I was talking to the CS chair at Hunter the other day - he's been a good friend since I joined Hunter and is also teaching the programming course in my teacher ed program this summer. William also taught the same class last year.

Due to a shift - we're moving our advanced certificate program from a Summer->Fall->Spring schedule to a more traditional Fall->Spring->Fall->Spring one, this summer, we're running very small sections of our classes specifically for the 4 masters students who would be left in the lurch otherwise.

I was telling William that this summer should be pretty easy - 4 students, give or take and most of them already know the material.

What?

They know the material?

How did we end up with that and what's the point of them taking the classes.

It's a great example of New York State's left hand not knowing what its right hand is doing or worse, the state not really understanding CS Education. I wouldn't be surprised in either case.

When NY created its CS license they decided that programs could not assume any pre-existing CS background. This was very different for other subject areas where you typically need a couple of dozen undergrad credits in the field. Why? I'm just conjecturing but one reason would be the existing belief that "if they know too much CS there's no way they'll go into teaching." Another would be that they thought many current teachers - the ones currently teaching CS without any background would earn this new additional cert and we had to meet them where the were.

Now, I'm all for a low bar for entry but when you combine this position with the state's SOCE (statement of continued eligibility) things make less sense.

On the one hand, the state created a system where teachers could become re-certified without too much stress but did nothing to make it affordable - even at public rates, all the credits will cost around $10,000. Combine that with the SOCE which, by filling out a simple form allows a teacher to teach CS without demonstrating any CS knowledge for another 10 years.

On the masters program side - the pipeline for new teachers, the fear that nobody will teach CS if they know CS is nonsense. I wrote about it here. Sure, most CS majors will want to go into the tech industry but just like mathematicians and scientists, some will want to become teachers now that there is a path.

That brings us to why our summer program will be populated with students who already know the material.

Even though the state required that our program assume no prior knowledge, aspiring teachers don't know what education programs are like. They just know (or currently believe) that they want to become teachers. If they want to become CS teachers, there's a very high likelihood that they already know some CS. Just like other subjects. Could you imagine someone wanting to become a biology teacher if they had zero knowledge of biology? How about math or any other field. If someone wants to become a subject area teacher then it's safe to say that:

1. They want to teach.
2. They know at least a little about the subject area in which they want to teach.

This has proven to be true, albeit with a small sample size. Every one of my Masters program applicants came in with some CS or programming background and the vast majority of them either had strong industry experience or were a CS major. One I think was a CS minor and another, just a hobbyist. Most of them came in with more "core" CS than our or any other program in the state offers.

This led us to where we are. Normally, this makes for a nice mix. The certificate students (that is, working teachers becoming re-certified) bring the teaching experience while the masters candidates bring the new energy and CS background.

Now, with the SOCE. I expect the number of teachers seeking the new cert to plummet and Hunter and other providers will focus recruiting more new, aspiring teachers. Ultimately, this will lead to more course offerings as the population comes in with a stronger background but that will take time.

In the meantime, due to state requirements and local resources, we'll have these small classes this summer with candidates who already know most of the material.

In the Fall, we'll start our next cohort of advanced certificate students - even with the SOCE I'm hopeful that we'll get a decent cohort since we have scholarship money, along with a new handful of masters candidates. Once again, the mix should be mutually supportive. It will certainly be better overall to be on a normal Fall/Spring rotation but beyond that we'll see where things go.