Digital Literacy & Computer Science Standards

In June of 2016, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education passed the 2016 Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science (DCLS) Curriculum Framework. This replaces the 2008 Technological Literacy Standards. This framework incorporates and updates expectations and adds expectations for computer science. The standards for grades 9-12 are as follows:

Computing and Society (CAS)

    • Understand safety and security concepts, security and recovery strategies, and how to deal with cyberbullying and peer pressure.
    • Analyze the impact and intent of new technology laws.
    • Interpret license agreements and permissions.
    • Examine the impact of technology, assistive technology, technology proficiencies, and cybercrime in people’s lives, commerce, and society.

Digital Tools and Collaboration (DTC)

    • Select and use ‘best’ digital tools or resources to create an artifact or solve a problem.
    • Communicate and publish online.
    • Advance research skills including advance searches, digital source evaluation, and synthesis of information

Computing Systems (CS)

    • Select and use ‘best’ computing devices to accomplish a real-world task.
    • Understand how computing device components work.
    • Use troubleshooting strategies to solve routine hardware and software problems.
    • Decompose tasks/problems into sub-problems to plan solutions.
    • Understand how networks communicate, their vulnerabilities and issues that may impact their functionality.
    • Evaluate the benefits of using a service with respect to function and quality.

Computational Thinking (CT) - Advanced

    • Create a new representation through generalization and decomposition.
    • Write and debug algorithms in a structured language (pseudocode).
    • Understand how different data representation effects storage and quality.
    • Create, modify, and manipulate data structures, data sets, and data visualizations.
    • Use an iterative design process to create an artifact or solve a problem.
    • Create models and simulations to formulate, test, analyze, and refine a hypothesis.