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It compares CS course offering and teacher qualification rates across school locales and charter versus non-charter settings using 2018-19 public Texas high school data. Findings show rural areas have far fewer CS-certified teachers than urban/suburban areas, and charter exemptions do not translate into higher CS course access, implying that certification reduction alone is not sufficient. Emphasizes expanding accessible professional learning, including virtual options for geographically dispersed teachers.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/rural-schools-need-support-to-increase-computer-science-teacher-capacity-reducing-certification-requirements-in-not-a-promising-solution/587225/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/rural-schools-need-support-to-increase-computer-science-teacher-capacity-reducing-certification-requirements-in-not-a-promising-solution/587225.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"วิน","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-02","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why do many rural Texas schools struggle to offer computer science (CS) courses?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Most rural schools lack teachers certified to teach CS, which prevents them from offering CS courses. The brief reports that fewer than a quarter of rural schools have CS-certified teachers.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Do lower CS certification requirements increase schools’ CS course capacity?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"No. The brief finds that reducing CS certification requirements is unlikely to increase capacity. It notes that charter schools without CS certification requirements offer CS courses at lower rates than non-charter public schools.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What approach does the policy brief recommend beyond changing certification requirements?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Expand professional learning for rural areas through virtual options that are more accessible to geographically dispersed teachers, especially where support is most needed to bring CS to students.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},587225,1792897870,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":19,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":52,"preview_page_count":4},2336475104736,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/22000c4c5e0e5b17e70?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1786591360781797222","Education Research Center POLICY BRIEF  \n[www.texaserc.utexas.edu](www.texaserc.utexas.edu)  \nRural Schools Need Support to Increase Computer Science Teacher Capacity – Reducing Certification Requirements in Not a Promising Solution  \nNicole D. Martin, Miriam R. Jacobson, & Jayce R. Warner  \nApril 2024  \nExecutive Summary  \nMost schools in rural areas do not have teachers who are certified to teach computer science (CS), which prevents them from offering CS courses. Although reducing certification requirements may seem like an effective way to increase the number of teachers who can teach CS, our findings suggest that reducing CS certification requirements is unlikely to increase schools’ capacity to offer CS courses.  \nWe investigated how capacity to offer CS courses differs by school locale (e.g., rural versus urban) and how teacher certification requirements relate to whether schools offer CS courses. We found that less than a quarter of schools in rural areas have teachers certified to teach computer science (CS), compared to about half of schools in urban and suburban areas. Contrary to what might be expected, we also found that schools that do not require CS certification (i.e., charter schools) offer CS courses at lower rates than school that require CS certification (i.e., non-charter public schools) .  \nPolicies beyond reducing CS certification requirements are needed to increase schools’ capacity to offer CS courses for students. For schools in rural areas that are especially in need of support to bring CS to their students, it is critical to expand professional learning in rural areas through virtual options that are more accessible to geographically dispersed teachers.  \nWhat We Studied  \nTo provide students with equitable access to computer science (CS) education, schools and school districts need to have sufficient capacity to offer CS courses. Although many things contribute to the capacity to offer CS, including funding and educational policy, one key factor is the availability of teachers that are qualified to teach CS courses. In fact, a primary reason cited by principals (63%) and superintendents (74%) for not offering CS courses at their schools is a lack of qualified teachers (Google Inc. & Gallup Inc., 2016). This issue may be especially challenging in smaller, rural districts that lack the resources of their larger urban and suburban counterparts (Warner et al., 2019) .  \nAnother factor that may affect the ability to offer CS courses is the requirement for CS teachers to be certified to teach CS. For Texas schools, this can be assessed by comparing charter schools to non-charter schools. Texas has had a CS teacher certification requirement for non-charter public school teachers for over two decades. These teachers must earn a Grades 8-12 CS Certification in order to teach courses like Computer Science I, Computer Science II, and AP CS A. For both pre-service and in-service teachers, this certification is obtained by passing a rigorous exam. Charter schools in Texas, on the other hand, do not require a CS certification to teach CS courses. This exemption is in place largely because it is expected that reducing teacher requirements will give schools more flexibility to offer innovative educational opportunities for students. If certification requirements adversely impact the capacity of schools to offer CS courses, we would expect charter schools in Texas to offer CS courses at higher rates than non-charter schools.  \nIn this study, we considered how CS teacher capacity in Texas varies by school locale. We also examined the relationship between the requirement for teacher certification and access to CS in schools.  \nResearch Questions  \n1. Does capacity vary across schools based on locale type (specifically, city/suburban vs. rural/town)?  \n2. Are schools that are not required to employ certified CS teachers more likely to offer CS courses?  \nHow We Analyzed the Data  \nWe examined 2018-19 data from all pub","cbCaiiaItPamBA0b","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiaItPamBA0b","pdf",269094,"English","# Executive Summary\n# What We Studied\n## Research Questions\n# How We Analyzed the Data\n# What We Discovered","[{\"question\":\"Why do many rural Texas schools struggle to offer computer science (CS) courses?\",\"answer\":\"Most rural schools lack teachers certified to teach CS, which prevents them from offering CS courses. The brief reports that fewer than a quarter of rural schools have CS-certified teachers.\"},{\"question\":\"Do lower CS certification requirements increase schools’ CS course capacity?\",\"answer\":\"No. The brief finds that reducing CS certification requirements is unlikely to increase capacity. It notes that charter schools without CS certification requirements offer CS courses at lower rates than non-charter public schools.\"},{\"question\":\"What approach does the policy brief recommend beyond changing certification requirements?\",\"answer\":\"Expand professional learning for rural areas through virtual options that are more accessible to geographically dispersed teachers, especially where support is most needed to bring CS to students.\"}]","Rural Schools Need Support to Increase Computer Science Teacher Capacity - Reducing Certification Requirements in Not a Promising Solution | PDF",1792061093]