Florida schools: Computer science now counts as math credit - is this a good idea?

[TexasTowelie]

Florida is one of 47 states allowing computer science to count as math credit. But are these changes helping students or hurting them?

In 2013, a who’s who of the tech world came together to launch a new nonprofit called Code.org. The purpose of the organization was to get more computer science into schools.

Billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates donated millions of dollars to the group. According to the organization’s last annual report, Code.org spent more than US$91 million between 2013 and 2018. Of that amount, $6.9 million went to advocate for state legislation across the country.

As part of the organization’s mission to “make computer science count” in K-12 education, code.org takes credit for having influenced graduation policies in 42 states. Today, 47 states and the District of Columbia allow computer science classes to count in place of math classes like Algebra 2. Prior to the organization’s work, only a few states allowed computer science to count for math credit.

Read more: https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20191015/florida-schools-computer-science-now-counts-as-math-credit---is-this-good-idea

[Laffy Kat]

1. It is math, IMO.

Isn't all that binary code considered math?

On edit: I just asked my son, a physicist, about this and he said only courses that teach "functional programming" should be considered math. (Whatever that means.) I defer to his opinion.

[FirstLight]

6. Yea

I was thinking the same thing...

I mean, programming is a math kinda thing now, but who am I kidding.... Algebra is as foreign a language to me as is coding 😂

[Laffy Kat]

9. Me, too! How a woman who flunked ninth-grade algebra...

Could give birth to a physicist is a mystery to me. No one on my side of the fam. was math-oriented.

[Midnightwalk]

13. Programming involves logic

So it can count as math. My first programming class was taught by a math teacher.

Substituting programming for algebra doesn’t make sense to me. Sooner or later you’ll need that kind of thinking to program.

Computer literacy type classes and even web page design don’t count in my book even though web pages can have a lot of code behind them. As your son says only real programming counts

The processor hardware has an instruction set that is implemented with binary logic. Very little programming is done at that level any more. We mostly write code in a higher level language. That code is then “compiled” into the processor instructions and can then be executed.

[FirstLight]

15. haha

I literally only got about 50% of what you even said!

[Midnightwalk]

16. Haha i kept trying to stop

You probably started to hear that charlie brown teacher voice. Oh well. I could go on a looong time.

[zaj]

2. Yes

[DBoon]

3. yes as long as it is true computer science

and not just a how-to-code class

[napi21]

4. yes, to be good at programming you have a lot of math involved. I think the idea is GREAT! nt

[zipplewrath]

5. No

Look, I think some variation of computer science should be taught at the middle and high school level just like other divisions of science, not to mention the various "math" disciplines. But it is not "replacement" for the basic "math" studies at that level. I also object to CS courses being used to replace "foreign language" requirements.

[flyingfysh]

7. No

Math and computer programming are not the same at all. High schools can't teach enough for someone to be useful as a programmer. That takes a lot of work and self-study. And the field changes much too fast.

It is important to understand what a theorem is, but theorems do not appear in practical programming.

U would also object to allowing a computer course to count as a foreign language.

[Hoyt]

8. Back in the dark ages, there were accounting firms who considered a music degree

as indicative of math acumen. I think computer science is an excellent indicator. But I’d sure want someone intimately familiar with the issue to check the calculations, when it really matters.

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

10. Yes. And also as a foreign language credit. eom

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. I know almost nothing about coding,

but what little I think I know, it doesn't seem very close to math.

And I disagree that everyone needs to take a coding class. Back when personal computers were just beginning to come into people's homes in the early 1980s, it was commonly assumed that everyone would have to learn coding so they could do things like write a program to balance their checkbooks.

Hmmmm. I've never had to write a program to balance a checkbook or anything else, because there are so very many commercial programs already out there. Meanwhile, what I learned in Algebra 2, College Algebra, Statistics, and Calculus has periodically come in handy over the years.

[intrepidity]

12. As long as cooking classes count as chemistry

[lapfog_1]

14. as someone who has been programming for over 50 years now

starting with Algol 68 (when I was a wee lad)... having taught Computer Science for 5 years... CS is not math... it is more like puzzle solving or game playing.

Yes, you need some basic math skills.
There is logic and order to the process.
There is also art and elegance.

but I also did a pure math undergraduate... and it had little to do with CS.

OTOH, at my university, the school of Journalism counted "intro to Computer Science" as satisfying a "foreign language requirement" which was all kind of special for the teachers of CS 101. So there is that.

[Blue_true]

18. I view the issue as an engineer.

In college the programming and code writing that I had to do included writing equations into code. Most macros involve a lot of the relational things that kids are taught in math classes.

Programming definitely should be treated as a math class, IMO, BUT it should be so ONLY as an addition to traditional math classes and it should be a college or trade school prep type elective course.

I don't it should be a foreign language credit unless the class deals specifically with translating text from one language to another -but how would the languages that are applicable be chosen.

[Blue_true]

17. Yes.

The internals of code can involve a lot of math and logic. I believe the change is appropriate.