Data

CS for MN

Data

What Counts as Computer Science in Minnesota?

Aligning CS Courses to the MCCC

As part of the 2023 Computer Science Education Advancement bill, computer science was defined as “the study of computers and algorithmic processes, including their principles, their hardware and software designs, their implementation, and their impact on society.” However, this definition can be challenging to put into practice in K-12 schools. What courses should count as computer science under this definition? The Northern Lights Collaborative for Computing Education developed the following guide for aligning computer science courses to the Minnesota Common Course Catalogue that districts can use to guide their planning. The course listing in the document uses the categories that CSforAll-MN developed during their participation in the ECEP Common Metrics Project.

Where is CS taught and who takes it?

ECEP Common Metrics Project

As part of the ECEP Common Metrics Project, a dashboard was created that shows data related to access and participation (enrollment) in computer science courses in Minnesota. Currently, the data is for a limited set of years, however, CSforAll-MN is working to develop a process for regular updates to the dashboard. Please also note that if a district did not report data to the Minnesota Department of Education in a given year, it is not included in the dashboard. View the dashboard and explore the data at this link.

MDE Dashboards

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) also provides two dashboards for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) course availability and enrollment. The dashboards show availability and enrollment of a limited set of CS courses in three categories: 

  • IT (information technology are courses IT Essentials: PC Hardware and Software and Network Technology)
  • Intro CS (introduction to computer science are courses Exploring Computer Science and Computer Science Principles)
  • Adv CS (advanced computer science are courses Computer Science A and and Computer Programming)

View the dashboards and data by school district and year at: STEM Course Availability and STEM Course Enrollment (Note that the dashboards may take awhile to load.)