computer science be taught in English nine
[00:03:46.410]and English 10 and stuff,
[00:03:47.940]but some of those standards
[00:03:48.930]could be covered in those classes.
[00:03:50.100]Like digital citizenship is a topic that a lot
[00:03:52.168]of districts are already covering in their English courses.
[00:03:56.310]So if the standards are embedded in a
[00:03:59.067]course like English science
[00:04:01.770]or math, then any teacher approved
[00:04:03.750]to teach those courses can teach it.
[00:04:07.200]And for most of our CS courses, it's gonna be our
[00:04:11.970]BMIT, teachers business marketing
[00:04:13.980]or information technologies.
[00:04:15.360]Math teachers are endorsed to teach most CS classes.
[00:04:18.660]And then we're hopeful that in the next year
[00:04:20.250]or so we'll have a supplemental computer science endorsement
[00:04:22.736]available that's still a little bit up in the air.
[00:04:26.970]Updating those administrative codes takes a little while,
[00:04:30.638]but that'll be another pathway
[00:04:32.520]to teaching computer science is any previously endorsed
[00:04:35.670]teacher can gain a supplemental endorsement in computer
[00:04:38.880]science and then teach pretty much any CS class, any
[00:04:42.090]of these lower level CS classes that would be used
[00:04:44.580]to meet the graduation requirement.
[00:04:46.080]Awesome.
[00:04:47.520]Can you tell us about any kind
[00:04:48.450]of funding there is for computer science?
[00:04:50.790]Yeah, so just a few months ago,
[00:04:52.380]the state legislature passed LB 1284,
[00:04:55.800]which includes the creation
[00:04:58.200]and appropriation of funds for a computer science
[00:05:00.390]and technology education fund.
[00:05:02.280]It's $1 million a year for each
[00:05:04.500]of the next two fiscal years.
[00:05:06.330]And then depending on if we get enough private donations,
[00:05:10.470]there are additional matching funds that would be available.
[00:05:12.900]So up to potentially $2 million a year.
[00:05:15.463]And there's some required uses for that fund
[00:05:18.570]that would be training for teachers, helping teachers
[00:05:22.020]to gain supplemental endorsement,
[00:05:23.250]which again doesn't quite exist yet.
[00:05:25.440]Stipends for teachers.
[00:05:27.180]And then just all sorts of ways that we can assist teachers.
[00:05:30.210]There's a little bit of flexibility in that,
[00:05:31.740]but the main one is gonna be training teachers
[00:05:34.050]and trying to incentivize them to get that training so
[00:05:36.840]that they can be better prepared to teach these courses.
[00:05:39.090]Awesome.
[00:05:40.050]Well, thanks so much for joining us today, Shaun.
[00:05:42.060]Yeah, definitely.
[00:05:42.893]Thank you.
[00:05:44.580]Thank you for joining us on "CS4NE."
[00:05:48.090]Computer Science for Nebraska.
[00:05:49.980]And we'll see you next time.
[00:05:51.381](upbeat music)

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Tech EDGE: CS4NE with Special Guest, Shaun Young

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