(Missourinet) – A work group made up of educators and parents is creating computer science standards for Missouri’s K-12 public schools. The new measures are a result of the 2018 passage of House Bill 3.

The legislation, passed during last September’s special session of the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, teaches career awareness to middle schoolers about STEM – science, technology, engineering and math. It also lets high schoolers swap a math class with a computer science class for graduation.

During a recent hearing in Jefferson City, one of the work group members said the standards being developed would not require a computer to learn. They could be studied through what is referred to as “unplugged activities,” which involve critical thinking and understanding algorithms.

Since technology is a major part of everyday life for many Missourians, work group members could integrate computer science learning across other subjects, especially in elementary school. Higher level courses in middle and high school could be offered separately.

High school computer science teacher Burdett Wilson says one of the national trends is to turn high school computer science classes into courses for college-bound students.

“One of my big concerns, as a teacher, is about half of my students go directly to work out of high school. The other half then go to college,” he says. “I teach students every day who will never go to college.”

Wilson launched a computer science program about five years ago at Macon Area Career and Technical Center in northern Missouri. His computer programming courses are made up of mostly high school juniors and seniors.

The school partners with an IT outsourcing company across the street. The company takes people without computer experience and teaches them the ropes in an eight week boot camp. The top students of each class then work for the company.

Wilson says state computer science instruction should be geared toward giving students real world skills, not necessarily for those strictly going to college.

“What I have found, and this is what most college professors tell me, is the students I’m sending them are one year, two years ahead of everybody else that comes into the computer science programs,” Wilson says.

He cites a student who worked for the partnering IT company for two years. With the student’s high school diploma and job experience, he was offered a $65,000 a year data job in St. Louis.

Another student who struggled with learning took a job right out of high school.

“He came back and said ‘Mr. Wilson, I’m so excited. I’m making more (money) than my mom.’ His mom worked two jobs and she worked really hard to get him through high school. It is so exciting,” says Wilson. “I had two students both of them graduated with their Associates Degrees this year and they are making $70,000 a year. They are making a lot more than their teacher.”

Wilson says the state should not “pigeon hole” the program for college-bound students only.

“We have a chance to have hundreds and thousands of students that have great careers,” he says. “We’re very excited about the idea of having computer science standards, but we’re hoping that it is aimed at those students who would not necessarily be college students. It could change their life.”

Wilson’s assertion is one similarly shared by Governor Mike Parson, who wants more state focus on workforce development.

The work group plans to give its recommendations to the State Board of Education in May and then would be subject to approval by the panel. If endorsed, the standards would take effect in the 2019-20 school year, per state statute. Districts would then develop their own curriculum to align with the standards.

The public comment period about the standards is open through March 11. Click here to view the proposed standards and submit a comment.

(Missourinet) – Niche.com ranks Missouri 39th in the nation in teacher pay with the average salary being $49,000 a year. It also ranks Missouri 49th for the average starting teacher salary of $31,800.

During Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting in Jefferson City, Paul Katnik, Assistant Commissioner of Missouri’s Office of Educator Quality, gave a presentation summing up the state’s work to recruit and retain more teachers and boost the quality of educators.

Board member Kim Bailey of Raymore asked if the salary information compares apples to apples.

“I’m not dismissing the reality that we need to increase salaries, but I also recognize that different regions have different costs of living. It’s more expensive to live in New York than it is in Missouri. We might be 49th but we might be 25th in cost of living. Is that calculated at all into this,” asks Bailey.

Katnik points to Niche.com showing all of Missouri’s eight bordering states ranking higher in teacher salaries, except for Arkansas and Oklahoma.

“Not that we advocate that we suddenly pay teachers the same as you pay them in New York or California,” he says. “One of the things I offer for you is all of our neighboring states. What does Kansas pay? What does Iowa pay? What does Illinois pay? What does Arkansas pay? It’s those that we are under. I think that we should pay attention to.”

Katnik says teachers leave the profession for a variety of reasons, including family commitments, low pay, lack of administrative support and challenging working conditions. He says paying teachers more would be felt at school.

“Research shows that high teacher turnover rates in schools negatively impact student achievement, for all the students in the school, not just those in a new teacher’s classroom. These rates are highest in schools serving our low-income students and students of color,” Katnik says.

Missouri has about 70,500 teachers with most of them being white women.

According to Katnik, about 8% of Missouri teachers leave the workforce annually and another 8% change schools. The state’s current hiring rate is 11% and Katnik says a great deal of money is spent filling the vacancies.

Board member Carol Hallquist of Kansas City questioned whether there’s a link between teacher salaries and student achievement. Katnik says merit pay is a debatable practice.

He goes on to cite a Vanderbilt University study saying teacher merit pay for student performance has merit.

“If you take into account two things, that good salaries can create the conditions where teachers will get more performance out of students but you have to pay attention to program design,” he says. “So that means it’s not going to work if it’s not set up well.”

The study says pay-for-performance structures have considerable political and financial support. The federal government has awarded some $2 billion in more than 30 states to design and implement performance pay systems.

According to Melissa Randol with the Missouri School Boards’ Association, Missouri school districts are required by statute to pay teachers on a uniform salary schedule and the state constitution prohibits paying bonuses. State law makes it difficult to have an effective performance pay system.

Katnik says the department is working to retain teachers through preparation and mentoring, providing adequate teaching materials, professional working conditions and teacher leadership. It is also leading an effort to recruit 2-3 students from each Missouri high school. Katnik says the students recruited would ideally match the demographics of the student population in their district with the intent of increasing diversity and the male teacher population.

The goal is to boost Missouri’s teacher pipeline by 1,500 to 1,800 next year.