Indeed, educational experts say that the key to getting more of the most underrepresented students to sign up for computer science classes in middle school and high school is by introducing the core concepts of computational thinking in the earliest years of a child’s education. [...] Center for an Urban Future In an effort to close the gaps—and equip more young people with the critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed to succeed in a fast-changing economy—New York City launched the CS4All initiative in 2015 with the goal of providing every student with one meaningful computer science learning experience in each grade band (elementary, middle, and high school). [...] The most effective way to achieve this at scale is to train all aspiring teachers before they enter the school system. “In-service training alone is not going to be sufficient,” says Cheri Fancsali, deputy director at the Research Alliance for New York City Schools and author of a recent progress report on CS4All, referring to the professional development opportunities available to current teacher. [...] In addition to the skills and life experiences they bring to the classroom, these graduates have the best retention rates in the system, with 80 percent of 12 alumni teaching for more than five years compared to 62 percent from other institutions. [...] However, the program only has the resources to reach about half of CUNY’s current education faculty and lacks the scale to train anywhere close to the 15,000 aspiring teachers enrolled at CUNY.
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