College Board eliminates computer science AP test

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Tim Finin [finin () cs umbc edu]
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 10:32 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: College Board eliminates computer science AP test

The College Board has decided to eliminate their Advanced Placement
test in computer science.  It's well known that the number of
university students choosing computer science as a major has been
declined significantly in the past six years.  Many organizations,
including the the Computing Research Association, have developed
strategies to address this by enlarging the pipeline.  A part of this
is working to increase interest in the field in high schools and
middle school.  Eliminating the computer science AP test will
discourage high schools from offering computer science courses and
their students from taking them.  Here's a story from the Washington
Post.

--


AP Language, Computer Courses Cut
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/03/ST2008040303977.html

The College Board told U.S. teachers in an e-mail yesterday that four
underenrolled Advanced Placement courses will be eliminated after the
2008-09 academic year in the first significant retrenchment of the
college preparatory program in its 53-year history.
...
The courses being cut -- Italian, Latin literature, French literature
and computer science AB -- are among the least popular in the AP
portfolio. ...  The eliminated classes are "all less commonly taught
disciplines in high schools," said Trevor Packer, vice president of
the College Board for AP. "And they're under fire sometimes," he said,
in school systems more focused on core subjects.
...
Trustees of the New York-based College Board decided to eliminate the
courses March 27 at a meeting in Reston, Packer said. The decision was
communicated at 5 p.m. yesterday via e-mail to 2,519 teachers of the
affected subjects and to AP program coordinators.




--
 Tim Finin, Computer Science & Electrical Engineering, Univ of Maryland
 Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Cir, Baltimore MD 21250. finin () umbc edu
 http://umbc.edu/~finin 410-455-3522 fax:-3969 http://ebiquity.umbc.edu

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