I'm poking the bear here, but would like to hear what all of you are using
for information technology standards in your classrooms.  We seem to have
a lot of choices, for example:

NextGen,
MLR
CSTA
ISTE

NextGen and MLR, in my opinion are scant on computer science details.  I
believe you could extrapolate and build a program around these standards,
but it would be wrapped around another content area, which is not a bad
thing (provides context), but would be geared more toward a fascilitation
model vs focused tech couses.

CSTA is great....proides an enormous amount of detail and specific
learning targets.  But the other side of that coin is that it is an
elephant and might require more tech instruction time than a school would
be willing to give you (given all of the other standards students have to
meet).   If I were to use CSTA I think I would use all of the graduation
standards but cherry pick indicators ("I can" statements).  You may
disagree, but in it's entirety it seems more appropriate at a math and
science school than a typical public school.  One of the things I really
like about CSTA is that at the end of the day, you can say specifically
what a student learned.

ISTE, both old and proposed, seems to be written very generic --  above
the detail level, intentionally of course.  I like it's compactness and
the flexibility it would allow teachers (and students)  to decide how to
show proficiency.  But the lack of detail and absence of specific learning
goals would also result in inconsistency (in specific learning) from
student to student and school to school.  The whole idea of standards, of
course, is to have students learning the same stuff and leaving school
equally prepared. 

I recognize that it is a difficult task to establish meaningful standards
for an area of study that is evolving so rapidly.  What takes center stage
in 2016 may be passe in 2020.  In CS, relavancy is date/time stamped.  I'm
just not sure there's any subtopic in CS that will stand the test of time
or that should be used as a benchmark  to measure proficiency.  Hence,
standards need to be based on themes rather than skills.

Please let me know your thoughts if you have  time,

Thank you,

Randy Pitts
Technology Director
Vinalhaven Schools
207-863-4800