2024 marks the 15th anniversary of CSEd Week, an annual call to action established by CSTA to inspire K-12 students to learn computer science, advocate for equity in computer science education, and celebrate the contributions of students, teachers, and partners to the field.
This year CSTA national is holding its CSEd kick-off event on Monday, Dec 9 from 4:00 – 5:00 PM.
The University of Washington Allen School celebrates CSEd Week early (Dec 2 -7) this year due to final exams. UW sponsors a series of virtual workshops for HS/MS students every day from Dec 2 to Dec 6 (times vary) and an on-campus open house on Saturday, Dec 7, from 1:30 – 4 PM. For high school teachers only, UW is sponsoring a virtual event to learn about UW in the HS on Dec 3 from 7 - 8 PM. For more on all these events, see the UW CSEd Week page for more details.
Let everyone know what you are doing for CSEd Week whether you are in Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, Honolulu, Tokyo or anywhere in between by posting to the (👥) CSEd week thread on the Washington CSTA Virtual Community. Check it out now and you may find even more ideas than even those listed here!
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Why was the computer cold at Christmas?
... Because it left its windows open!
December 2024 Issue
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Welcome CSTA Washington
From Oct 30 - Nov 13, members from the four Washington CSTA chapters (Puget Sound, Central Washington, Mid-Columbia, and Spokane) resoundingly approved the consolidation of the four chapters into a single CSTA Washington chapter.
Although the difficult organizational work to complete the consolidation is still ongoing, the backend technical work to implement the consolidation has been completed.
CSTA Puget Sound has been renamed to CSTA Washington in MemberNova, the CSTA association management system.
Membership rolls from CSTA Central Washington, Mid-Columbia, and Spokane were merged into CSTA Puget Sound. Active members: 224, CSTA+: 98, Expired: 138.
All CSTA Central Washington, Mid-Columbia, and Spokane board members were added to the CSTA Puget Sound board with the title “Chapter Regional Representative.” All board members have the same system access and voting rights.
Next steps include the formation of a Chapter Development Committee composed of members from across the state. This committee will make recommendations regarding a regional support structure, new chapter leadership structure, and necessary changes to our bylaws and chapter operation manual.
On Sep 14 in Yakima, Dr. Amy Ko of the University of Washington and the CS for All Washington advocacy coalition met with 21 teachers, school leaders, and district leaders from all regions of the state to discuss policy alternatives for a CS Graduation Requirement for Washington. The final memo from that meeting - which now includes additional feedback from the broader Washington CS Ed community - has been sent to lobbyists. legislatures, and state education organizations for their consideration in the upcoming legislative session.
If you would like to endorse this memo or provide further feedback, please use the following feedback form
In Other News...
Tiffany Price of Ellensburg High School won the grand prize of a BBC micro:bit 10 pack plus 2 hours of personal virtual instruction in the PSCSTA membership drive that ran between 9/15 - 10/31. Tiffany donated the prize to Morgan Middle School in Ellensburg SD.
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Throughout much of November, the Computing Community (COM^2) - the student ACM chapter of the UW CSE department - held a fundraiser for CSTA Puget Sound. COM^2's efforts raised over $400. Thank you COM^2!
If you would like to donate to support Washington CS teachers in 2024, please visit our donation page. (Note: All funding will support the new CSTA Washington and its members although current verbiage reflects PSCSTA)
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Washington CSTA will be joining with other CSTA chapters (Oregon, Alaska, Idaho) of the Pacific Northwest at a booth at NCCE 2025 on February 26 -28 at the Seattle Convention Center.
If you are planning on attending NCCE 2025 (and especially if you can help with the booth for an hour), let us know on the (👥) CSTA at NCCE 2025 thread on the CSTA Washington virtual community. We look forward to seeing you there.
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The above chart shows how the percentage of students enrolled in CS in Washington peaks in 7th grade and significantly tapers off in junior and senior years of high school. See the Data Corner for more.
