EES Receives CS100 Award

Mon, 04/17/2023 - 8:17am

CSisElementary and CSforAll announced the inaugural group of 160 schools receiving CS100 Awards. CS100 Awards recognize elementary schools that commit to teaching at least ten hours per year of computer science (CS) to every K-5 student. The Awards were announced March 30th at CSK5, The National Summit for K-5 Computer Science Education. Award-winning schools submitted 90-second videos describing their programs, five of which were featured at the CSK5 Summit.

The CS100 Award Webpage features the five videos, plus links to free, open source K-5 CS curriculum.

The CS100 Awards reflect a new urgency for elementary tech literacy. Facing a digital future, less than 6% of U.S. high school students take even one computer science class. “It turns out that computer science is a literacy, and like other literacies, it must be acquired in the elementary grades. We owe every child a solid understanding of coding, robotics, artificial intelligence, data science, and computational thinking to prepare them for the digital future,” said John Pearce, Executive Director of CSisElementary.

Award-winning schools came from all over the United States, reflecting diverse demographics and nearly every kind of community. Initial review of winning schools indicated 40% Title I schools and wide-ranging ethnic and community composition.

Replicable Model, Shared Curricula

The Model. Surprisingly, 90% of award-winning schools utilized the same model: using one or more Specials teachers to reach all students in all grades. Few winning schools relied upon all classroom teachers or outside contractors for CS instruction.

Free Shared Curricula. At the CSK5 Summit, CS100 schools and districts shared free K-5 curricula. CS100 videos feature resources each school used, while Maryland’s Howard County Public Schools provided a complete grade-by-grade breakdown of resources and instruction they use to achieve CS100 status in all their K-5 schools. See the CS100 Award Webpage at CSisElementary.org.

See the full news article and all of the winning schools (many within the HCPSS) here.