Using Computational Thinking to Model a New Course: Advanced Placement Computer Science: Principles

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The College Board proposes to create a new Advanced Placement (AP) course - AP Computer Science: Principles - that will focus on the principles and practices of computing, preparing more students for a competitive 21st century workforce. The new course will be consistent with the 2002 National Research Council recommendation that AP courses "reflect what we know about how students learn; build students' transferable, conceptual understanding and inquiry skills; and convey the content and unifying concepts of a discipline." The course will be engaging, accessible, inspiring, and rigorous. It is intended to foster a wider appeal for the CS discipline and better prepare STEM majors. The College Board's meticulous AP course development process, already proven and thoroughly vetted in the NSF-funded redesign of several other AP science courses, will provide the framework for developing the new course's curriculum. Specific deliverables of the proposal will be: 1) the AP CS Principles course; 2) the design of course pilots in both secondary and post-secondary settings; 3) implementation of the pilots and curriculum evaluations; and 4) a suite of computer-based, prototype assessment items.