

The state of computer science education in California’s high schools - kalengallagher
https://medium.com/p/1953dba5d36b

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gms7777
First, are statistics about AP Computer Science classes actually reflective of
the "state of computer science education"? If they're the only computer
science courses being offered, than perhaps this is the case but that isn't
substantiated in the article. If they're not, you're making quite a
generalization. Even if they are though, that is just as big of an issue to
raise on the state of computer science education. At least back in my high
school days, kids separted pretty early on into those that took advanced
courses and those that didn't. Just because you don't have the ability to keep
up with the pace of AP classes, doesn't mean you shouldn't have the
opportunity to be exposed to computer science classes.

Moving on from that, the article discusses differences in ethnicity among test
takers. I think to some extent here, you need to make a comparsion to the
distribution of ethnicities amongst students that take AP courses in general,
not just to the general high school population. Which is not to say it isn't a
problem, but that it isn't necessarily a problem directly associated to AP CS,
but to advanced classes in general.

Lastly, the statistic used of ".0034% of 10-12th grade students across the
state" took the AP test in 2013 may be true but its a bit disingenous, since
its comparing the amount of kids that took it in one year the total population
of students in grades 10-12 (some of whom may have already taken it, or may be
taking it the following year). A better statistic would be the amount of
students who have taken it upon graduation, or taking the 3 years of AP
numbers and comparing it with the number of students that were in the eligible
pool those three years.

Besides those points, I found this to be an interesting read through.

