Are You Teaching The Right Programming Languages?

For the past several years, we have used our blog to share recommendations about which programming languages K-12 educators should teach to their students. We feel this is an important topic as such knowledge helps educators to best tie their curriculum to workforce needs. With the start of CS Ed Week, we felt the timing was perfect to revisit this topic.

Each year, we consult several third-party resources to make our recommendations. Here are links to the advice we shared in past years…

• 2019 – Python, Java, and JavaScript

• 2018 – Java and JavaScript

• 2017 – Java and JavaScript

For 2020’s recommendation, we relied upon four reputable sources. First and foremost was data from Indeed - the number one job site in the world with over 250 million unique visitors per month. In September of this year, Indeed published career guidance on the five best programming languages to learn. Indeed based its advice on those languages most in demand in its job postings. Here are the five languages:

1. Python

2. JavaScript

3. Java

4. C

5. Ruby

The second source we relied upon was Stack Overflow’s annual developer survey which is the largest survey of people who code around the world. The 2020 Stack Overflow survey included responses from 65,000 developers. When asked which programming languages they use the most, developers responded as follows:

1. JavaScript

2. HTML/CSS

3. SQL

4. Python

5. Java

For our third resource, we studied data from IEEE Spectrum’s 2020 Interactive List of Top Programming Languages (you will need to create a free account to view this list). IEEE Spectrum creates their list using data from eight sources - CareerBuilder, GitHub, Google, Hacker News, the IEEE, Reddit, Stack Overflow, and Twitter. Here are the top five on IEEE’s list:

1. Python

2. Java

3. C

4. C++

5. JavaScript

Finally, we reviewed the November 2020 TIOBE Index shared by TechRepublic. This index is created by studying which programming languages are most searched for on the 25 highest ranked search engines in the world. The top five on this list are:

1. C

2. Python

3. Java

4. C++

5. C#

Based on these data sources (and our bias toward job postings and workforce data), we repeat our 2019 advice and recommend that educators look to include Python, Java, and JavaScript in their CS courses and curriculum. We believe that knowledge of such programming languages will best position students for the workforce. Do your CS classes cover any of these languages? Which do students enjoy the most? We’d welcome hearing from you at info@couragion.com.

To celebrate CS Ed Week, and get started with some of the above programming languages, check out the free resources available for Hour of Code.