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Department of Education updates board on computer science standards, PAC Act grants and teacher training
Summary
Stephen King, the Department of Education's computer science standards consultant, briefed the board on state standards, teacher training funded by the PAC Act, the status of a computer science endorsement and the growing need for earlier K‑12 computational thinking instruction.
Stephen King, computer science academic standards consultant with the Kansas Department of Education, updated the Kansas State Board of Education on Sept. 10 about the state of computer science education and related policy and funding efforts.
King told the board that Kansas adopted K–12 computer science standards in 2019 and that the state has worked to create both academic and career-and-technical education pathways while distinguishing programming from the broader field of computer science. “Programming is one part of computer science,” he said, adding that computational thinking spans grades and disciplines.
He briefed the board on the PAC Act (House Bill 242246 of Feb. 2022), which required high schools to offer computer science and earmarked a total of $1 million in state grants in each of three budget years (2022–23 and 2023–24 were funded; funding was not provided in the subsequent year). King said the grant program trained cohorts of teachers: 218 teachers were trained in the first year and 108 the next year, with grantee programs ranging from short boot camps to Kansas State University graduate-level coursework.
King described limitations the department encountered in using the PAC Act grant structure: state grant reimbursement cycles tied to fiscal year deadlines made it difficult for grantees to deliver multiyear mentoring and for summer-time professional development to be claimed and paid within the same fiscal year.
On licensure, King said a computer science endorsement has been created and is praxis-based; it is in the queue for regulatory submission to the Department of Administration and eventual board approval, but it had not been finalized at the time of the briefing. King also said national standards are being updated by the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) to include artificial intelligence, and Kansas will review state standards when those drafts are released.
King emphasized that increasing student access requires earlier exposure to computational thinking: states that focused only on high school saw missed opportunities because students often choose pathways earlier in school. He also noted the labor market need: local manufacturers are automating and training employees locally because they cannot find qualified hires, which creates demand for K‑12 aligned pathways and postsecondary training.
Board members asked for documentation and sources; King agreed to provide supporting statistics and grant evaluations as they become available. He said the department will continue to work with districts on implementation and to track training outcomes and endorsement progress.
