State devises contest for students' coding

Gov. Asa Hutchinson announces plans for a statewide computer coding competition for high school students during a school assembly at Hall High School in Little Rock on Wednesday.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson announces plans for a statewide computer coding competition for high school students during a school assembly at Hall High School in Little Rock on Wednesday.

Arkansas will offer a homegrown computer-coding competition for students, making it the only state to do so, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday.

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Gov. Asa Hutchinson (second from left) was one of several people onstage Wednesday at Little Rock’s Hall High School to announce plans for a statewide computer coding competition.

The announcement was made at Hall High School in Little Rock. Students clapped as Krista Bourne, president of the South Central Market for Verizon, presented the governor a $40,000 check to fund the competition.

"It will help inspire and reward students for taking coding," Hutchinson later told reporters. "What we started as a statewide effort has just blossomed under local leadership, under local school districts, superintendents, principals and teachers owning this and saying we recognize how important it is."

Hutchinson said during his 2014 election campaign that he would make computer coding a state priority. After entering office, he pushed for legislation to provide funding for teacher training, to mandate that high schools offer the courses and to allow the classes to count as math credits.

Other competitions have been held in the state -- including Hewlett-Packard's CodeWars competition in Conway -- but this will be larger and better able to accommodate the growing number of high school students taking computer science, said Anthony Owen, computer-science coordinator for the Arkansas Department of Education.

Owen said that when he got the job, the governor asked him to try to attract a national competition to Arkansas, so he reached out to Hewlett-Packard.

"Just being able to drive home the governor's vision, his focus for the initiative, really sold HP on Arkansas," Owen said.

Owen said he expects CodeWars -- a national competition with nine locations worldwide -- to continue in Conway, but that the state competition will accommodate more Arkansas students.

"We have such a large number of schools that are making this a focus, putting resources behind it, and a lot of students engaging in this work," Owen said. "It's only fair that we invite every school to participate in a competition."

Hutchinson said the state will host regional competitions that culminate in a statewide competition. He invited every school in Arkansas to send three students to the regional competitions. The top two schools in the regional competitions will advance to the statewide competition in April.

State champions will receive $2,000 each. Their school will receive $20,000 for computer equipment.

About 4,000 students took a computer-coding course in Arkansas last school year. That was up from about 1,100 in the previous year. About 142,000 high school students were enrolled last school year.

Figures for this school year will be available later this month. Owen said to expect a substantial increase.

"What we're doing in Arkansas is not a short-term commitment, but it's a structural change in education," Hutchinson said. "It is a structural change in technology.

"This is not a flash in the pan. This is a long-term adjustment in emphasis upon STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] education and coding in our high schools. It's here to stay."

During a question-and-answer session with reporters, the governor touted the Greenwood School District, south of Fort Smith, for the number of students enrolled in computer-science courses.

Last year, he said, fewer than 20 students were enrolled. This school year, more than 400 are enrolled. The district requires ninth-graders to take a coding course.

Asked if there should be a statewide requirement for students, Hutchinson said it should be left to school districts to decide.

"I like where we are, where it's mandatory to be offered, but it's up to the students," he said. "Just like Greenwood, if they want to make it mandatory in that local school district, they have that option, but that should be a local choice."

Texas was the first state to require that all high schools teach computer science. A single state school board member pushed to require high schools to teach the classes, but few schools are following the policy and Texas has put up little, if any, state money to train teachers.

"While Texas does have that on the books, it's not functionally happening," Amy Hirotaka, director of state government affairs for Code.org, said in an interview earlier this year. Code.org is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science and increasing participation by women and members of minority groups.

Besides Arkansas and Texas, no other state has required high schools to teach the classes. No state has budgeted as much money as Arkansas' $5 million, she said.

Metro on 09/08/2016

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