A recent opinion piece in The Hill by Allison Scott and Julie Flapan makes an excellent case for expanding access to computer science education, a top priority of MBAE.

In “Diversifying tech starts with ensuring equitable computer science education,” the authors state, “Black, Latinx, and Native American professionals are vastly underrepresented in tech fields, representing only 8 percent of the Silicon Valley tech workforce and 15 percent of the national computing workforce. Less than 30 percent are women, and less than 2 percent are women of color. There is little to no racial or gender diversity in the creation of new technologies, business ventures, or in investment, limiting our innovation potential.”

The authors point out that this trend extends into K-12 education, “where far too few students are learning the computing knowledge and skills needed for participation in the future tech-driven workforce.”

In Massachusetts, 56% of urban schools, 61% of suburban schools and 41% of rural schools lack access to computer science courses.  These statistics are particularly troubling in the Commonwealth where opportunities abound for technology related jobs that offer ladders to upward economic mobility.

Scott and Flapan argue, “The exclusion of women and underrepresented people of color limits the robustness of the national computing workforce, hampers future economic growth and competitiveness, impedes innovation, restricts access to high-opportunity jobs and exacerbates economic inequality.”

Today, only 3% of Massachusetts workers in computer and mathematical occupations are black and only 5% are Hispanic. According to a report by Accenture and Girls Who Code, women’s share of the computing workforce will fall to 22% by 2025 if we don’t change the way we teach computer science to girls.

The Commonwealth is taking steps to address this challenge. Beginning with the 2019/2020 school year, certain computer science courses will be allowed to substitute for either a laboratory science or mathematics course in the state-recommended MassCore program of study. MBAE and our partners supported this step believing it will incentive more schools to offer computer science coursework and more students to take it.  Yet, more needs to be done.

We agree with Scott and Lapan’s conclusion, “Expanding participation in technology will benefit our nation’s ability to create new products and solutions, improve entrenched societal challenges, and address negative effects of technology–from algorithmic bias and privacy issues to income and wealth inequality. Our students deserve our investment. Let’s ensure all students are prepared to power our nation’s technology-driven future.”

If you want to learn more about MBAE’s work on this issue, contact Jackney Prioly Joseph.