The full versions of this content can be found in the Navigating the Framework and Practices chapters of the complete K–12 Computer Science Framework.

The framework is viewable online in a variety of ways to fit your needs. The concepts have three different views: Grade band, Concept, and Progression. All three views include the practices first, and also allow the user to filter by grade bands, core concepts, core practices, and crosscutting concepts.

The seven core practices of computer science describe the behaviors and ways of thinking that computationally literate students use to fully engage in today’s data-rich and interconnected world.

Computational thinking is at the heart of the computer science practices and is delineated by practices 3–6. Practices 1, 2, and 7 are independent, general practices in computer science that complement computational thinking. Computational thinking refers to the thought processes involved in expressing solutions as computational steps or algorithms that can be carried out by a computer. Computational thinking requires understanding the capabilities of computers, formulating problems to be addressed by a computer, and designing algorithms that a computer can execute.

Each practice contains three parts. The overview describes the practice. The practice statement describes what students should be able to do when exiting Grade 12. The progression under each goal describes how students should be exhibiting the specific practice with increasing sophistication from kindergarten to Grade 12. Rather than grade bands, the progressions use a narrative format to emphasize the different paths students may take in their development of the practices. The examples in the progressions describe what all students could do but are not mandatory.

To refer to a practice statement, use the following notation:

P[Practice Number].[Core Practice].[Practice Statement Number]
Example: P4.Developing and Using Abstractions.1

 

This graphic below describes the intersection between practices in computer science, science and engineering, and mathematics.