Code.org

1. Code.org Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn to code

2. First • I wanted to thank a lot of different people and groups who helped me tremendously in the last year: • Jan Cuny • Cam Wilson • Ed Lazowska • Chris Stephenson • Lucy Sanders • Microsoft (Brad Smith, Jane Broom, Allyson Knox) • Google (Maggie Johnson, Jordan Bookey) • If I forgot somebody in the CS Ed community, sorry!!

3. A little bit about My background, and Code.org • Born in Iran, my dad co-founded Sharif university (the “M.I.T. of Iran”). Taught myself computer programming • Graduated with a bachelors + masters in CS from Harvard, worked as a teaching assistant all 4 years of college • In tech industry – Microsoft, Facebook, Dropbox, etc, as a “product guy”. This was my first time doing “marketing” or “film” • Why I’m sharing all this? Because I’m hoping to stick around to see the problem get solved • Also, I have a plane to catch after this. You can reach me at hadi@code.org (don’t expect speedy replies)

4. The AWARENESS problem we set out to solve • The tech industry and CS Ed community are both deeply familiar with the lack of CS education, and the resulting shortage of software engineers • But mainstream America is generally unaware of the most glaring problems that differentiate CS from broader the STEM efforts: • Only 10% of schools teach CS, it’s been declining • 41 states don’t recognize CS as a proper course • Jobs–students gap = $500b over 10 years • We CAN make this an issue like climate change • Also, most students assume CS is “not for me”: • CS is too hard to learn, only for geniuses • I don’t want to work alone in a dark basement • Unaware that software jobs are awesome, highest-paying • Unaware that CS is relevant even if you want to be a ________ • Our goal was to bring CS Ed into the national debate, make it a mainstream issue for regular people, to add fuel to all other efforts. (timed before HS students choose their courses for next year)

5. CODE.ORG LAUNCH – CHANGE THE DISCUSSION • Short film starring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, will.i.am, Chris Bosh, many others. • Directed by Lesley Chilcott(An Inconvenient Truth) 1 min, 5 min, 9 min versions – at http://code.org/teach (non-YouTube, DVD versions too) CHALLENGEPLANUS YOU

6. Infographics – Presenting Old data in a new light http://code.org/stats CHALLENGE PLAN US YOU Sources: College Board, Bureau of Labor Statistics

7. The numbers add up fast! $500 billion over 10 years!! • CS graduates land the highest-paying jobs* • Each software job yields 4.3 more neighborhood jobs* • http://code.org/stats CHALLENGE PLAN US YOU *Bay Area Council Economic Institute, Dec 2012, NACE survey, 2011

8. Recruited support from dozens of leaders • Politicians (Democrats, Republicans, Independents) • Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Governors of Colorado, Washington. Mayor Cory Booker, Mayor Bloomberg, Marco Rubio, Thune, Eric Cantor • Business leaders • Richard Branson, Steve Ballmer, Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg, and CEOs/founders of Lotus, AOL, Salesforce.com, and many many others • Educators • Presidents/deans of Stanford, Harvard, U of Washington, Harvey Mudd. Sup’t of LA USD. • Heads of Teach For America, KIPP schools, Aspire schools. • Union leaders: Randy Weingarten (AFT), Dennis Van Roekel (NEA). • Even NGSS/Achieve.org • Doctors, lawyers, scientists, astronauts • Leland Melvin (NASA), Lee Hood (modern genomics), Leroy Corey (Fred Hutch), Stephen Hawking, Dr. Oz • Celebrities • Bono, Ashton Kutcher, Linkin Park, Enrique Iglesias, Snoop Dogg • http://code.org/quotes

9. RESULTS… • #1 on YouTube for a day • Over 10M views in first 5 days • Distributed to 500,000 teachers to play in classrooms. • Shared over 100,000 times on Facebook • Hundreds of articles, dozens of TV appearances, including 5 min on NPR, and CNN Headline News • Playing in ½ the movie theaters in the country before the trailers for 2 weeks CHALLENGEPLANUS YOU

10. Outpouring of stories, emails • Students: • “Thank you thank you for making this! I just graduated high school and I wasn’t sure what I want to study in college. You made my decision easy!” • “I just submitted my courses for next year – and you convinced me to take AP CS!” • Parents: • “My 16-year old daughter shared your film with me and said ‘check it out, this is cool!’ It’s the first time she’s ever called education cool” • “I just saw your film and enrolled both of my children in your online classes. My 8-year-old just finished her first Scratch animation, and my 12-year old finished the first lesson in Codecademy. Thank you!” • Teachers: • “We just played the Code.org film for our entire school, and it got a standing ovation. I was even more surprised when many of my students came to me and told me they had already seen it on Facebook” • Software Engineers: • “This film about programming is the best thing since programming itself!” • CS Ed community: • “Why did you say ‘Code’ instead of ‘Computer Science’?” • “What is your plan for equity within the school, universal access?” • “Now that lots of people are excited, how to we coherently steer them towards CS (and not HTML and PowerPoint)?” CHALLENGEPLANUS YOU

11. RESULTS after the first week • Signed statement: “Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn” • More than 500,000signatures (with emails, ZIPs) and growing • Teachers and principals from almost 10,000 schools want help setting up coding classes or clubs • More than 20,000software engineers already volunteered to help teach/mentor. • Important Note: um, we’re still working out what exactly we would, er, do with these schools or volunteers CHALLENGEPLANUS YOU

12. MORE DETAILS – “EDUCATOR” RESPONSES

13. Educator responses

14. Volunteer responses (Software engineers)

15. What’s next for us: 3 main areas of activity • Educate: Get coding into schools, focusing on breadth not depth • Create after-school programs and in-class curriculum modules that can be delivered at high scale to the largest number of schools • Help students (and parents) find places to learn, online or offline • Advocate: change the rules. • Get all 50 states to count computer science toward graduation • (we expect WA state to convert this month) • Encourage the Common Core / NGSS standards to recognize CS • Celebrate: inspire youth (and parents) to learn • Continue using social media, celebrities, videos, to inspire students • Run regional, state, and national competitions to reward/recognize CS in K-12, including for women and minorities CHALLENGE PLAN US YOU

16. Our Main idea: Code.org afterschool clubs • 1-2hr/week clubs, outside the class schedule, for grades 5-12 • Modest commitment (crawl -> walk -> run) • Recruit existing math/science teachers. Expose them to CS instruction, lay foundation. • Using blended curriculum. Teachers facilitate (not lecture) • School provides: • Math/science teacher for 2hrs / week • Classroom with Web-connected computers • Marketing to its students • Code.org provides: • Online-delivered curriculum. • 1 day professional development • “Lifeline” mentors if a student is stuck • Seed funding • Marketing materials to recruit students • Badges of recognition for students who complete the curriculum • Annual contests to build a sense of community, and motivate students to over-achieve CHALLENGE PLAN US YOU

17. Reasons for hope • 75 % of today’s AP math/science teachers have taken a Computer Science course in college • We believe creative/new solutions can achieve cost-effective scale: • Blended curriculum is a possibility. CS must be taught with a computer, so the computer can provide online curriculum to assist a teacher • Industry volunteers as teachers, even via video conference • Web-capable computers are finally super cheap. ($100 chromebooks!) • Broad support across the tech industry to solve this CHALLENGE PLAN US YOU

18. Closing thought • There are more cool videos coming  • I am hadipartovi@code.org