What professional development do you provide?
We regularly offer CS courses at Siena in the late afternoons with a remote option for teachers, to help in preparing for offering a dual enrollment course or to help teachers qualify for a second teaching certificate in CS. For the CSIS110 dual enrollment course, many teachers take it at Siena in the fall while they are offering it for the first time at their high school. The 14 week college level course quickly gets ahead of the year-long high school offering of the course, so teachers are well ahead of their students. Teachers offering (or intending) to offer Siena CS dual enrollment courses have the opportunity to take CSIS110 with tuition waived. In the upcoming year we intend to offer two additional CS courses with remote option for teachers. Teachers offering or intending to offer a Siena DE course can qualify for a reduced tuition rate of $150 per credit hour for these courses. See our Professional Development page for additional information.
How can my school partner with Siena?
A partner school is any school that is teaching a Siena supported CS course, or that is intending to teach one in the upcoming or following school year. If you are interested, reach out to Robin Flatland (flatland@siena.edu) or Jim Matthews (matthews@siena.edu). We would be happy to work with you!
What CS courses are available for teachers to take for credit at Siena?
See our Professional Development page for information on upcoming courses that teachers can take for credit and about possible tuition waivers or reduced tuition rates.
Will taking the four courses above qualify me for a supplementary certificate in CS?
See our CS Teacher Certification Pathway web page for information on this.
Am I allowed to teach CS courses at my high school?
The answer is yes. Here are three options:
(1) If you hold a SOCE to teach computer science, you are eligible to to computer science courses in the district in which you applied for ten years from the date the SOCE was issued. If you leave the district in which you applied for your SOCE to teach computer science, your SOCE will automatically expire. More information can be found here and here.
If (1), above, does not apply to you, ...
(2) If you have at least 12 credit hours of college level computer science courses at the 100 level or above on your transcript(s), you can apply for a Supplementary Certificate (Computer Science Pre K-12 - All Grades Classroom Teacher) now. You should do this through an individual review of experience. More information can be found in number 7 in the table on this page. Note: For computer science, you need 12 credit hours (not 30). The NYS Content Specialty Test (CST) is expected to be available for testing in the fall of 2025. Those applications submitted before the exam is available will not be required to take the CST for certification. More information about the CST in compter science can be found here.
If (1) and (2), above, do not apply to you, ...
(3) You may still teach CS courses without certification in the following ways.
(a) In NYS, a teacher can teach up to five classroom hours per week outside of the teacher's certification area which should mean that you can teach one class. Here is a link with more info (from a nysut site) that contains this relevant text: Incidental teaching, governed by Part 80.5-3 of Commissioner's Regulations, occurs when a teacher is assigned to teach a subject outside of the teacher's certification area for a period not to exceed five classroom hours a week. Such an assignment may only take place when the district can document that no certified or qualified teacher is available after extensive recruitment. In addition as indicated in Appendix B, the district must obtain approval for an incidental teaching assignment through the BOCES District Superintendent (or in New York City, through the Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education) acting on behalf of the State Education Department.
(b) If the CS courses you would like to teach are NOT on the list in this document, you can teach the courses without the NYSED CS Teaching Certification. You can find the codes we recommend for our 4 Siena HS/Dual Enrollment courses here. If your district uses the codes we recommend, currently, you do NOT need to hold a NYSED CS Teaching Certificate to teach these courses. However, this is likely to change in the future, so it is a good idea to work towards certification.