[Csmatters] Fwd: FW: WashPost article on AP CSP: "Expansion of AP computer science courses draws more girls and minorities"

Tue Jan 9 17:29:22 EST 2018

FYI...
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We wanted to share the Washington Post’s article about AP CSP, we’re super
pleased with it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/expansion-
of-ap-computer-science-draws-more-girls-and-minorities/
2018/01/08/cd5932d8-e040-11e7-89e8-edec16379010_story.html?
utm_term=.da40417d08e2

Expansion of AP computer science courses draws more girls and minorities
By Nick Anderson<https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/nick-anderson/>
January 8 at 5:08 PM

[https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/
WashingtonPost/2018/01/08/Education/Images/computerscience003.JPG?uuid=
2iWJHOAOEeey6Yxjbwdsdg]

Ten years ago, girls were so scarce in high school computer science classes
that the number of female students taking Advanced Placement tests in that
subject could be counted on one hand in nine states. In five others, there
were none.
Latino and African American students were also in short supply, a problem
that has bedeviled educators for years and hindered efforts to diversify
the high-tech workforce.
Now, an expansion of AP computer science classes is helping to draw more
girls and underrepresented minorities into a field of growing importance
for schools, universities and the economy.
Testing totals for female, black and Latino students all doubled in 2017,
following the national debut of an AP course in computer science
principles. It joined a longer-established AP course focused on the
programming language Java.
Racial and gender imbalances persist. But education leaders said the data
show a significant advance in a quest to banish the stereotype that
computer science is mainly for coding geeks who tend to be white or Asian
American boys.
“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, which oversees the AP program. “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.
The quest to broaden the computer science talent pool hinges, in many ways,
on stoking the passion of students such as Adesoji Adenusi and Daijah
Etienne to explore the power of programming.
The two Maryland teenagers were hunting one recent morning for commands in
Java to maneuver a wheeled robot, known as the Finch, through left-handed
turns along the edges of a square floor mat. Keeping the gizmo on track was
not easy.
At the keyboard, Adenusi toyed with various numbers for wheel velocity. “A
couple extra zeros never harmed anybody,” he joked.
“It depends,” shot back Etienne as she walked with the balky little robot.
“What if you put a couple extra zeros on a check?”
Adenusi, 18, and Etienne, 17, both seniors, are in the Java-centered class
called AP Computer Science A at Charles H. Flowers High School in Prince
George’s County.
Adenusi, who aims to major in computer science in college, said he is drawn
to video-game design and has developed an appreciation for the precision
and creativity the subject demands. “Everything really in coding is a
choice,” he said. “Colors, shapes, sizes — that’s all up to you.”
Etienne, who is considering computer engineering in college, also took AP
Computer Science Principles in the last school year. She said the courses
have deepened her understanding of the power of software to make objects
come to life. “An iPhone, for example,” she said. “A block of metal, in all
honesty. But when you add the coding, it becomes something more.”
At Flowers High, 86 students took an AP computer science test in the
spring. That was more than triple the total of 26 in 2016. The new
principles course fueled the growth. Most of the school’s students are
African American. Nearly half of those enrolled in AP computer science are
girls.
College Board data show that 20 high schools in Maryland, Virginia and the
District notched gains in 2017 of at least 50 students in AP computer
science testing compared with the previous year. Thomas S. Wootton High in
Montgomery County had the largest growth: Its students took 238 of the
exams, up from 76 in 2016.
Universities are tracking these developments closely because 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.
For more than 30 years, high schools have offered AP 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 tests. 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.
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_480w/2010-2019/
WashingtonPost/2018/01/08/Education/Images/computerscience007B.JPG?uuid=
lEUqWuAPEeey6Yxjbwdsdg]
Tenth-graders Marcellus Cannon, left, and Christian Vasquez Rubio work with
a robot in a Computer Science Principles course at Flowers High. (Marvin
Joseph/The Washington Post)

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.
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.”
Last spring, 92 girls from Idaho took an AP computer science test. Most
were in Computer Science Principles.
Owen Astrachan, a professor of the practice of computer science at Duke
University who helped develop the new class, said it is meant to complement
Computer Science A.
“In CSA, it’s all programming, all the time,” Astrachan said. “In CSP,
programming is part of it, but it’s not the center of it.” Students have
more freedom to design their own projects in CSP. They are assessed at the
end of the course on a digital portfolio of work — including a task focused
on creating a computer program — as well as a multiple-choice test.
Duke gives credit to students who get a top score of 5 on the new exam or
scores of 4 or 5 on the original computer science exam, allowing them to
place into higher-level courses. “I’m a big fan of trying to empower high
schools,” Astrachan said.
Expanding computer science in high schools 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. In
2014, The Washington Post found that<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/
education/high-school-students-are-all-about-computers-but-get-little-
instruction-in-computer-science/2014/04/23/13979eda-
c185-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html> fewer than one in 10 high school
students in the Washington region were taking a computer science course.
College professors, mindful of these issues, aim to help.
David J. Malan, who teaches a popular introductory course in computer
science at Harvard University, said a version of it tailored to the AP CSP
curriculum is available online for high school teachers who want to mine it
for problem sets and homework assignments. The goal, he said, “is
broadening access to and interest in computer science.”
At Flowers High, Marilyn Fitzpatrick has taught computer science for five
years. She said she wants students to see connections from the classroom to
the working world in disciplines such as software development and
cybersecurity.
“I try to engage them all,” she said. “We need more minorities in the
field.”
On this December morning, her computer science classes were bustling with
students who programmed robots — including a daredevil racing device with
nubby tires called an Ollie — and completed self-paced assignments at
terminals. On the walls were posters with inspirational quotes, including
one from<https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/12/09/
don-t-just-play-your-phone-program-it> then-President Barack Obama: “Don’t
just play on your phone, program it.”

Christian Vasquez Rubio, 15, a sophomore in CSP, fiddled with coding
commands for an Ollie to navigate an obstacle course. He said it was his
first AP class. “This is a fun way to learn,” he said. “I like it when
we’re able to do hands-on stuff.”
Vasquez Rubio said he’s intrigued by careers related to computer science.
“I don’t know what exactly, but somewhere in the field.” And college? “Of
course,” he said. “That’s a big goal of mine.”
[https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/
WashingtonPost/2018/01/08/Education/Images/computerscience002.JPG?uuid=
1fNB4OAOEeey6Yxjbwdsdg]
Teacher Marilyn Fitzpatrick gives guidance to 10th-graders Stephanie Okoro
and Reginald Bryant in her AP Computer Science Principles course at Flowers
High. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

-- 
Megean Garvin, Ph.D.
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