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Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are a promising strategy for tackling persistent problems of practice and building knowledge about practices that may promote equity in computer science. Education Development Center (EDC) and New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) are engaged in an RPP to enhance and study the implementation of high school Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science Principles (CSP) courses in low-performing NYC schools. The objectives of this partnership are: sustained implementation of AP CSP courses in low-performing NYC high schools; greater participation of female students and students from racial and ethnic groups (URG) typically underrepresented in CS; and the integration of findings across NYCDOE's K-12 CS4All initiative. The partnership is studying and iteratively refining teacher and school supports, such as professional development (PD) and curriculum resources, school-based supports, and resources for school leaders, developed for and with low-performing schools. We hope to contribute knowledge of the curriculum, PD, and school supports that promote success for all students. The impact of the proposed work has implications for low-performing NYC high schools, and for schools nationwide that offer AP CSP. Administrators, teachers, developers, and policymakers can use these findings to promote AP CSP implementation supports for teachers and schools that show promise for improving student outcomes.

This article compares the two most prominent courses of Advanced Placement (AP) computer science study offered throughout 9-12 grades in the U.S. The structure, guidelines, components, and exam formats of the traditional AP Computer Science A course and the relatively newer AP Computer Science Principles course were compared to examine differences in content and emphases. A depth-of-learning analysis was conducted employing Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to examine potential differences in rigor and challenge represented by the two options, particularly as it relates to acquiring computer programming proficiency. Analyses suggest structural differences in both course content and end-of-course exam components likely result in less depth and rigor in the new Computer Science Principles course as compared to the Computer Science A course. A lower minimum standard for learning programming skills in the Computer Science Principles course was observed, making it a less viable option for students looking to acquire skills transferable to future computer science study or employment. The potential implications for students choosing the new course over the traditional offering, as well as for schools opting for the new course as its sole or primary offering are discussed.

Numerous researchers (e.g., Academic Pathways to Access and Student Success, 2006, ACT, Inc., 2009; Bragg, Kim, & Barnett, , 2006; College Board, 2010; Hargrove, Godin, & Dodd, 2008; Keng & Dodd, 2008; Morgan & Klaric, 2007) have concluded that participating in challenging high school curriculums such as Advanced Placement (AP) courses and exams positively contribute to students' college readiness, college achievement, and career success. Specifically mentioned in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002) was the AP program as a college prep course (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). Moreover, Section 1702 (Access to High Standards Act) of the No Child Left Behind Act acknowledged federal confirmation of AP coursework as college prep curriculum and encouraged states and school districts to incorporate these programs as a means of elevating academic standards (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush thrust the AP program into mainstream education; accordingly, the national perception on AP program involvement increased (Klopfenstein & Thomas, 2009).In a policy brief for the Education Commission of the States (ECS), Dounay (2006) recommended an all-inclusive state policy on advanced placement. First, each state and school district should require a minimum number of AP courses to be offered. As a result, state policy would provide consistency in AP content and leverage AP curriculum offerings in low-income and high minority schools. Second, a state-wide AP framework would establish standards and opportunities for all students to gain access to college preparatory courses. As the result, the federal government, along with most states, and the College Board subsidizes AP exam fees for low-income students. In addition, most states (including Texas, New York, and Florida) provide additional incentives for students and teachers of students who achieve AP exam scores of 3 or higher (Holstead et al., 2010). In September 2006, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that 33 grants in the amount of $17 million were awarded to increase the participation of low-income students in AP courses and exams. In 2006, an additional $5,867,284 was awarded to 26 states to fund AP exam subsidies programs (U.S. Department of Education, 2006).In 2012, Arne Duncan, the current Secretary of Education, announced that federal support of AP program incentives and exam subsidies were reinstated (U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). Over $21.5 million was budgeted to subsidize AP exam fees. As the result of these financial awards, the federal government continued to acknowledge AP course and exam participation as curriculum of college readiness and success. Although funding for AP programs and exams was approved, researchers (e.g., Davis, Joyner, & Slate, 2011; Moore & Slate, 2008) have documented the persistent AP achievement and participation gaps among Black students in the United States. Specific to this study, few researchers (Davis, Joyner, & Slate, 2011; Koch; 2012) have investigated AP program involvement and performance of ethnically diverse, primarily lower socioeconomic, student groups across states.PURPOSE OF THE STUDYThe purpose of this study was to determine the cost effectiveness of covering AP exam fees by comparing the success value provided by overall AP exam outcomes to test expenditures for Black students in three researcher-selected states (i.e., Texas, New York, and Florida). According to the Centers for Disease Control (n.d.), cost-effectiveness analysis is commonly used in the health care industries to confirm if the intervention and the results desired validate the cost or investment. As it pertains to this research, cost-effectiveness analysis compares the costs of AP exam to the results or level of success on these exams. In addition, the cost effectiveness analysis evaluates the extent to which AP achievement can be regarded as providing value for the dollars spent (Davis, 2013). …

The Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) course has been fully active for 2 years, garnering a large group of diverse students [2], and flaming the need for highly trained CSP teachers, especially in effective practices for diversity and equity. We have conducted summer professional development (PD) workshops from 2012-2018 which have prepared 748 teachers to teach AP CSP using the Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) curriculum. To improve equity and readiness for teaching, we have refined our PD by: shortening the PD from 6 weeks to 1 week; developing new, highly scaffolded pre-PD work; and modifying the in-person schedule to incorporate more pedagogy and teaching experiences, while continuing to provide in-depth, hands-on support for teachers to learn the basics of programming. The most recent revisions to our PD schedule resulted in improved post-PD survey results, with teachers from the 2018 cohort planning to adopt more of the BJC curriculum than in past years. From 2017 to 2018, planned adoption rates increased by 13%, resulting in 73% of the 2018 PD participants planning to adopt more than $60%$ of the BJC curriculum and 58% planning to adopt 80-$100% of the BJC curriculum in their classrooms in 2018-2019. In this paper, we discuss the most recent BJC PD implementation and provide evidence of increased teacher self-efficacy in areas including fostering interest in computing for underrepresented populations.

The College Board's AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) content has become a major new course for introducing K-12 students to the discipline. The course was designed for many reasons, but one major goal was to broaden participation. While significant work has been completed toward equity by many research groups, we know of no systematic analysis of CSP content created by major vendors in relation to accessibility for students with disabilities, especially those who are blind or visually impaired. In this experience report, we discuss two major actions by our team to make CSP more accessible. First, with the help of accessibility experts and teachers, we modified the entire Code.org CSP course to make it accessible. Second, we conducted a one-week professional development workshop in the summer of 2018 for teachers of blind or visually impaired students in order to help them prepare to teach CSP or support those who do. We report here on lessons learned that are useful to teachers who have blind or visually impaired students in their classes, to AP CSP curriculum providers, and to the College Board.

When calculating class rank, high schools often give additional weight to grades earned in College Board Advanced Placement (AP) courses as an incentive for students to take hard courses. This paper examines changes in student course-taking behavior after an increase in AP grade weights at Texas high schools. We find that raising the magnitude of the AP grade weight in schools already using weights has a small impact that is limited to white students who are not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL). When schools introduce grade weights for the first time, the impact is large and widespread with the probability of taking an AP course increasing by 3 to 12 percent and the number of AP courses taken increasing by 0.13 to 0.95 standard deviations. Impacts are largest among students who are not FRPL eligible.

Increasing the number of students choosing a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career is a national educational priority. One way thought to increase interest in STEM is with advanced STEM courses in high school, especially Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Using data from 15,847 college undergraduates, we investigated the relationship between participation in AP mathematics courses (AP Calculus and AP Statistics) and student career interest in STEM. After controlling for covariates, the strongest effect ( d = 0.13) showed that students who took AP Calculus had a modestly higher career interest in engineering and mathematics/computer science. However, the relationship between most AP mathematics courses and most STEM career outcomes was negligible. Most differences in outcomes between AP and non-AP students are likely due to preexisting differences between the two groups.

Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board, a nonprofit organization that offers college-level curriculum and examinations to high school students. Increasing numbers of high school students across America take AP courses. Despite the increasing popularity of the AP curriculum, many Black, Hispanic, or low-income students are historically underrepresented in these courses. Students of color are more likely to not enroll in AP courses, not receive a passing score, or become disengaged and drop out, thereby missing out on the academic benefits that AP courses can provide. This qualitative research study sought to examine and understand whether culturally responsive pedagogy can increase engagement among students of color in high school AP courses. Using a two-cycle action plan, qualitative data were collected through interviews and observations to understand teacher attitudes, behaviors, challenges, and issues concerning engagement among students of color. An action research plan was developed and implemented to examine whether culturally responsive teaching activities can increase the engagement of students of color in the classroom. The study concludes that teachers who employ culturally responsive practices that incorporate family and cultural artifacts, socially relevant issues, counter-narrative storytelling, and creative self-expression can positively influence Black and Brown student engagement and performance in the classroom. This study demonstrates that the teacher is the controlling factor when it comes to engaging students of color in the classroom. When a teacher makes a durable, proactive commitment to employing culturally responsive curriculum, activities, and behaviors to connect with disengaged students of color, then trust, engagement, and learning occurs. --Author's abstract

Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science A (CS A) is an introductory high school Java course equivalent to a CS1 course at the undergraduate level. Over 66,000 high school students sat for the AP CS A end-of-course examination in May 2018. The exam contains four free-response questions (FRQs) where students are to implement methods or a full class according to specifications. Each June, these exams are graded at the AP CS A Reading. This workshop provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Reading, during which the FRQs are read (scored) by more than 325 college faculty and high school AP teachers. You will learn how the FRQs are scored, the roles of the various Reading participants, and the steps to ensure consistent grading. You will engage in an AP Reading-style training by applying a rubric based on a past free-response question and then participate in a mock reading using the rubric. After attending this workshop, you will be able to understand the role and responsibilities of the Chief Reader, Question Leader, and Table Leader at the AP Reading; develop strategies for creating rubrics for code questions; consistently apply rubrics for free-response questions and similar assignments; and apply strategies to prepare students for the free-response portion of the AP Exam or to similar style questions in an introductory college-level course.

ABSTRACTThe use of constructed response items in large scale standardized testing has been hampered by the costs and difficulties associated with obtaining reliable scores. The advent of expert systems may signal the eventual removal of this impediment. This study investigated the accuracy with which expert systems could score a new, non‐multiple choice item type. The item type presents a faulty solution to a computer programming problem and asks the student to correct the solution. This item type was administered to a sample of high school seniors enrolled in an Advanced Placement course in Computer Science who also took the Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS) Test. Results indicated that the expert systems were able to produce scores for between 82% and 97% of the solutions encountered and to display high agreement with a human reader on which solutions were and were not correct. Diagnoses of the specific errors produced by students were less accurate. Correlations with scores on the objective and free‐response sections of the APCS examination were moderate. Implications for additional research and for testing practice are offered.

Opportunity gaps between minority and white students and between genders has thus far prevented the concept of an equitable school with equitable opportunities. One important measure of educational equity is participation in Advanced Placement (AP) classes. If both the overall availability of AP courses and achievement within AP courses are increasing while certain subgroups of students, specifically Latinx students, are still lagging far behind in terms of enrollment, more needs to be done to address possible reasons for the disparity. The purpose of this study is to examine innate and environmental protective factors possessed by Latina high school students at an urban high school in New England as they contribute to the resiliency that allows them to stay in a track where they can eventually enroll in Advanced Placement (AP) mathematics courses. Using Resiliency Theory, this narrative study sought to answer the following central research question by interviewing high school Latinx students who have persisted and succeeded in an AP mathematics course: What are the innate traits and lived experiences of Latina students who have successfully completed an AP level mathematics course that have helped them to develop resilience? Findings from this study identified several innate protective factors, including math confidence and knowledge of the Advanced Placement system and several environmental protective factors, including having supportive family members, at least one supportive teacher, a cohort of with whom students to travel from class to class, and being singled out for a specific academic trait, that contributed to their enrollment in in Advanced Placement (AP) mathematics courses. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.--Author's abstract

I desperately want to love the Advanced Placement (AP) program. Having taken nine AP courses in high school, taught seven AP classes as an educator, and now starting out my research career working ...

The Advanced Placement (AP) Program provides a framework for high school students to obtain college credit and/or placement for work done in high school. Toward this end, the College Board outlines course descriptions and organizes examinations in several dozen disciplines, including computer science. To meet its goals, each AP course must align with college courses, so students taking an AP course will master needed content Several approaches are used to monitor this connection between AP courses and college-level courses. This session will review these approaches, considering how the AP CS A course matches introductory college computer science courses.

The topic of the Federal Reserve’s (the Fed’s) implementation of monetary policy has a significant presence in economics teaching resources. Over the past decade or so, the Fed has purposefully shifted the way it implements monetary policy, introducing a new methodology with new policy tools. Unfortunately, many teaching materials are out of date with the Fed’s current ample-reserves regime and classroom teachers are often guided to teach old content. This guidance often comes from the Voluntary National Content Standards (VNCS) in Economics and the Advanced Placement (AP) Course and Exam Description that are sadly outdated. The VNCS influences the treatment of economics content in K-12 curriculum and textbooks, and the AP course framework determines the content taught in thousands of high school classrooms every year. As such, revising these influential documents is instrumental for closing the curriculum gap. We provide recommendations for how these materials can be updated.

In this study, 184 Latina/o students provided their perceptions of support from high school counselors and their levels of acculturation, Mexican orientation, and Anglo orientation. Perceptions of expectations, perceptions of appraisal, and Mexican orientation were significant predictors of enrollment in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. The authors did not find gender differences between males and females across perceptions of support and acculturation. This article discusses the importance of these findings and offers implications for school counselors.