Article for CSTA VOICE

Article for CSTA VOICE
April 10, 2007

It was Spring 1997. I was a senior at Clemson University majoring in computer science with a minor in education; I just discovered that my education minor was not going to be enough to teach in the public school system in South Carolina, North Carolina, or Virginia, all states bordering my hometown. I had six months to figure out how to pursue the love of my life, teaching. After extensive research, schools in Vermont, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Washington all said, “Come on. We’ll certify you to be a computer science teacher. Better yet, we’ll get you a masters degree in computer science education.” I got an interview at the highly recommended Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, so for Spring Break, I packed my bags and headed north (what a crazy idea for a Southerner). The interview went fine. It was a leap of faith, and Wisconsin was where I ended up, 800 miles away from home.

In Spring 2000, I had finished my Masters degree and Secondary Education certification; I was a full time high school teacher - Advanced Placement computer science (also the youngest AP exam reader to date) and algebra. I was ready to move back home and teach my love to the people I loved, and I was marrying my sweetheart from Clemson. I was finally going back home to North Carolina, but the school system there said, “We don’t have a certification for computer science. Do you have a degree in something else? Business? Math?” I thought that surely they would have seen the light after two years. I was afraid I was never going to get to come home. And neither Virginia nor South Carolina had adopted a computer science certification either. Chris, my fiancé, was finishing his Masters at UW Milwaukee and we waited another year while I got another year of teaching under my belt and besides, my AP students were doing really well.

Summer of 2001 was it! My new husband had finally been accepted into a PhD program at NC State University, and we were actually moving home. North Carolina had no standards for putting computer science into a specific department. Some schools have CS in the math department; some have it in the business department; some specialized schools have a technology department. Not only was I concerned about where and what to teach but also what license did I need to do it. Broughton High School in Raleigh, where all computer science courses were in the math department, gave me a chance. “No Child Left Behind” didn’t exist yet, so the school system had the Department of Instruction contrive a math license for me by taking all computer classes on my transcript and giving them math status.

Spring of 2003. The International Baccalaureate School thrived at Broughton and thus the attendance for computer science courses declined. I needed to move to a more technical school. I chose Apex High. However, Computer Science courses at Apex were in the Business department. I did not have a Business license, so I was granted a one-year provisional license under the assumption that certainly DPI would see the dilemma of my situation and rectify it for the district and me. After all, Apex was in the same school district as Broughton, and the courses I was teaching in the math department were the exact same as theirs in the Business department.

One year later, Spring of 2004. After countless meetings with the Department of Public Instruction, North Carolina Senators on educational committees, North Carolina School Board, Wake County Public School System, and Apex High, nothing had changed. I was still a computer science teacher with a math license and no way to switch to a Business license without more course work and an exam, all for which I would have to pay.

My provisional Business license expired at the end of the year, and I was replaced. I had an undergraduate degree in computer science with an education minor, a graduate degree in computer science education, a Wisconsin license to teach computer science, 3 years experience teaching high school AP computer science in Wisconsin, 2 years college experience teaching computers, 4 years of computer science teaching in North Carolina, and I was a paid Pacing guide/curriculum designer for computer science in Wake County of NC. With all those qualifications, I am not certified to teach computer science in North Carolina.

Now the Spring of 2007. With two kids now and one on the way, I still teach at Apex High School in Wake County in North Carolina. I teach math (prealgebra, algebra 1 part 1, and tech math 1) and stand by while a business-licensed teacher with no java or c++ experience teaches the computer science courses. DPI has been informed; the School Board has been informed, and yet nothing except, “We're working on it.” seems to be communicated from any of them.

I’m calling for help and communication from sister states, Georgia and Virginia, who have now since 2000 adopted a license in computer science. Students growing up in this technologically advanced society deserve to have the most qualified teachers. Qualification needs to be the forefront of the decision making process for teacher licensing, not checkboxes on applications that don’t fit the new age.