Welcome once again to ACM Inroads and its 2012 June issue that marks the continuation of excellence in the third year of ACM's computing education magazine. As always, we are grateful to all authors especially those of the Featured Columns, which form the foundation of the magazine. Feel free to contact these dedicated individuals who present their views and inform us of new thoughts on a variety of topics. They would love to hear from you.

This June issue also marks a formal level of dissemination for the Computer Science Principles project. Amy Briggs and Larry Snyder, guest editors for this special issue, have assembled an exciting collection of stimulating articles all focused upon the National Science Foundation initiatives Computer Science Principles and CS 10K, which have been underway since 2009. The articles on the CS Principles and CS 10K theme form a tapestry of innovative thinking; the challenge is to create more educational opportunities in computing for more students. This topic forms the basis of this special issue of ACM Inroads. Jan Cuny of NSF has written a Critical Perspective where she appeals for innovative ways of thinking about computing and computer science. She not only seeks to garner support for the Principles project as part of a concepts-rich computer science curriculum, but also to work towards a goal of having this curriculum taught by ten thousand well-prepared computer science teachers in ten thousand high schools. I will not attempt to summarize the contents of the special section of this publication. Instead, I direct you to the preface to the special section by Briggs and Snyder that provides an overview of both the CS Principles and the CS 10K projects. The preface also contains brief summaries of the articles appearing in the special section.

Don't forget to visit "EduBits", a quarterly feature of the magazine that highlights educational happenings within ACM and in particular, the accomplishments of the ACM Education Board and the ACM Education Council. Starting with this issue, this feature now includes a report on public policy by Cameron Wilson. Remember that ACM Inroads is a principal vehicle by which ACM communicates its education activities to its constituencies, so stay tuned here for ACM's pulse on computing education. Feel free to contact EduBits' coordinators, Andrew McGettrick (Chair of the ACM Education Board) and Yan Timanovsky (ACM Education Manager).

Once again, Curt White, the SIGCSE Trend Tracker, is continually looking for news items for the SIGCSE Spotlight section of the magazine. Contact Curt with any SIGCSE-type news that would be sharable within its global community.

I trust you will enjoy reading the special edition, the columns, and the other elements that form this issue ACM Inroads. The topics presented should interest even the casual reader. Please contact at least two authors and give them your thoughts; they would be delighted to hear from you. Thanks again to all authors and readers who help make this publication an outstanding magazine.

John Impagliazzo
Editor-in-Chief

©2012 ACM  2153-2184/12/06  $10.00

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