Regents adopt K-12 standards
Guidelines for computer science, digital literacy come after 2-year process
The New York Board of Regents on Monday adopted New York’s first-ever K-12 learning standards for computer science and digital fluency.
The guidelines are the culmination of a two-year process during which the state Education Department sought feedback from teachers and statewide experts on computer science and educational technology, according to Board of Regents Vice Chancellor T. Andrew Brown.
“Technology is a large part of children’s lives, and the ability to understand and use technology safely and effectively to learn, communicate and create is critical for 21st century life, work and civic engagement,” Brown said. “The COVID -19 emergency has magnified the digital divide that separates so many of our most vulnerable students from their peers ... it’s critical that comprehensive technology learning is available to our youngest students and continues throughout their scholastic career.”
The K-12 Computer Science and Digital Fluency Standards are organized into five concepts: Impacts of Computing, Computational Thinking, Networks and Systems Design, Cybersecurity, and Digital Literacy.
Each concept contains two or more sub-concepts and within the sub-concepts are a number of standards. The standards are grouped into grade-bands: K-1, 2-3, 4-6, 7-8, and 9-12. Students are expected to master the standards by the end of the last year of the grade band.
Regents Chancellor and interim Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said, “The standards adopted today allow for engagement by all students and flexibility in how they may demonstrate proficiency. The standards support a cultural view of learning and human development in which multiple expressions of diversity are recognized and regarded as assets for teaching and learning.”
The standards were conditionally approved by the Board of Regents P-12 Committee in January to allow the Education Department additional time to engage with early learning experts to ensure the early grades standards are developmentally appropriate and to begin to develop resources and guidance to help implement the standards.
The Education Department will return to the Board of Regents in fall 2021 with regulatory and policy recommendations to help roll out the new standards.
Department staff will engage with partners across the state to develop guidance materials and tools to aid schools in the implementation of the new standards.