Beyond Borders 2024: Primary and Secondary Data Science Education Around the World

By: Sean Sukol, Data and Policy Analyst, Data Science 4 Everyone

 

The US has only just begun to lay the foundation for data science education with surveys of the current education landscape and investigations into the implication of AI for our society. But our peers and competitors have already made data science, machine learning, and AI required components of their K-12 curricula; issued learning progressions and other national standards for the study of data science; leveraged public-private partnerships and established national grant programs to reach students in remote and underserved communities; and collaborated with industry leaders to write textbooks and fund research into the best ways to teach data science.

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Beyond Borders 2024: Primary and Secondary Data Science Education Around the World focuses on data science education and education advocacy in Canada, the UK, Germany, China, India, and New Zealand. Each section begins with a brief description of the country’s education system to orient US readers who may be unfamiliar with them. We briefly describe relevant national initiatives and policies, especially recent education reforms, and highlight organizations that deliver or advocate for data science education in primary and secondary schools. We also provide information on tertiary education initiatives, research into teaching and curricula, and industry concerns where appropriate. Policies and projects in Australia, Colombia, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, and South Korea receive brief descriptions. We include citations, links, and quotes by experts familiar with the respective local contexts throughout the report, and each section ends with a list of items for further reading.

 

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Our writing on data science education initiatives, policies and programs is descriptive. We do not prescribe or argue for any one method of curricular integration, policy advocacy, or teaching in this report. Rather, we recognize the decentralized nature of education policymaking in the US and hope to showcase the many policy and education options we see abroad with the hope that readers will be inspired by those most applicable and effective in their own contexts. Beyond Borders underscores the urgent need in the US to make data science and data literacy education a fundamental component of our K-12 system. It can be done, and our future and fortune depend on it.