PD Opportunities
from CSTA Washington
CSTA Washington provides free Washington clock hours to its members for all the self-paced, online courses on Coursera that CSTA offers. To see the full list of courses and register, see Washington PD Clock Hours Available Fall 2024on the CSTA Washington website.
Registration for the January 2025 cohort of the CS Endorsement Exam for Washington state is also open. Teachers who complete the course will receive 40 clock hours.
And for undergraduate teaching candidates with an interest in computer science, CSTA Washington is looking for a Student Media Manager from June 2025 to May 2026. For more details and to apply, check out the full article on the CSTA Washington website.
Check out the Washington CSTA Virtual Community
The Washington CSTA virtual community provides a gated forum for chapter members to interact with each other. Our chapter community is by far the most active CSTA local chapter community and one of the most active of all CSTA communities. See what it is all about by checking out one of the popular current threads:
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Teacher Spotlight: Scott Koon
Scott Koon teaches at Lakewood High School (Lakewood SD) – a school of 850 students, 565 white, 23% Hispanic - in Arlington, WA. Scott has taught CS for the last 5 years after 25 years as a software/web developer.
Course Schedule
5 periods a day. Traditionally a mix of Web Design, Exploring Computer Science, and Career Choices. This year, I have two Video Foundation periods, and next year I have a AP Computer Science Principles class. Usually about 20 students to a class. Being a small, agricultural district, my CS classes tend to have fewer students than ones like Career Choices.
Lakewood SD is a small district with only two teachers teaching any kind of computer science courses – I teach high school CS, and another teacher handles middle school.
Extra-curricular activities
I have been advising a robotics club for 2 years that I hope to expand into a general technology and programming club. I also do robotics demos to elementary schools in our district as well.
How can local CSTA better support small school districts
I think providing resources and links to curriculums and CTE frameworks would be a big benefit to smaller school districts. Also helping members to keep up with current trends in CS in the workplace.
It’s difficult to build a CS educator community because teachers have so much on their plate, and it takes time to participate. Local meet ups and sharing information can help.
Background
Starting in 1995 and catching the dot-com boom of the late 90’s, I was a software/web developer for about 25 years. I had success influencing web development by helping develop the Open Web Interface for .NET standard, hosting a podcast called Herding Code with a decent following, and co-authoring a book on JavaScript development. About 5 years ago I realized I enjoyed mentoring junior developers and decided to give teaching a try. So far so good.
Data Corner: 2018-2023 Washington CSEd Demographics
The August 2024 Connector highlighted the OSPI's publication of the 2022-23 K–12 Computer Science Education Data Summary Report (XLSX). The 2022-23 report expanded on previous reports by providing restated data for the last five school years (since 2018-19) and data on all public schools with grades 6-12.
The public Tableau visualization Washington CS Education Demographics 2018-2023 created by CSTA Washington Treasurer/Advocacy Lead Lawrence Tanimoto helps visualize the CS Ed demographic data provided in the State_Students tab of the report. The visualization shows how the percentage of students taking CS varied by gender, race/ethnicity, income status, grade level, ELL status, and disability status from 2018 to 2023. One surprising stat: in 2022-23, the percentage of Hispanic/LatinX students (9.4%) enrolled in CS exceeded the percentage of White students (9.2%) taking CS.
This visualization and other Washington state CSEd visualizations may also be found at https://csforallwa.org/data.
On Nov 9, CSTA members from Washington, Oregon, California participated in a virtual meetup to share notes from the 2024 CSTA Conference. Another CSTA member from Alaska were among the many who signed up but sent their regrets. This was the first event co-hosted by CSTA Puget Sound and CSTA Oregon to support CSTA members throughout the Pacific Northwest. Please Send any ideas that you have for future lunch and learns to csta.pugetsound@gmail.com
The CSTA Washington Connector is a monthly newsletter containing relevant information, upcoming events, learning, and connection opportunities for local CS Educators. Previous issues can be viewed by following the "News" tab on our homepage. If you have any comments about the current edition or ideas for future editions, please email csta.pugetsound@gmail.com.
