The Next Mark Zuckerberg Probably Won’t Come From Compton

In our increasingly tech-centric world, knowing how to code isn’t just about having a bonus skill to tack onto your résumé—it’s an absolute necessity. To find out what might be holding some U.S. students back, Google commissioned Gallup to conduct a study of computer science education in K–12 classrooms. The findings, released on Thursday, suggest that lower-income and black students consistently have the least access to computer science learning opportunities.

The study, which surveyed students, parents, superintendents, and principals over the course of a year and a half, found that although school officials would like to provide these kinds of classes, they feel limited by the number of hours they must devote to subjects—think English and math—that are tied to standardized testing requirements. As a result, although the educators surveyed agreed that computer science is important, “most school and district leaders have yet to make computer science a top priority.”

Administrators and school boards don’t seem to grasp the importance of computer science education, according to the survey. And where computer science learning opportunities do exist, coding and programming are rarely included.

Meanwhile, by 2020, there will be 1 million more jobs in computer science–related fields than there will be qualified graduating students to fill them, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As opportunities in these fields grow, the vital role of computer science education has become undeniable, even as schools struggle to keep up.

This curricular exclusion hits low-income students and students of color the hardest. Black students surveyed were less likely than white or Latino students to have access to specific computer science classes, classes that offer a unit dedicated to computer science, or an extracurricular group dedicated to the subject. While 69 percent of students who live in households with incomes of $105,000 and up had access to specific computer science classes, just 48 percent of students living in households that earn $54,000 or less could say the same.

“In the future, students who don’t have an understanding of computing and computer science won’t be able to get good-paying jobs, because those jobs just won’t exist,” Alison Derbenwick Miller, vice president of computer science curriculum distributor Oracle Academy, told Education Week.

One way state legislatures are helping schools circumnavigate the pressure to exclude courses that don’t fit the standardized testing mold is by passing policies that allow computer science to count as mathematics or science credits. In 2015 Wisconsin, Alabama, Maryland, and Idaho have all passed bills allowing computer science to fulfill these requirements in high schools. Almost half of principals surveyed—49 percent—said that they expect computer science education offerings to increase over the next three years.