The following "In Favor" statement was sent to the CSTA Washington interim board on Jan 24 for review. This statement is to be used to testify on behalf of CSTA Washington at the first hearing on Jan 28 8:00 - 10:00. Anyone with serious concerns should reply to this thread immediately:
https://washington.csteachers.org/
Click to follow link." target="_blank" rel="noopener">CSTA Washington is in favor of Sections 1 and 2 of Bill SB5327
The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) of Washington greatly appreciates that this legislature understands
· The importance that all students learn foundational computer science principles
· The challenges that schools and students face in fitting computer science into an already crowded academic schedule
· The difficulties in training and supporting teachers to teach a critical new subject computer science.
CSTA Washington can help in the effort represented by Sections 1 and 2 of SB5327. CSTA Washington is committed to supporting and representing all of Washington's K-12 teachers, whether they are teaching CS full or part-time, whether in standalone or integrated classes, whether CTE or as a core subject.
CSTA Washington has created data dashboards to help the Board understand and interpret the CS education data published by OSPI.
Members of our chapter are reviewers on the K-12 CSTA CS standards revision team and can help OSPI with updating our K-12 CS standards. CSTA will release these new CS standards in the summer of 2026. As with many other states, Washington's current CS standards fully adopt the national CSTA CS standards of 2017.
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Lawrence Tanimoto
Treasurer/Advocacy Lead, CSTA Washington
Winner, Men's and Women's Brackets
2024 CSTA Chapter Leaders March Madness Challenge
Bellevue, WA
K-12 Teacher CTE (retired)
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-21-2025 18:31
From: Lawrence Tanimoto
Subject: SB 5327 (2025) Concerning learning standards and graduation requirements (for computer science)
https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/?BillNumber=5327&Year=2025&Initiative=false
On Jan 17, Sens Wellman, Nobles, and Wilson submitted a bill SB 5327 (2025) titled "Concerning learning standards and graduation requirements" specifically addressing computer science. This is in contrast to last legislative session's SB 5849 which would have made CS competency a graduation requirement. This time around, the mandates are essentially that (a) the state board of education consider how to incorporate CS into their revised graduation requirements, (b) the board develop a report on district needs in meeting the requirement, and (c) OSPI update the CS learning standards, which is already in the queue for the near future contemporaneously with CSTA's standards revisions.
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Lawrence Tanimoto
Treasurer/Advocacy Lead, CSTA Washington
Winner, Men's and Women's Brackets
2024 CSTA Chapter Leaders March Madness Challenge
Bellevue, WA
K-12 Teacher CTE (retired)
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