ACM Transactions on xxxxxxxx, Vol. xx, No. x, Article xx, Publication date: Month YYYY Perspectives and Visions of Computer Science Education in Primary and Secondary (K-12) Schools PETER HUBWIESER, Technische Universität München, Germany MICHAL ARMONI, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel MICHAIL N. GIANNAKOS, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway & Old Dominion University, VA, USA ROLAND T. MITTERMEIR, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria In view of the recent developments in many countries, for example in the USA or in the UK, it seems that computer science education (CSE) in primary or secondary schools (shortly K- 12) would have reached a significant turning point, shifting its focus from ICT-oriented to rigorous computer science concepts. The goal of this special issue is to offer a publication platform for soundly based in-depth experiences that have been made around the world with concepts, approaches or initiatives that aim at supporting this shift. For this purpose, the paper format was kept as large as possible, enabling the authors to explain many facets of their concepts and experiences in detail. Regarding the structure of the papers, we had en- couraged the authors to lean on the Darmstadt Model, a category system that was developed to support the development, improvement, and investigation of K-12 CSE across regional or national boundaries. This model could serve as a unifying framework that might provide a proper structure for a well-founded critical discussion about the future of K-12 CSE. Curricu- lum designers or policy stakeholders, who have to decide, which approach an upcoming na- tional initiative should follow, could benefit from this discussion as well as researchers who are investigating K12 CSE in any regard. With this goal in mind, we have selected six exten- sive and two short case-studies from the UK, New Zealand, USA/Israel, France, Sweden, Georgia/USA, Russia and Italy that provide an in-depth analysis of K-12 CSE in their respec- tive country or state. Categories and Subject Descriptors: K.3.2 [Computer and Information Science Education]: Computer science education General Terms: Human Factors Additional Key Words and Phrases: Schools, Curricula, CS Education, K-12 Education ACM Reference Format: Peter Hubwieser, Michal Armoni, Michail N. Giannakos, and Roland T. Mittermeir. 2014. Perspectives and Visions of Computer Science Education in Pprimary and sSecondary (K-12) Schools. ACM Trans. Comput. Educ. XX, XX, Article XX (April 2014),  X pages.   DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/0000000.0000000 1. INTRODUCTION During the last few years, the focus of computer science education (CSE) in primary and secondary schools (shortly K-12) was shifted from comput- er and ICT applications towards rigorous academic computing in several countries or states, see e.g. (Bell, Andreae, & Lambert, 2010), (Brown et al., 2013), (Hubwieser, 2012). Accordingly, the students should learn basic concepts of computer science like algo- rithms or data struc- tures instead of mere © ACM, 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Perspectives and Visions of Comput- er Science Education in Primary and Secondary (K-12) Schools. Trans. Comput. Educ. 14, 2, 7:1‐7:9 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2642651.2602482 39