Information technology drives our global economy, underlies recent advances in science and engineering, and promises transformational approaches to our world’s most serious challenges, including health care, education and environmental remediation. Yet, collectively, a smaller percentage of American high school students take computer science courses today than they did 20 years ago.
To help ensure that more high school students are prepared to pursue post secondary education in computer science, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is making a four-year, $5.2 million grant to the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) to fund the creation of AP Computer Science Principles (AP CSP).
The college-level AP CSP course will be introduced into thousands of high schools nationwide in fall 2016, with the first AP CSP Exam set to be administered in May 2017. AP CSP will be the first new AP course and exam since AP Chinese Language and Culture and AP Japanese Language and Culture were implemented in fall 2006. Unlike computer science courses that focus on programming, AP CSP has been designed to help students explore the creative aspects of computing while also providing a solid academic foundation for understanding the intellectual concepts and practical contributions of computing.
A cohort of 38 high schools and 12 colleges and universities has been selected to pilot the AP CSP course through spring 2016. As part of the pilot, Mrs. Carol Yarbrough, Computer Science Instructor at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, will work with the College Board and other pilot schools to develop curriculum and training materials for use by future AP CSP teachers. The new Computer Science Principles course is a major step ahead for Alabama schools. Three of the 38 high schools in the national pilot are from Alabama. They are ASFA, Hoover High School and Lawrence County High School. In addition to participation in the national pilot, Mrs. Yarbrough and nine other Alabama high school teachers will be working with Dr. Jeff Gray at the University of Alabama on an Alabama initiative to train 50 teachers to teach the new AP CSP course by fall 2016.
