Tech entrepreneur Chris Klaus (for more on his efforts go here) has gathered stakeholders in a “Georgia Coding” group to push on improving computing in Georgia. That effort bore fruit during CSedWeek.

As detailed on the Georgia Professional Standards Commission website, all high school IT/CS classes in Georgia can now be taught by teachers with Mathematics or Science certifications. Despite AP CS being counted as a science credit, science-certified teachers were unable to teach it. Only Business Education and Mathematics teachers could teach AP CS, and only Business Education teachers could teach other IT/CS classes.

This development creates a much larger pool of possible teachers to recruit for CS classes. Generally, Math and Science teachers have a background more suited to learning about and teaching CS compared to Business Education teachers.

ECEP commends Georgia House Representative Mike Dudgeon for attending to the efforts of the Georgia Coding group and making progress on expanding computing education in the state.