High school students in Florida soon may be able to earn credit toward their foreign language requirements by taking computer coding classes.
Florida state Sen. Jeff Brandes has introduced a bill he co-sponsored last year, which would classify the elective course as a general education credit.
Currently, 27 states and the District of Columbia allow a computer class to be taken in place of a math or science requirement, but not a foreign language class. Proponents believe Brandes’ bill would give students another reason to study coding and benefit them in the long term.
“Coding is a skill that employers are increasingly seeking over Latin or other foreign languages,” the Republican lawmaker said. “We should give employers what they want, which is a trained workforce.”
Project Lead the Way, a national nonprofit that develops curricula for science, technology, engineering and math-related (STEM) topics, is a leading supporter of the changes. The organization’s president and CEO, Vince Bertram, said students should be taught the language of computers so that they are better equipped for STEM careers.
About 7 percent of Florida public and private school students took computer classes last year, an amount that increased about 20 percent from the 2015-16 year, according to the state’s Department of Education. Brandes did not state how many additional students he expects to take computer coding courses if his bill is passed.
Increasing the number of computer science classes is widely supported. The contentious part of the policy is classifying it as a language. Marty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, said the legislation is part of an “alarming trend” occurring around the country.
“We support computer coding 100 percent, but do not believe that it should be allowed to substitute for what is generally known to the public as a foreign language credit,” Abbott said. “Unfortunately, people call computer coding a language, but it certainly doesn’t equate from our perspective as learning to really communicate with another human being.”
Code.org, a nonprofit working to expand access to computer science studies, agrees with Abbott’s organization that programming languages are not languages. Cameron Wilson, vice president of government affairs for Code.org, described coding as “languages expressed to a computer how to work.”
Putting language classes on the backburner for coding would “weaken our stature as a country in our ability to interconnect with the rest of the world, but even here domestically in our country with our diverse population,” Abbott said.
In Florida, 29 percent of residents speak a language other than English, with Spanish the most common, according to Census Bureau data from 2015. That rate is significantly higher than the national average of 21 percent, indicating knowledge of foreign languages in Florida is even more critical than in other states.
To help foreign languages maintain their place in schools, Wilson’s group would prefer computer science classes fall under math or science, while Abbott would like to see computer science given its own graduation requirements.
But adding a new requirement would be a “herculean task,” Brandes said. Bertram agreed, noting that it would be difficult to implement.
Florida’s state colleges and universities would recognize the credits as foreign language credits. Before a student is permitted to take the class, a parent would have to sign a form acknowledging out-of-state schools may not honor the credits, but Brandes does not foresee that as an issue.
“Schools waive these types of requirements all the time. If you’re the third-largest state like Florida, I don’t see colleges saying, ‘We’re not taking students from Florida because they took coding instead of Latin or sign language,'” Brandes said.
Bertram acknowledged finding qualified teachers would be the “most significant issue” if the bill were passed and enacted July 1, since it could spur an uptick in students who want to take the classes. Schools would have to hire additional teachers, retrain others to lead the coding classes or accept alternatively licensed teachers to be ready by the start of the 2017-18 school year.
Gov. Rick Scott’s office said it was not prepared to state whether it supports the reform.
A similar bill in Virginia was introduced by Republican Del. Glenn Davis last month. The Virginia and Florida bills are in committee.
