{"id":51698,"date":"2026-05-26T17:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/51698\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T17:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:15:07","slug":"as-ai-expands-nyc-schools-need-to-rethink-computer-science-expert-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/51698\/","title":{"rendered":"As AI expands, NYC schools need to rethink computer science, expert says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, New York City officials promised that all schools would have access to \u201cmeaningful\u201d computer science education by this school year.<\/p>\n

Computer Science for All<\/a>, known as CS4All, also had particular equity goals of reaching girls and students of color.<\/p>\n

The share of students enrolled in computer science classes has quadrupled from roughly 5.5%, or 54,000, in 2016, to 20%, or more than 193,000, in 2024. And CS4All made gains in growing the number of underrepresented students. Still, just 1 in 5 schools citywide are meeting CS4All\u2019s goals for girls, Latinos, and Black students, according to a data brief released Tuesday from the Center for an Urban Future<\/a>, a New York City-based think tank.<\/p>\n

Though the initiative \u201cstill has unfinished business,\u201d the timing is also ripe for CS4All 2.0, said Eli Dvorkin, the center\u2019s editorial and policy director, who believes that the city\u2019s education system needs to rethink its approach to computer science in the age of artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust because entry-level coding work is in serious decline, it doesn\u2019t mean that demand for computational thinking is going away,\u201d Dvorkin said. Instead, \u201cevery teacher should be able to prepare young people to think critically and solve problems and use judgement on whether and when to use AI tools and how they work and why.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged the \u201cunderstandable concerns\u201d many parents have about how much screen time their children are spending in school. But he believes that \u201cevidence-based\u201d computer science education is an antidote to passive screen time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a very real chance that Mayor [Zohran] Mamdani\u2019s legacy will be shaped in part by how our public school system adapts to the AI era,\u201d Dvorkin said, \u201cand that means a strategy to a retool computational-thinking education for the world we inhabit right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s been some progress in the number of computer science classes offered in the city, but did the program meet the goals outlined 10 years ago?<\/p>\n

New York City has done something genuinely impressive. More than 90% of schools now offer computer science, up from a tiny handful a decade ago, but access is not the same thing as participation. Our data shows that just 20% of student students were actually enrolled in computer science classes.<\/p>\n

The data also shows that the city is still pretty far from the original promise of computer science for all: Just about 19% of schools are meeting CS4all equity and participation goals. So that\u2019s why now is the time for the Mamdani administration to launch a CS4all 2.0 that should focus on closing the gaps that remain in participation, equity, and teacher preparation, and move toward integrating computational thinking across the curriculum.<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019re at the 10-year mark, is the program over?<\/p>\n

At the school-level and even centrally, there\u2019s still an effort underway to continue to build on the work of CS4all, but in terms of a unifying centralized effort to advance this work, learning from the successes in the challenges of the first decade, and charting a path forward for the next one, we\u2019re not there yet.<\/p>\n

And this is a risky moment for the country \u2018s largest public school system to be without an organizing effort around computing education.<\/p>\n

The school system did put out some preliminary guidance<\/a> around the use of AI in schools. It\u2019s important work. But this is, I think, the even bigger challenge: What should the New York City public school system\u2019s computing education strategy look like in the AI-era? <\/p>\n

The goal can\u2019t simply be to teach some students to code in 11th through 12th grade. In fact, that kind of technical knowledge may be in rapid freefall right now with the rise of generative AI. <\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat New York is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

But AI also raises the bar for embedding computational thinking across the whole curriculum so that every young person learns how to think critically and ask hard questions and solve problems with computers. That\u2019s the only way to ensure that our young people are able to graduate from high school capable of fully understanding these powerful systems that are shaping our lives. Computer science education can\u2019t just mean a coding elective for some. <\/p>\n

As you say, the city\u2019s AI framework is one piece. But how we educate kids should be an urgent part of this conversation, too, especially as we see the world changing and the job force changing.<\/p>\n

It feels like a lot of the conversation is focused on being for or against technology. <\/p>\n

At a time when AI tools are flooding into students\u2019 lives both at school and at home, the answer isn\u2019t simply more devices or more apps. I think most parents and teachers would agree, it\u2019s certainly not more screen time. But it is deeper computational fluency \u2014 the ability to understand, question, and shape technology rather than just consume it. That\u2019s computing education done right. <\/p>\n

I think there\u2019s a misperception that advocating for evidence-based, age-appropriate, and even joyful computing education is simply synonymous with more screen time. That couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. But we need a teaching workforce in New York City that is equipped to integrate computational thinking \u2014 the building blocks of computing education\u2014 into every young person\u2019s classroom experience. <\/p>\n

I think a lot of people \u2014 perhaps even teachers \u2014 would be surprised that you can teach computational thinking without screens.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a growing body of evidence that shows the dangers of exposing young children to too much screen time. But that doesn\u2019t mean deferring computing education until later. That means we have to be much more creative about how we can integrate a computing education into classroom settings without screens.<\/p>\n

There is a program at CUNY\u2019s colleges of education called CITE \u2014 computing integrated teacher education. And what CITE does is equip CUNY professors that are teaching our future K-12 teachers to integrate computational thinking and learning into their pedagogy. The power of this model is pretty profound because about a third of all new public school teachers in New York City every year are hired out of CUNY. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re now at a point where the first participants in CITE programs have actually been entering the classroom as student teachers or they\u2019re beginning their first full-time teaching assignments. <\/p>\n

With the screen time and AI backlash, do you think there will be an appetite to push for CS4all 2.0?<\/p>\n

I think the backlash against screen time actually strengthens the case for CS4all 2.0. Parents are right to worry about passive, addictive, and poorly governed technology use in our classrooms. But the answer is not to leave students less prepared to understand technology, it\u2019s to teach them how technology really works, how to question it, think critically about it, and how to use it responsibly and creatively. <\/p>\n

So one key question is: Are New York City public school students going to be the people of the future who will shape how that technology is created and deployed?<\/p>\n

I think the argument is strong that our future economy will only become more bifurcated between roles that require sophisticated computational thinking skills \u2014 including the critical thinking and judgment skills that should be an essential part of a CS4all 2.0 \u2014 and low wage work that does not pay enough to enable New Yorkers to afford life in the most expensive city in America. <\/p>\n

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,30601,30599,30598,1661,5245,30600],"class_list":["post-51698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-chalkbeat","tag-editorial-and-policy-director-of-center-for-an-urban-future","tag-eli-dvorkin","tag-left","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}