| Summary: | The article focuses on the decrease in the number of enrollments in computer science programs in the U.S. In computer science, the numbers of incoming freshmen fell by 60% between 2000 and 2004. The percentage of all college freshmen planning a major in computer science dropped to 1.4% in 2004. Meanwhile, IT job projections are positive. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts job growth in all computing specialties of 20%-50% by 2012, except for computer operators and programmers. Finding people to fill the growing number of IT jobs will soon be more difficult than ever. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is mounting a three-pronged approach to reverse this amazingly narrow impression of computing. The new Computer Science Teachers Association will be taking the message directly into high schools and working to make high school computing courses much more interesting than Java programming. ACM will seek greater visibility for ACM events, speak out on contemporary issues, raise awareness of the health of computing, and call attention to the optimistic projections for computing careers.
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