Boston's first-ever education chief is gone. Rahn Dorsey's final day was Wednesday. WGBH Radio's Bianca Vazquez Toness spoke with WGBH's All Things Considered anchor Barbara Howard about this news and about a three-part series she published last week about teaching computer science in Massachusetts schools. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.

Barbara Howard: Can you shed some light on Rahn Dorsey’s departure?

Bianca Vazquez Toness: Rahn Dorsey was hired with great fanfare four years ago and had sort of receded a bit into the background, and people kind of often wondered what it was he did.

Howard: Are they saying why he left?

Vazquez Toness: No, they're not saying why he left.

Howard: I imagine that you're following up on this for us?

Vazquez Toness: We are following this, yes.

Howard: We'll be watching for that. While I have you here, I was struck by your series last week on computational skills not being taught in schools, leaving hi-tech jobs, which are exploding in the Boston area, unfilled. So I want to ask you a few questions about that and go a little deeper on your reporting.

You found in that series that only one percent of high school students are taking classes that meet the state's standards for computer science training. That means 99 percent of students are not being trained?

Vazquez Toness: Well, to the state’s credit, a couple of years ago, they changed the standards. Before, the standards were, like, kids must learn how to turn on a computer, they must learn how to make spreadsheets, and use Microsoft Word. And now the standards go a lot deeper. Kids are supposed to learn how to understand the way computers work, and to program them. Even though that change had been made two years ago, not many districts are actually offering classes that meet the majority of those standards.

Howard: Now, kids are notorious for playing computer games. Does that necessarily translate into wanting to learn computer science?

Vazquez Toness: Some kids do, but if you look at who is taking computer science classes in the state, the majority of them are white or Asian boys. So, girls are left out. People of color are left out. People of color who are not Asian are left out. A lot of people are left out, and that's why it matters.

Howard: It takes time to to teach these courses, and the curriculum is chockablock full, just to answer the MCAS, for example. And of course, there’s a lack of teachers as well.

Vazquez Toness: That's exactly right, especially in high school. It can be very hard to get this in. The holy grail would be to incorporate it in regular subjects like biology and math. They also say that you have to make it count and get it incorporated into the MCAS, for example, in order for teachers to take it seriously and get kids to take these classes. And then as far as teachers go, there aren't any programs to teach new people who want to be teachers to become computer science teachers.

Howard: If things stay on the same trajectory, what's your biggest concern?

Vazquez Toness: What was fascinating about the story is that often, when telling education stories, you worry that some people who don't have kids aren’t going to care about these stories. You worry that people think, ‘Oh, my district is fine.’ But right now, that's not true.

If you look at the most well-resourced districts in the state, they're not any further ahead than some of the poorest districts in the state when it comes to this. So that's a big concern. A lot of kids aren't being prepared for these future jobs. And then there's a concern that when they do start to catch up, the more well-resourced districts are going to catch up way faster than these poorer districts, and there will be this huge divide between kids [who are] in wealthy areas and kids who aren't.

Howard: Thank you very much, Bianca.

Vazquez Toness: Thank you, Barbara.

Howard: That's WGBH Radio's Bianca Vazquez Toness of our Learning Curve team. This is WGBH’s All Things Considered.

Our coverage of K through 12 education is made possible with support from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation.