13:00, 02 March 2021
Words by Smiley Team, Staff Writer, London
In a move that will transform computer science teaching across the US by 2022, Amazon has donated $15 million to education charity Code.org to help launch a new Advanced Placement computer science programming curriculum. Improving equal access to quality teaching, the donation will support the organisation to implement the computer science course, which is tailored to the cultural and social needs of Black, Latino, Native American (BLNA), and other minority students.
Initially to be adopted by educators in Georgia, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania in the 2021-22 school year, the programme will become available nationwide the year after.
“Since its inception, our Amazon Future Engineer program has worked to ensure more students have the resources and skills they need to build their best futures," said Jeff Wilke, former CEO of Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer. "With our donation to Code.org, we hope that even more students—from a wider variety of backgrounds—will be inspired and prepared to pursue computer science in high school, college, and beyond.”
With lessons that avoid assumptions about the students’ backgrounds or experiences, the curriculum is designed to support the learning of young people from diverse cultures. Students will develop and practice important, real-world skills, such as conducting code reviews, tracing code segments, reading documentation, and writing code, to build up their self-confidence and help them to envision themselves as capable professionals.
"We are excited to develop a much-needed AP-level programming curriculum to inspire, engage, and prepare a more diverse population of students in high school computer science,” said Hadi Partovi, CEO and founder of Code.org. “With our experience of designing CS curricula that break records in student participation and diversity, we are confident of the curriculum’s potential impact, and we are grateful for Amazon’s generous support to make it possible.”
The donation to Code.org, builds on Amazon’s tradition of supporting equality in learning. Recently, the company donated $10 million to organizations driving social justice and improving the lives of Black and African Americans. Amazon followed its donation with a programme that offered these organisations an additional $17 million.
They also joined forces with musician Pharrell Williams, his education nonprofit YELLOW, and the Georgia Institute of Technology last month to announce a campaign called “Your Voice is Power”, encouraging music students to share their opinions about the importance of racial equality while learning to code music remixes.
In addition, Amazon’s educational programme, Future Engineer, offers support for students through scholarships to pursue a career in code, robotics or other areas of the tech industry.
To support their work consider donating to Code.org, where your money will help offer life-changing educational experiences to young people.
Other individuals and companies with the means can follow their suit by donating to similar organisations. With your support, they play a vital part in tackling poverty, because, for every one year a young person spends in education, their wage is likely to increase by ten per cent.
