Other Publications

by
Clifford Adelman

This monograph, by Clifford Adelman of the U.S. Department of Education's research and statistics division and a technical adviser to NISE's "College-Level I" project, was published jointly by U.S.E.D. and NISE.

This monograph traces change in the nature and extent of college students' study of computer science over the period, 1972­1993, the occupational destinations of students with computer science backgrounds, and the forces that shape the path from higher education to the labor market. Its fundamental question is whether what we teach is leading, concurrent, or lagging the state of the labor market in a field in which nothing sits still long enough to measure.

Using the college transcript samples from national longitudinal studies of two cohorts that were followed from high school to age 30, and curriculum statements and surveys of professional and disciplinary organizations, the study demonstrates that:

• The degree of consensus between an empirical taxonomy of computer science courses based on student records and rational taxonomies developed by disciplinary organizations is extraordinarily high. Over the past two decades we observe expansion of advanced topics, a growing emphasis on theory, and differentiation of subfields, all of which are indicators of a dynamic, maturing discipline.
• The increase in the proportion of undergraduates majoring in computer science (which hit a peak in 1986) accounts for only part of the increase in course taking in the field. A significant percentage of bachelor's degree recipients in other majors now complete mid-level courses in computer science.
• During the rapid growth of the period covered by the college student records, computer science determined its curriculum "gateways" in the categories of machine language and computer organization/architecture. The emergence of these gateways was equally clear at both the bachelor's and associate's degree levels.
• The "empirical core curriculum" of bachelor's degree recipients in computer science evidences continual change in the influence of engineering, mathematics, and business.
• Changes in the "empirical core curriculum" of associate's degree recipients in computer science evidence a considerable shift toward programming and applications. The mathematics background of these community college students, in both high school and college, improved dramatically in the 1980s.

Using surveys of graduate degree programs and studies of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) field test in computer science, the monograph points out that

• The past two decades have witnessed both contraction in the ratio of subfields to programs at the doctoral level (an indicator of consolidation in a period of growth), and the emergence of a clear distinction between the scholarly (graduate level) and pedagogical (undergraduate) canons.
• The proportion of graduate programs (both master's and doctoral) requiring the GRE field test as part of the admissions process dropped considerably, a trend that corresponds to faculty judgment of a mismatch between the content of the examination and the existing undergraduate curriculum.
• Twenty-two percent of bachelor's degree recipients in computer science enrolled in formal graduate programs by age 30, principally in business and computer science, a ratio considerably below the average for bachelor's degree recipients in all fields.

The analysis of the labor market in light of student and curriculum history works in two directions: from the universe of students with backgrounds in computer science into the labor market, and from the universe of workers in computer-related occupations back into higher education. While these universes overlap, they are not identical. Using data from the National Science Foundation and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as the longitudinal studies of the National Center for Education Statistics, the analyses point out that:

• The exponential growth in computer-related occupations has been uneven and complex, and, by the early 1990s, had not affected all industries.
• The early labor market experience of bachelor's degree recipients in computer science who continue into computer occupations is dominated by statistical reports, on-line computing, and development tasks. Their prior curricular experience has prepared them well for these tasks.
• The mix of computer-related occupations differs by industry, and, in judging potential dissonance in the labor market, the combination of occupation and industry is a critical gloss on students' courses of study. The publishing industry, for example, is a major employer of students trained in computer fields, but few of those students evidence any college-level study in journalism or graphic arts.
• Computer-related occupations are anomalies in terms of the formal educational attainment of workers, principally because the labor market in the field honors competence, content, and creativity more than credentials. For that reason, too, the "productivity orientation" of workers in computer-related occupations may be a more relevant indicator of potential than early career earnings and unemployment experience.

The monograph concludes that for those who concentrated in computer science and earned degrees at both bachelor's and associate's levels, the knowledge content of higher education was concurrent with the demands of the labor market, but that leading edges of the field are more likely to emerge outside formal education environments.

NOTE: Since this monograph was published in May, 1997, it has been used in the formation of task forces for a joint project of the Departments of Commerce, Education, and Labor and the Information Technology Association of America on the current status and future of the information technology workforce in the U.S.