Who Is Invited to the Atlanta of Tomorrow?

I moved to Atlanta in June 2018 and dove headfirst into a wave of technology that has been flooding the city in recent years.

At the time, Atlanta was on the shortlist of cities to become the home of Amazon’s HQ2. Computer Science 4 Georgia (CS4GA) was sought out to bring computer science (CS) education to all children in Georgia’s K-12 system. The Constellations Center for Equity in Computing (Constellations) was about to begin its first year teaching advanced placement computer science and instilling a professional development program in Atlanta Public Schools (APS), and Connect ATL STEAM was building an ecosystem to increase the number of students possessing STEAM skills and knowledge. And that’s just dipping our toe into the kiddie pool! 

Parents were clamoring for science, technology, education, and mathematics (STEM) and computer science (CS) opportunities for their children. Business and education leaders had finally decided that Atlanta’s youth would need top-level STEM and CS skills to fully take advantage of future economic opportunities. And they were right. 

A Growing Job Market with No Qualified Underrepresented Minority Candidates

Computing occupations are the number one source of all new wages in the U.S. and makeup 58 percent of all projected new jobs in STEM fields. In Georgia, there are close to 20,000 open computing jobs with an average salary of $90,100. By all projections, access to technology and economic opportunity depends crucially on CS education. Who then is invited to the Atlanta of tomorrow? 

Despite the open computing jobs, only 1,200 students graduate from Georgia colleges each year with a computer science degree. The number of black and Latinos receiving undergraduate and advanced degrees in computer science is disproportionately low. Georgia Tech is one of the best STEM education institutions in the nation and yet only 7 percent of its 2,200 undergraduate students in the College of Computing are black. 

Perhaps more troubling, schools that serve black, Latino, and low-income students are the least likely to offer advanced STEM or computer science courses. In APS, for example, nearly 80 percent of the student population is black and Latino, and in 2017 only two high schools offered computer science. Thanks to Constellations, now eight schools offer advanced computing courses. The state also has nine different technology pathways students can choose, but they are not available in every school or even every district. Who is the Atlanta of tomorrow for?

The stark reality is this: black, Latino and low-income students are being denied access to CS education and economic opportunities. The histories of white and black youth have been so different, the playing fields so uneven, that they are living in two different worlds, receiving two different and very unequal types of education, opportunities, and knowledge. Reversing these education trends will require nothing short of the kind of community building, coordination, and leadership that characterized the South in the 1960s. Is Atlanta ready to become the Silicon Valley of the South? 

STEM is on Georgia’s Mind

The STEM and CS education community in Georgia is deep with momentum to be built upon. CS4GA is one of those groups I have become excited to be a part of. CS4GA is a collective impact effort to bring quality CS education to all children in K-12 students throughout Georgia’s 182 school districts. 

Most notably, the group was instrumental in the passage of GA SB 108, a law that requires all middle schools and high schools in Georgia to offer at least one computer science course by 2024-2025 school year. Local education agencies, charter schools, and professional learning providers can now apply for funds, 85 percent of which must be spent on the professional development of teachers for computer science instruction.

Teacher development and support is crucial to preparing Atlanta to be a technopolis, which is why I’m thrilled to be a new friend of Constellations. Their commitment to supporting teachers and empowering them to teach a new course that they have likely never taught is exactly what this city needs. 

As we work to increase the number of CS courses and teachers, I urge leaders to be dedicated to fundamentally reversing our current trends by placing equity at the heart of course development and teacher preparation. CS courses must be designed to be rigorous, culturally responsive and appeal to all students lived experiences with the expressed intent to expand participation. Professional development of teachers must include an inspection of personal belief systems and an examination of one’s own biases associated with who can learn and be successful in computer science. 

Additionally, as CS education begins to scale through our public K-12 school system, the focus must continue to be on girls and students of color having meaningful and sustainable computer science education in our schools. We must continually challenge assumptions, policies and practices that promote CS for some students and not others. Ultimately in the Atlanta of tomorrow, all students need to feel that: “I can do CS. I belong in CS. I can accomplish great things with computing that will positively impact the lives of myself, my family, and my community.”

Only then can we answer the question, who is invited to the Atlanta of tomorrow? 

About the Author

Sabrina Gomez is an independent consultant working at the intersection of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and workforce development. As a former Senior Director at ExpandED Schools in New York City, she led local and national initiatives that empowered over 4,500 young people to achieve educational success in STEM fields through public-private partnerships. Sabrina currently provides technical assistance to the 50 Statewide Afterschool Network but seeks to partner with PreK-12, out-of-school time learning, philanthropic, college and university, business, and non-profit stakeholders to build systems and design programs that strengthen career pathways (i.e. apprenticeships, internships, work-based learning) for girls, black and brown youth in STEM and Computer Science in Atlanta. Connect with Sabrina on LinkedIn.