How many hours are required to teach your 6-12 courses? – Code.org

CS Discoveries

For teachers to participate in Code.org’s CS Discoveries Professional Learning Program, we require at minimum 50 hours for a semester-long course (Units 1 - 3), and at minimum 100 hours for a year-long course (Units 1- 6). We assume a typical school year consists of 180 days (36 weeks) and a typical semester consists of 18 weeks.

We suggest using this formula to see if your course implementation plans qualify for Code.org's Professional Learning Program.

For semester-long courses:

Semester hours = (length of one class) x (number of days per week the class will be offered) x (number of weeks in a semester)

For year-long courses:

Year hours = (length of one class) x (number of days per week the class will be offered) x (number of weeks in the school year)

For example, If your classes are:

45 mins long, 5 days a week --> 3.75 hours per week --> 67.5 hours per semester (18 weeks) --> 135 hours per year (36 weeks): Qualifies
45 mins long, 3 days a week --> 2.25 hours per week --> 40.5 hours per semester --> 81 hours per year: Does not qualify for full year course, but does qualify for one semester's worth of content to be taught over 36 weeks.

CS Principles (AP or intro-level)

For teachers to participate in Code.org’s CS Principles Professional Learning Program, we require at minimum 100 hours for the full-year course. CS Principles is not designed to be taught as a semester unless you are able to offer 100 hours of the course in one semester (usually in a block schedule format). We assume a typical school year consists of 180 days (36 weeks).

We suggest using this formula to see if your course implementation plans qualify for Code.org's Professional Learning Program.

For semester-long courses:

Semester hours = (length of one class) x (number of days per week the class will be offered) x (number of weeks in a semester)

For year-long courses:

Year hours = (length of one class) x (number of days per week the class will be offered) x (number of weeks in the school year)

For example, If your classes are:

Semester-long course: 45 mins long, 5 days a week --> 3.75 hours per week --> 67.5 hours per semester (18 weeks) --> Does not qualify
Semester-long course (block schedule): 90 mins long, 5 days a week --> 7.5 hours per week --> 135 hours per semester (18 weeks) --> Qualifies*
Year-long course: 45 mins long, 5 days a week --> 3.75 hours per week --> 135 hours per year (36 weeks): Qualifies

*Note: Code.org does not recommend teaching AP CS Principles on a block schedule if this will only be offered during the second semester, as this schedule likely does not allow sufficient time for students to prepare for and participate in the AP CS Principles exam. If you are in this situation, please ensure that you have 100+ hours with students before the end of April, and consider reaching out to the Regional Partner in your area to understand whether the Professional Learning Program will meet your needs.

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