Meet Daryl Detrick, a computer science (CS) teacher at Warren Hills High School in Washington, NJ. He’ll tell you that he doesn’t just teach “coding”—he helps students understand how to approach complex problems that will improve the world around them. He started teaching computer science in 2008, at a time where there were very few resources available to help support him.

Many CS teachers lack the resources to become skilled and confident in their roles. So today we're announcing new support for teachers like Mr. Detrick, starting with an additional $2 million in grants to support nonprofit organizations that provide support for teachers throughout their educational careers. Our goal to help increase access to CS skills by empowering more skilled and confident CS teachers globally.

Supporting existing CS teachers and inspiring new ones

Mr. Detrick’s first CS professional development experience was through CS4HS, a Google program that funds educators with localized computer science professional development. Through these grants in 2017-2018, 79 organizations in Australia, New Zealand, U.S., Canada, China, Europe, the Middle East and Africa will receive funding to create pathways and content to foster local communities of educators.

CS4HS focuses on teachers to increase the availability of quality computer science education, while many of Google’s other CS education programs, like Made with Code, focus on students. Over the past 10 years, CS4HS has contributed $10 million to professional development (PD) providers around the world to help train and empower teachers—like Western Wyoming Community College, which helped rural teachers integrate gaming into their CS classes, or Australian Catholic University, which trained 1,600 pre-service teachers in accordance with Australia’s Digital Technology curriculum, among others.

Given the shortage of qualified teachers, it’s important not only to help the educators currently in the field, but also to inspire more teachers to join them. That’s why we’re also supporting pre-service teacher preparation programs developing new coursework that trains aspiring educators at the College of St. Scholastica, the University of California at Irvine, the University of Texas at Austin, and Huston-Tillotson University. We’re excited to work with these universities to help them share their resources with other higher education programs, equipping the next generation of educators with the knowledge and skills to teach CS and computational thinking (CT).

Although we’ve seen a small increase of computer science teachers in recent years within the U.S.—6 percent since 2008—the subject is still largely regarded as an extracurricular activity, and one of the key barriers is a lack of qualified teachers. But research suggests that building training and local pathways are two key ways to retain and grow excellent educators. Today’s grants will help universities and nonprofits reach educators with PD opportunities that enhance their CS and technical skills development, improve their confidence in the classroom, and provide leadership training so that they can be advocates for CS education in their communities.

Growing the community of computer science educators

With the help of his principal and faculty partners at Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers and Kean University, Mr. Detrick has grown his school’s CS program from 53 students to more than 200. He’s also a lead educator advocate for the CSTA New Jersey chapter, and works with the CSNJ advocacy group to influence State legislation that would require all high schools to offer computer science.

We’re excited to support new and future CS educators around the world. Even though computer science is a relatively new discipline for most schools, the enthusiasm is growing—and educators like Mr. Detrick are helping to pave the way for students to learn skills they’ll need for the future. To explore more information about communities of CS teachers near you, explore our computer science education resources and partners.

As underscored during CSEdWeek, navigating the 21st-century world requires new kinds of problem solving skills — and therefore a deeper investment in educators to prepare them to teach the next generation. Google is committed to providing educators with the preparation, resources and support necessary to boost their confidence and skills as computer science educators through CS4HS (Computer Science for High School).

The annual CS4HS awards support Professional Development (PD) providers (research institutions, universities, community colleges, school districts and educational non-profits) dedicated to creating and delivering Computer Science (CS) PD to local communities of teachers. Applications for 2017-2018 funding are now open.

We need to equip educators with the knowledge, resources, and support to create CS content that meets students’ needs. CS educators provide students with lifelong skills that enable them to solve problems and develop unique solutions. “A lot of students come out of school able to push the right buttons, but don’t know how to approach real-world problem solving. We need to teach students how to tackle problems that seem unsolvable,” says Leanne Cameron, lecturer of educational studies at Australian Catholic University.

While not every child will become a computer scientist, every child should have the opportunity to explore and create with computing. “When students learn to code, they open the door to invent powerful things that can empower them and their communities,” says Dr. Yue Li, a teacher at South China University of Technology.  All students need to develop the computational thinking (CT) skills that will help them develop critical workplace skills for the new global economy.

CS4HS funding enables computer science education experts to meet teachers where they are and deepen their skills and confidence in CS and CT. Since 2009, the program has impacted more than 40,000 teachers and one million students in 40 countries. Here are a few of their stories:

Uniting a nation in CS education

Australian Catholic University responded to Australia’s newly mandated Digital Technologies curriculum by creating a compulsory course that will help all pre-service teachers in their Bachelor of Education programs learn how to teach CS and CT. Over 2,000 pre-service teachers have completed the course to date. This course has also been open-sourced so that other universities can use the content to prepare their teachers. Beyond their open source content, ACU’s nationwide workshops have connected in-service teachers to Google partners such as CS Unplugged and Adelaide University’s free online MOOCs for teachers to help scale professional development and online communities of practice.

Meeting teachers where they are, based on local needs

South China University of Technology works with the Guangzhou Education Information Center to expand the availability of MIT App Inventor throughout China, for example, by establishing a China-based App Inventor server. App Inventor was specifically chosen because an overwhelming majority of students have access to mobile technology rather than traditional non-mobile computers. With App Inventor, students can create their own mobile technology. South China University of Technology used CS4HS funding to organize App Inventor workshops for over 200 local teachers from 2014 to 2016, helping them build programming skills so they can encourage their students to design and build their own apps.

Building scalable platforms and content

Creating institutional partnerships for lasting success

Western Wyoming Community College professor Carla Hester-Croff used CS4HS funding to create a workshop for Wyoming middle and high school teachers. Working alongside the University of Colorado Boulder's Scalable Game Design project, Hester-Croff built upon the success of other CS education experts and customized the workshop content to local teachers’ needs. This resulted in incredible impact in a rural area with few CS resources. Teachers now incorporate game design and programming into classes like biology and environmental science – for example, creating a computer simulation to predict the spread of a communicable disease. “Our workshops have shown teachers that they don’t need to be afraid of computer science,” Hester-Croff says.

You can read more about the organizations and individuals who are doing great work in CS professional development on our website. You can also watch our Hangout on Air on Dec. 14 to learn about the ripple effect of CS4HS and how it is growing and supporting local communities of teachers. By supporting teachers, we help them to inspire their students and equip them with critical problem solving strategies to solve the complex challenges of the future.