Column: Youth power: Learn from Arkansas’ digital economy quest

With huge statewide unemployment triggered by the COVID-19 visitor shutdown, Hawaii is searching for new industries — guided by the governor-appointed economic “navigator.”

There is a state that Hawaii can learn from: Arkansas. For the past five years, Arkansas focused on computer science (CS) in public schools to “create” its own economic future.

At 3 million residents, Arkansas’ population is nearly three times larger than Hawaii’s. According to U.S. News & World Report, in education Arkansas is ranked 42nd among 50 states, while Hawaii is higher at 29th.

The story began when 2014 Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson, a former prosecutor with no CS background, highlighted his granddaughter, who coded a campaign “mobile app.” Hutchinson’s learned that Arkansas had 1,200 unfilled CS jobs and the CS job average salary is $72,662, higher than the state’s average salary ($41,540). Although filling the “jobs gap” meant a $90 million economic boost, few Arkansas high school students studied CS, which meant a tiny pool of college CS graduates to be hired.

Hutchinson then became the unlikely evangelist for Arkansas to become No. 1 in CS education.

After his election, the Arkansas Legislature passed a bill to require all Arkansas public high schools — Arkansas has 500,000 students enrolled in over 1,000 public schools in 288 school districts — to offer at least one “high-level” CS class. For a modest $2.5 million annual budget, the CS fund was the highest per capita in the U.S.

A “CS czar” was appointed at the Arkansas Department of Education, which developed K-12 CS standards and CS teacher certification pathways. Arkansas was the first state to adopt grade-specific CS standards for K-8 students.

In 2015 Arkansas high school students studying CS numbered about 1,000; this year, 9,813 high school students are enrolled in CS. In five years, Arkansas high school student CS enrollment increased 700%! Moreover, female students enrolled in CS increased from 223 in 2015, to 2,852 this year, a 1,000% increase, as well as a 600% African-American female student CS enrollment increase.

Nonprofit CS leader Code.org reported that Arkansas now has the second-greatest percentage of U.S. high schools teaching CS, and one of the most rapid rates in CS education growth. To increase CS instructors, teachers there can apply for up to $10,000 in stipends over a five-year period for CS certification. Since 2015, that state added 225 certified CS teachers.

Arkansas schools incentivized student achievement by giving students up to $1,000 for scoring high on the college Advanced Placement CS exam. Arkansas also established the CS “flex credit,” which allows a CS course to count in place of a high school fourth-year math or third-year science course.

For industry partnerships, the Arkansas-Microsoft alliance promotes STEM education. Arkansas school districts offer a CS “pathway” that lead to industry certification with internships and college-level CS courses.

Last year, global tech firm DXC Technology announced it will create 1,200 new jobs in Arkansas, a step forward in Hutchinson’s goal of a diversified economy.

Since 2015, Hutchinson completed nine computer science tours to encourage students to study CS, and exhorted: “If you’re a high school student, and you haven’t signed up for computer coding classes for this year, I want to personally encourage you to do so. Tell your counselor — tell a teacher. Be part of history, and help Arkansas lead the nation in coding!”

Arkansas is moving from agriculture, Walmart and Tyson’s chickens to a 21st-century “digital economy.”

Can tourism-dependent Hawaii be inspired by the Arkansas CS story in its search for a “post-COVID economy,” and leverage our bright keiki?

Ray Tsuchiyama led a project with University of Hawaii computer science students teaching a college-level course at Kalakaua Middle School; he was with M.I.T. and Google.