A widely held belief about our K-12 education system is that we lack qualified math and science teachers. And I certainly agree with that concern. One promising approach is to develop collegiate preparation of math and science teachers that provides a 4-year program which includes both a disciplinary degree (in math or a science) and teacher preparation. The University of North Texas has recently adopted such a program, and I'm proud to say that I've been involved in that project as a member of the Teach North Texas(TNT) steering committee.
Compared to math and other sciences however, computer science education in K-12 is a largely neglected problem in our society. Relative to other sciences and math, the number of schools that include any computer science in graduation requirements is shockingly low. I believe there are two major reasons for this. One is that secondary schools have little idea of what computer science curriculum should include. Further, there is a woeful shortage of even marginally qualified secondary-school computer science teachers available. Obviously these two trends are related. In an attempt to address this problem I am focused on recruiting students to Computer Science within the context of UNT's TNT program. I am also a member of the Computer Science Teachers Association.