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Education Policy Committee

The computer science field drives innovations that have created entirely new economic sectors like the World Wide Web, and new technologies that are vital to daily life. Computer science education plays a critical role in providing the workforce with the skills necessary to fuel these innovations and industries.

Education policies that promote a first-rate computing and information technology workforce allow countries to compete globally in the 21st Century knowledge economy and foster technological innovation.

Issues

The information technology sector is a vibrant part of the global economy and plays an increasingly important part of US economic growth. The projected demand for computing and mathematical science graduates in the US will far outstrip the supply.

The computer science field faces a challenge in filling this need. In recent years, interest in computer science has declined at all levels of the education pipeline -- particularly among women and minorities. Consider the following (see charts in the next column):

The projected number of job openings needing computer science or mathematical background will average about 150,000 annually for the next several years
Computer science undergraduate degrees granted dropped by 34% from 2002 to 2006
The number of high school students taking Advanced Placement (AP) science and mathematics exams has roughly doubled over the past decade, while AP computer science has lagged behind in growth and even dropped in recent years
In 2007, only 17% of AP computer science test-takers were women, even though women represented 55% of all AP test-takers
The percentage of women receiving computer science undergraduate degrees as a percentage of total degrees fell to 21% in 2006 from 35% in 1985

Similar troubling trends have been reported in other countries.

Broadly increasing participation and interest in computer science is critical to creating the next generation of innovators and closing the gap between supply and demand in computing-related fields.

Mission

The Education Policy Committee Committee will engage policymakers and the public on public policy issues in science and math education relevant to computing and computer science. It will focus initially on steps to ensure that computer science education is identified as a critical component of education policy in the U.S. at both federal and state levels.

The Education Policy Committee will:

Review issues that impact science, math, and computer science education in K-12 and higher education systems
Determine if current policies are adequately serving the computing field and recommend improvements
Comment on proposals before governmental bodies that impact computing issues
Educate policymakers on the role and importance of computing education
Provide expertise on key computing and education issues to policymakers

Members

The Education Policy Committee comprises the following members:

Robert Schnabel, Chair, Indiana University
Fred Chang, University of Texas
Joanna Goode, University of Oregon
J Strother Moore, University of Texas
Mark Stehlik, Carnegie Mellon University
Chris Stephenson, Computer Science Teachers Association

Eugene Spafford, ex officio, Purdue University (Chair of ACM's US Public Policy Committee)
John White, ex officio, Chief Executive Officer, Association for Computing Machinery

For press inquiries contact:

Virginia Gold, Public Relations Coordinator, ACM
v_gold@acm.org
+1-212-626-0505