Expansion of computer science draws more girls, minorities
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 bedevilled educators for years and hindered efforts to diversify the high-tech workforce.
Now, an expansion of AP computer science classes is helping draw more girls and under-represented 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 per cent of roughly 100,000 AP computer science test-takers last spring were girls. Black students accounted for five per cent of those tested and Latino students for 15 per cent, well below their overall shares of school enrolment.
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 manoeuvre 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 baulky little robot. “What if you put a couple extra zeros on a check?”
Adenusi, 18, and Etienne, 17, both seniors, are in the Java-centred class called AP Computer Science A at Charles H. Flowers High School in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
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. “Colours, 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.”
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 programme, 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 long-time 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.— Washington Post