A report from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) finds “scant” computer science education in most elementary and secondary school classrooms and the number of Advanced Placement courses in computer science has declined in the past five years, reports ITBusinessEdge. Carnegie Mellon’s Mark Stehlik, co-author of the report, is quoted saying: Some states and some schools are offering some really excellent courses, but overall, the picture is pretty bleak. The report “Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age,” finds that the courses that do exist tend to focus on how to operate a computer and run available applications rather than deeper concepts, such as computational problem-solving that could be the basis for innovation. It says 14 states have set no standards for upper-level computer science education. It found that from 2005 to 2009, the number of secondary schools offering introductory computer science courses dropped 17 percent and the number offering Advanced Placement (AP) computer science courses dropped 35 percent…