Computer Science Courses as a Mathematics Credit
Although there is a wide range of computer science courses available in Wisconsin public schools, only a subset of those courses are eligible for a third mathematics credit toward graduation requirements.
For the purposes of 2013’s Act 63 and Wisconsin State Statute 118.33 (1) (a) 1.c.—High School Graduation Standards, DPI has established the following criteria that must be used when a school district is determining if a mathematics credit may be given for a computer science course.
Wisconsin State Statute 118.33 (1) (a) 1. c. -- High school graduation standards
c. At least 3 credits of mathematics. The school board shall award a pupil up to one mathematics credit for successfully completing in the high school grades a course in computer sciences that the department has determined qualifies as computer sciences according to criteria established by the department.
A course must contain the following components to be considered for mathematics credit:
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Algorithmic Problem Solving: Systematic study of algorithms or processes that underlie the acquisition, representation, processing, storage, communication of, and access to information.
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Applications Development: Applications development and applications design through coding, programming, and software engineering.
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Computational Design and Computational Intelligence: Study of the design of computational systems, understanding how computational systems work -- and hands-on application of mathematical processes within computational systems.
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Computational Thinking: Scientific and practical approach to computation and its application.
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Management Information Systems: Study of the access to information generated through computer systems (programming, databases, application development)- coding, database development, and the understanding of the applications used for computational processing and applications development.
This guidance is to ensure that a computer science course incorporates all of the above components and therefore will maintain a significant concentration of programming content when it is a computer science course for which a local school board may award math credit.
Mathematics Credit: Pre-Approved Computer Science Courses
The Roster Courses, within the WISEdata system, provide course titles and definitions based on those from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
Courses in this chart are considered pre-approved by DPI as computer science courses for which a local school board may award mathematics credit. A local school board must act to approve computer science courses for mathematics credit, and may formally act on these DPI pre-approved courses. These courses were compared with the five required course components listed above and alignment was found.
Other Local Considerations
When a local school district approves a course for mathematics credit, this may trigger additional local considerations such as verifying the computer science course is recognized through other data systems such as the NCAA Eligibility Center.
***Information current as of June 2021