The Manhasset school district is looking to help close the gender gap in computer programming by offering more opportunities to younger students.
Manhasset’s director of technology, Sean Adcroft, said the district had been trying to offer computer programming classes in the high school for years but never had enough interested students to fill a class.
About six years ago, a student named Regan McCooey was determined to bring coding classes to Manhasset.
“She really took the bull by the horns and advocated for it and then talked enough of her friends into signing up for the course,” Adcroft said.
Five years ago, an introduction to computer programming class was introduced, a second introductory course followed and, two years ago, an AP computer programming option.
In the elementary and middle schools, however, students had fewer options than the older students, Adcroft said, and by then, many boys and girls are intimidated by the task and afraid to jump in during high school.
“Students exposed to it at a younger age learn that it’s not beyond them, basically,” Adcroft said. “They can have fun with it and get interested in it before they have stereotypes in their heads about who does or doesn’t do coding.”
Two years ago, the district started a pilot program with Code.org’s curriculum for second-graders and expanded the option to third- and fourth-graders last year.
This year, however, Adcroft said the district is implementing courses and platforms for almost every Manhasset student to take coding.
Adcroft said students will begin using a platform developed by KidOYO, a Long Island-based company that focuses on ways for students to learn about coding in a protected environment while building a portfolio for colleges and future employers.
“It allows them to build up a portfolio of their work over time, so students could ostensibly offer colleges to which they’re applying a look at their portfolio of coding they’ve done over six, seven years as a way of differentiating themselves,” Adcroft said.
The goal, he said, is to give students opportunities earlier in life and make those opportunities fun, and potentially more kids will grow up with an interest in coding and possibly pursue a related career.
“Our philosophy is women and men should be equal. Either gender should have any career open to them,” Adcroft said. “It’s like when we do home and career classes in seventh grade and part of it is learning how to cook, but we don’t ask the guys to leave the room. If gender is an obstacle to a career path, we want to remove that.”
Adcroft said coding helps not only with computer skills but with building skills and confidence in students.
“It’s not just about jobs,” Adcroft said. “[Coding] fosters soft skills like persistence. You have to run code script many, many times, and have to fix bugs in the code. When failing, you learn from what went wrong and pick up from that point.”
