The College Board, in collaboration with Duke University and Middlebury College, proposes to extend the developmental work accomplished during the NSF-supported project "Using Computational Thinking to Model a New Course: Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP I; NSF award #0938336)." That effort led to the design of a new introductory computing course -- Computer Science Principles (CSP) -- that aims to reach a broad, diverse audience of high school students with rich computer science content and exciting pedagogy, while meeting the rigor and high standards of the AP program. AP CSP will enable students to explore the creative aspects of the field and will provide a solid academic foundation for understanding the deep intellectual and practical contributions of computing. This follow-on project -- Advanced Placement® Computer Science Principles Phase II (AP® CSP II) -- will extend that developmental work by completing all tasks required for deployment of the AP CSP exam during academic year 2016-17. To meet the goal of this project and to support the CS 10K initiative's interest in developing assessments and models of delivery, teacher professional development, and AP support materials, the AP CSP II project will (1) complete the assessment design to support the learning objectives of the AP CSP Curriculum Framework, pilot implementation, and scoring of the computer-based exam, and (2) conduct formative and summative evaluation of AP CSP II activities, with a focus on determining the extent to which the assessment tasks measure the learning objectives and whether the course and various assessments foster participation and success in computer science education, especially among students traditionally underrepresented in computer science.
