Expansion of AP computer science courses draws more girls and minorities
‘There’s more work to do’
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Nick Anderson.
For more than 30 years, high schools have offered Advanced Placement classes in computer science. But about 10 years ago, educators began to worry about participation. Overall numbers were low.
About 20,000 students took the computer science tests in 2007, fewer than the totals for AP French or studio art. A closer look showed even more dismal trends that year.
Only about 3,360 female and 1,300 Latino students took the computer science test. The African American total was a mere 734.
Trevor Packer, senior vice president of the College Board and longtime head of the AP program, said annual reports on computer science testing in that era would make him wince. Idaho, for example, counted 25 boys taking the tests in 2007 — and zero girls. The College Board saw similar situations in a handful of other states.
The College Board, which oversees the AP program, knew something needed to change.
With help from the National Science Foundation, the College Board and computer scientists at various universities fashioned a new course meant to appeal to a broader audience. AP Computer Science Principles, or CSP, launched nationally in fall 2016. It joined a longer-established AP course focused on the programming language Java.
A College Board video promoting the course made explicit appeals to underrepresented students. “A lot of girls are intimidated because they see computers as, like, a ‘guy thing,’ ” one girl says in the video. “If more girls were, like, encouraged, then that wouldn’t be an issue anymore.”
Nationwide in 2017, the number of female, black and Latino students who took an AP computer science test doubled. In Idaho last spring, 92 girls took an AP computer science test. Most tested after taking the newest course, Computer Science Principles.
“We’re trying to diversify a field that for whatever reason has remained not so for generations,” said David Coleman, president of the College Board. “Really, what this is about is computer science breaking out of its narrow role.”
Coleman acknowledged: “There’s more work to do.”
About 27 percent of roughly 100,000 AP computer science test-takers last spring were girls. Black students accounted for 5 percent of those tested and Latino students for 15 percent, well below their overall shares of school enrollment. Expanding computer science in high schools also takes more than adding a new AP course. It also requires investing in teachers, who often are not experts in the field. Course offerings have long been skimpy in many schools.
Still, universities are tracking progress in AP computer science testing closely. They have struggled for years to broaden the demographic base of students in computer science beyond white and Asian American men. The AP program, which enables students to obtain college credit through testing, offers one of the strongest links between high schools and higher education.
These problems have seeped into the workforce, where women and minorities are often in short supply.
