WASHINGTON — While computing and data shape nearly every aspect of modern life, efforts to expand data and computing education in K-12 settings have grown rapidly but unevenly, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which offers a road map for state and local education agencies to integrate data and computing into school curricula and courses in a consistent manner. Integration of this content into existing courses, the report says, provides a mechanism for adding new subject matter and for enhancing student learning in existing subjects such as science and mathematics.

The report includes 14 recommendations to guide program and curriculum designers, schools, districts, and states as they work to respond to the increasing demand for greater attention to computing and data to prepare students to navigate an increasingly complex and technological world.

New standards, courses, and initiatives for data and computing have emerged, often focused on specific areas such as computer science or data science. However, these efforts are frequently developed independently and lack consistency across states, districts, and schools. Many students encounter data and computing only through short-term or isolated experiences, especially in elementary school.

In selecting curricula, school districts should prioritize materials that make explicit connections among data, computing, and other school subjects, and that provide a progression of experiences starting in kindergarten that gradually build more sophisticated knowledge. Both digital and “unplugged” experiences play an important role, particularly in grades K-8, where unplugged activities can strengthen conceptual understanding. Students should also have opportunities to take stand-alone courses on data and computing and in middle and high school, and all students should learn about the possibilities, limitations, risks, and ethical considerations associated with artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

“At a time when computational tools and systems have become even more powerful, data are everywhere, and sophisticated artificial intelligence models are now omnipresent, we need a road map to integrate data and computing into education in an effective way, and that’s what our report offers,” said Nicholas Horton, Beitzel Professor of Technology and Society, Department of Statistics, Amherst College, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. “Kids are deeply curious about the world around them, and computation and data can build on this curiosity and allow students to flourish.”

Drawing on existing conceptual frameworks and standards in computer science, data science, mathematics, statistics, science, and engineering, the report also identifies seven foundational competencies for data and computing to be incorporated across K-12 curricula:

• problem posing and problem-solving processes

• producing and working with data

• abstraction, algorithmic thinking, and automation

• probabilistic and inferential reasoning

• models and representations

• technology and society

• data and computing systems

Many educators have had limited opportunities to develop familiarity with the foundational competencies for data and computing and may need additional content knowledge and pedagogical skills to integrate these competencies into instruction. The report recommends that professional development providers design teacher experiences that use the foundational competencies within the disciplines they teach and in the context of the curricula they are expected to implement. Additionally, leaders of teacher preparation programs should expand preservice preparation pathways and strengthen partnerships between schools of education and departments such as computer science and statistics.

The report also calls for increased coordination across professional societies to elevate the foundational competencies within their frameworks and for sustained investment in curriculum development, professional learning, and research.

The study — undertaken by the Committee on Developing Competencies for the Future of Data and Computing: The Role of K-12 — was sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.

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