The seven largest school districts in the U.S. are joining more than 50 others to start offering introductory computer science to all their students, the White House said Monday.
The school districts encompassing New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Houston and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are committing to offer the course in high school or middle school. While some large districts already have computer electives at limited campuses, all are now pledging to make computer science a standard offering district-wide.
The College Board, which runs the Advanced Placement program, is also introducing a new course called AP Computer Science Principles that will launch in the fall of 2016.
“While no one is born a computer scientist, becoming a computer scientist isn’t as scary as it sounds,” President Barack Obama…