The Computer Science endorsement coursework provides 6th-12th grades teachers with computer application understanding, such as hardware, software, networking, and use of computers in education.  Completion of requirements may lead to a subsequent endorsement from the Illinois State Board of Education. 

Computer Science Endorsement Scholarship

To qualify for a scholarship, teachers must be employed in McLean County and have one of the following professional educator licenses: grades 6-8, grades 6-12, or grades 9-12.

Requirements

  • You must be accepted as a student at UIS with an active NetID and password before applying for the scholarship.
  • Scholarship applications are open from Nov. 4, 2024 at noon CST through Feb. 14, 2025 at noon CST.

Apply for Scholarship

Once you have logged in to the scholarship portal, please make note of the following:

  • You will be prompted to complete the entire scholarship application.
  • In the personal narrative section, please provide a short essay on your teaching experience and purpose of seeking this endorsement.
  • There is a specific question in the application that asks: Are you a teacher in McLean County seeking a Computer Science Endorsement? This is the question that applies to you.
  • You will be asked to upload a letter of support for your building or district administrator.

Contact Ryan Williams, Assistant Director of Strategic Initiatives for assistance - rwillia7@uis.edu; 217-206-7516

Degree Opportunity

Add the endorsement courses to a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education, Middle Grades, or a Secondary Education program to earn this as a subsequent endorsement in addition to the teaching license. Current undergraduates students can add endorsement to their program of study.

Coursework enables students to:

  • Explore the fundamental concepts of cybersecurity, be informed of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and threats, and practice techniques and gain tools for detecting and defending against cyber-attack.
  • Examine file organizations and file access methods, as well as data redundancy.
  • Study various data models including relational, heretical, network, and object-oriented.
  • Cover topics such as number systems, sets, logic, functions and relations, combinations, permutations, probability, statistics, and discrete structures that are relevant to computer science.
  • Learn structured programming techniques, the fundamentals concepts of computer networking with practical applications, and how to model threats to computer systems.
  • Gain knowledge in the areas of data communications, networking technologies, OSI model, LAN, WAN, TCP/IP layers and protocols, Internet architecture.
  • Meet ISBE’s requirement for earning a subsequent teaching endorsement in computer science.

Required Courses

  • TEP 305 Technology for Teaching or EDL 517 Education Technology Leadership
  • CSC 302 Discrete Structures
  • CSC 501 Graduate Program Practicum
  • CSC 470 Computer Science for Educators
  • EDL 518 Educational Technology Systems

To reflect the updated requirements for the ISBE Computer Science endorsements, the UIS catalog will be updated for 2024-2025.

Want to learn more?