The move makes him the seventh governor involved in the nationwide effort to promote more comprehensive technology-based education.
“Computing is one of the top sources of new wages in our nation and there are thousands of current jobs and jobs of the future that will request skills in computer science," Sandoval said in a press release. "I believe it is critical that Nevada students have every option available to learn the necessary skills to begin a career in this exciting, high-wage, high-skilled field.”
The purpose of the nationwide partnership is to aid the collaboration of governors to reach three set goals: to ensure that all high schools offer a minimum of one computer science course, to fund teacher technology education and to define set computer science standards to aid local course planning.
To help the initiative achieve these goals, the Nevada Department of Education partnered with the College Board, a nonprofit organization geared toward college-bound students, and Code.org, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting computer science, in the creation of a pilot program for new computer science courses.
Beginning in the 2017-2018 school year, every high school in the state will offer advanced placement computer science principles courses, and middle schools will offer computer science discoveries courses.
Additionally, Sandoval encouraged parents and students to visit the Nevada STEM Hub to learn more about these programs and the future of computer science.
