A Decade of CS Education in New Zealand’s High Schools: Where Are We At?

Abstract

Although a rigorous computing curriculum equipped with computer science and computer programming achievement standards was introduced in high schools in New Zealand 10 years ago, fewer than 10% of students take these standards. That raises the questions of why the uptake is low, and what were the trends in recent years. Past studies of New Zealand’s computer science and programming standards have tended to concentrate on the nature of the standards, teachers’ reactions to standards, teaching materials and assessment methods. In this research, we analyse the introduction of the computing curriculum over the last decade in terms of student uptake in general, the uptake for different groups of students, students’ progression through these standards and number of schools offering these standards. After analysing the official, nationwide data we can provide the following major findings. First, student participation in all three levels of computer science and programming standards is very low throughout the period. Second, fewer than 50% of high schools offer any of these standards. Finally, large equity gaps remain in enrollment to high school computer science education by socio-economic status, ethnicity and gender.