Computer Coding: The Workforce Silver Bullet?

Many policymakers throughout the country are wondering how to create more equity in the workforce. Coding is one avenue many are exploring. Consider a recent article for the US News & World Report titled “Is Computer Coding the New Silver Bullet?

Lauren Camera of the US News & World Report writes, “Deborah Berebichez remembers marveling last year at the throngs of girls working in teams at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. They were writing computer coding to categorize and analyze all sorts of artifacts from the museum. ‘It was brilliant what they were doing,’ said Berebichez, the chief data scientist at Metis, a coding boot camp provider affiliated with education and test prep company Kaplan. But then she approached a group of girls who had written code to analyze statistics about turtles. In a column that showed each turtle’s weight were big numbers, like 120 and 200. ‘I asked them what measurement of weight that was,’ she explained. ‘And none of them knew.’ The education arena loves silver bullets, and right now it has its eyes set on getting girls to code as a way to close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math – or STEM – fields. Dozens of programs have sprouted up across the country, and the White House has made investing in computer science a major policy priority. But without also providing critical thinking skills, many say, the potential solution is just the latest shiny object in a series of now-tarnished baubles. ‘It makes me a little bit sad,’ Berebichez said at the annual Arizona State University Global Silicon Valley Summit, held this year here in California. ‘Coding programs are sprouting like broccoli all over the country, but it’s just a language. What we really should be teaching them is critical thinking skills.’”

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