What does it take to Teach K12 Computer Science?: Exploring Teachers' Attitudes Towards Teaching CS K12 in Georgia

Currently, the state of Georgia requires a CS teacher endorsement (or the passing of the CS GACE exam) to teach middle/high school computer science in public schools. However, issues such as the cost of a CS endorsement and a lack of incentives to take the endorsement may undermine the long-term efforts to establish high-quality K12 CS education in the state. This may negatively affect the broadening of CS participation efforts in the state (47% of the population in GA belongs to a minority group). In this poster, we will present preliminary results of a survey conducted with more than 200 K-12 teachers across the state of Georgia in which we explore the attitudes towards teaching K12 computer science in the state. Our goal with the collection of the data is to understand better what it would take to become a long-term CS teacher in the state.