Access to computing instruction in US schools is limited and inequitable by school level and poverty¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2026: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Fewer than half of US high schools offer computer science, and offerings decline at lower school levels, with high-poverty and small schools less likely to offer CS than low-poverty and larger schools. → access-stats

Evidence¶

access-stats¶

Mills, K., Coenraad, M., Ruiz, P., Burke, Q., & Weisgrau J. (2021, December). Computational thinking for an inclusive world: A resource for educators to learn and lead. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/138

q2 · i? · review · r1

The report's review of the current state of computing education, citing Banilower et al. (2018) and Code.org et al. (2020), states that "Less than half (47%) of high schools in the United States offer computer science." It further reports high-poverty schools (26%) and smaller high schools (23%) were less likely to offer CS than low-poverty (46%) and larger high schools (43%).

"Less than half (47%) of high schools in the United States offer computer science, 38% of middle schools, and 26% of elementary schools offer instruction in computer programming"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Participating districts report large enrollment gaps in CS courses by income and gender — related
• Larger CPS high schools were consistently more likely to offer CS courses than smaller schools in both 2012 and 2018 — related
• Student access to CS grew faster than school access because larger high schools were more likely to offer CS, reaching 92 percent of students by 2018 — related
• Black students are less likely than white students to attend schools offering computer science classes — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• U.S. high schools with high enrollments of students from low-income families are less likely to offer advanced science courses than low-poverty schools — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• U.S. high schools with high enrollments of students from low-income families are less likely to offer advanced mathematics courses than low-poverty schools — related
• Black students were least likely to enroll in CS overall but most likely to enroll once school-level access to CS is accounted for — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Students in the lowest-SES neighborhoods were 3 percentage points less likely to enroll in CS, a gap largely explained by differential access to schools offering CS — related
• Washington State's automatic-enrollment academic acceleration policy is associated with more equitable advanced course offerings, reversing the typical gap — related
• Florida shows more equitable advanced course offerings between high- and low-poverty schools, attributed by others to statewide opportunity efforts begun in the early 2000s — related
• CS course offerings in CPS high schools more than doubled between 2009 and 2018, with 80 percent of schools offering at least one CS course by 2018 — a narrower finding that bears on this claim