Pathways to computing careers

In recent years, the national discussion about the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has become increasingly prominent. Accompanying this discussion, some questions have been raised about whether there really is a " STEM problem " when it comes to filling current and future jobs in the U.S. Two things are abundantly clear and critically important: the great majority of the current and foreseeable STEM jobs are in computing and IT; and there is great demand in these areas spread across all sectors of the economy. Whether in Silicon Valley or the nation's heartland, every region is facing rapid growth in demand for workers in computing and information technology-based jobs. ACM has been at the heart of the U.S. policy discussion regarding computing education and the workforce for a number of years through its Education Policy Committee (ACM EPC). The EPC has played an important role in bringing attention and action to these issues, including a seminal role in the creation of the annual U.S. Computer Science Education Week, and a major role in contributing to the development of the non-profit organization Code.org. Code.org has become the focal point for the community's effort to make computing education ubiquitous in U.S. K–12 schools. Indeed, the organization sponsored the international Hour of Code—an introduction to computing that has reached over 40 million students worldwide. The EPC's 2010 report Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K–12 Computer Science in the Digital Age (runningonempty.acm.org) had a significant impact in bringing awareness and energy to these issues. is the sequel to Running on Empty. The earlier report focused on K–12 computing education policy and availability , state by state and in aggregate. The Pathways report focuses on IT workforce needs at the U.S. state and national levels, along with examples of successful educational pathways that help meet these needs, and policy recommendations to government and economic leaders. The workforce analysis in the Path‑ ways report shows there is significant demand for IT workforce professionals in all 50 states. The examples of strategies to address this need illustrate a diverse set of educational approaches that have been successful across a wide spectrum of geographical regions , socioeconomic conditions, and slices of the K–12 educational systems. These examples provide a rich set of starting points for other states and school districts to consider and potentially emulate. The Pathways report contains a nationwide call to …