I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5929 
To provide grants to State educational agencies and institutions of higher 
education to strengthen elementary and secondary computer science edu-
cation, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 29, 2010 
Mr. POLIS of Colorado introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Education and Labor 
A BILL 
To provide grants to State educational agencies and institu-
tions of higher education to strengthen elementary and 
secondary computer science education, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Computer Science 
Education Act of 2010’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Computing technology, driven by break-
throughs in computer science, is an integral part of 
the culture of the United States and is reshaping 
how people interact. 
(2) Computer science is transforming industry, 
creating new fields of commerce, driving innovation 
in all fields of science, and bolstering productivity in 
established economic sectors. 
(3) Computer science underpins the information 
technology sector of the United States economy, 
which is a significant contributor to the economic 
output of the United States. 
(4) The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 
that from 2008 through 2018 more than 1,500,000 
high-wage computing jobs will be created in the 
United States economy, making high-wage com-
puting one of the fastest growing occupational fields. 
(5) Computer science is critical for national se-
curity and for meeting the challenges that a modern 
society faces. Of the 14 Grand Challenges for Engi-
neering determined by the National Academy of En-
gineering, 8 have a predominant or significant com-
puter science component. 
(6) Providing students with computer science 
education in elementary and secondary school is crit-
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ical for student success in the 21st century and for 
strengthening the workforce. 
(7) Elementary and secondary computer science 
education gives students a deeper knowledge of the 
fundamentals of computing, yielding critical thinking 
skills that will serve them throughout their lives in 
numerous fields. 
(8) Computer science courses in elementary and 
secondary schools are fading from the national land-
scape at a time when they are most needed. The 
Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) has 
found that introductory secondary school computer 
science courses have decreased in number by 17 per-
cent since 2005 and the number of Advanced Place-
ment (AP) computer science courses has decreased 
by 33 percent. 
(9) Significant disparities in access to computer 
science education exist for minorities. Research in 
the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second 
largest and one of the most diverse school districts 
in the United States, found college-preparatory com-
puter science courses were commonly missing in 
schools with high numbers of Latino and African- 
American students. 
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(10) According to the National Center for 
Women and Information Technology, women and 
certain racial minorities are underrepresented in 
computer science education. In 2008, 17 percent of 
AP computer science test takers were women, even 
though women represented 55 percent of all AP test 
takers. In 2008, only 4 percent of AP computer 
science test takers were African-Americans, even 
though African-Americans represented 7 percent of 
all AP test takers. Only 784 African-American stu-
dents nationwide took the AP computer science 
exam in 2008. 
(11) While some States, including Texas and 
Georgia, allow computer science courses to count to-
ward a student’s secondary school core graduation 
requirements, most States that have specific course 
requirements for graduation count computer science 
courses only as electives, chilling student interest in 
computer science courses. 
(12) The CSTA has found that many States do 
not have a certification process for computer science 
teachers, and where certification processes do exist, 
such processes often have no connection to computer 
science content. 
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