Listen to the article 2 min

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.

Dive Brief:

• As fields like artificial intelligence and computer science grow, STEM advocates are urging high schools to offer data science courses, adopt standards around them, and potentially even make the class a requirement.

• Offering data science courses in high school makes sense, because students today are exposed to vast amounts of information, said Ted Coe, vice president of content advocacy in mathematics for nonprofit assessment developer NWEA. Having some ability to understand and use data can provide students with skill sets they can put to use in their educational careers and beyond.

• “Data science as a burgeoning field brings together elements of mathematics, statistics and computer science to examine data in powerful ways,” said Coe. “Bringing some of that into the high school may provide students access to innovative and challenging content and might also serve to increase student interest in further mathematical studies.”

Dive Insight:

Experts suggest that having students take data science courses may help to open the door to broader STEM interests and pave the way for subjects that students may need to take later in college.

Carlos Fernandez-Granda, interim director at the Center for Data Science at New York University, for example, suggested some exposure to data science could help smooth the path forward for a course such as statistics, which “is very often taught in a way that alienates the students who are less mathematically oriented.”

Coe noted that there isn’t a standard or well-defined curriculum around data science, which calls into question the content and rigor of existing classes. However, he said, some data science lessons could help open the door to more STEM interests for students.

To Fernandez-Granda, courses on both data science and artificial intelligence make sense today for high school students, as both fields are having a “huge impact” across many domains — which students should understand as they consider their careers and future.

“Given the advances of artificial intelligence and data science and its impact on our society, it is crucial to educate students in these areas,” he said.