Course aims to offer an engaging computer science education
The College Board and the National Science Foundation (NSF) will begin offering a new Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science Principles course in the fall of 2016.
Although most U.S. students use information technology on a regular basis, only a small fraction of them have the opportunity to take a computer science course in high school. In fact, a smaller percentage of U.S. high school students take computer science courses today than two decades ago. In addition, women, African Americans and Hispanics are significantly underrepresented among those students who do take computer science courses.
In response, in 2009 the College Board, with NSF support, began developing a new Advanced Placement computer science course. That course, called AP Computer Science Principles, is designed to be rigorous, engaging, and relevant to all students. More than 30 teachers and university faculty collaborated to develop the AP Computer Science Principles course and exam.
Next page: More details on the soon-to-be-released course
Laura Ascione is the Editorial Director at eSchool Media. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland's prestigious Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Latest posts by Laura Ascione (see all) - Children learn best on paper: We need better technology, not less of it - July 13, 2026
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