2018 AP Exam Results Are In — Shoutout To All Our AP Students!
By Evelyn Hunter, CodeHS Curriculum Lead
As CodeHS classrooms get ready for the 2019 AP exams, we wanted to share some information about our AP results from last year.
AP Computer Science Principles
Last school year, 72,187 students took the AP CSP exam. Of those students, 1,820 used CodeHS as the main curriculum* in their classes. We are excited to report that 76% of students who used CodeHS as their main curriculum passed the AP exam compared to 71% of students nationally. Classrooms with high CodeHS usage also had higher pass rates than classrooms with moderate CodeHS usage.**
The College Board designed AP Computer Science Principles “with the goal of creating leaders in computer science fields and attracting and engaging those who are traditionally underrepresented with essential computing tools and multidisciplinary opportunities,” and since the debut of the course there has been huge growth in the number of girls and underrepresented minority students taking AP computer science. With the mission of CodeHS to empower all students to meaningfully impact the future, we were eager to see how students from traditionally underrepresented groups performed on the exam.
We are thrilled to see students from groups traditionally underrepresented in computer science participating at the AP-level. Of all CodeHS AP CSP students, 29.6% were from an underrepresented minority group.
We also saw progress in gender-equity from our exam results. Seventy-eight percent of girls who used CodeHS passed the AP exam — surpassing the CodeHS pass rate by two percent and the national pass rate by seven percent!
“I just received the AP results for my CSP students for 2018 and was very pleased... I had 101 students take the AP exam, and 95 passed with a 3 or better (~94% pass rate). That’s about 21% higher than the national average. I was very curious to see these results after using CodeHS exclusively this past year, and they confirm how I felt throughout the year as far as having the students well-prepared.” — Sean Raser, AP CSP Teacher in San Ramon, California
AP Computer Science A
In the last school year, 65,133 students took the AP Computer Science A exam. Of those students, 2,432 used CodeHS as a main curriculum* in their classroom. CodeHS students had a 49% pass rate, compared to the national average of 68%.
These numbers are disappointing, but we believe that exam results are not the only metric of success as we work to expand access to computer science education. Over the past few years there has been a huge expansion in the number of schools that offer this AP course, and this has required new teachers to join the ranks of veteran AP CS A teachers. We have always strived to support teachers no matter their level of experience, and as a result we have a high number of novice computer science teachers using our curriculum. Last year 43% of our AP Java teachers were new to teaching computer science, and 67% of our AP Java teachers had been teaching computer science for two years or fewer.
“CodeHS gives me all of the resources I need in order to teach AP Computer Science A. The lessons and exercises are great for a flipped classroom. The ability to create quizzes and tests on the site is useful, and the ability to have students write their own code in the Sandbox for assignments that I give them during class makes it a one-stop place for Java!” — Mariel Schneggenburger, AP CS A Teacher in Aurora, New York
This is an incredibly difficult course to teach, and we’re proud of our new teachers who rose to the challenge so their students could have the opportunity to learn programming at the AP level. It’s because of these teachers that we’ve seen more diversity in student enrollment. Of all CodeHS AP Java students, 29.6% were from an underrepresented minority group, and students in these groups were more likely to have used CodeHS in their classes.
“We are using CodeHS in our programming course, so far it is phenomenal. My students are very engaged and are learning a full load. We are trying out the AP Java curriculum. I am a first year programming teacher and this really has helped me understanding the scope and sequence of an accelerated curriculum.” — Ivan Martinez, AP CS A Teacher in San Antonio, Texas
To all of our AP students and teachers — congratulations! We know that taking computer science at the AP-level isn’t easy, and we’re so proud of everyone who persisted through daunting challenges, long nights, and buggy programs. Great job! 🙌
CodeHS AP Review Courses
Did you know that CodeHS offers review courses for the AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A exams? These are available to all teachers — even if they didn’t use CodeHS for their AP curriculum! Check out our AP offerings and enroll your students today!
*To determine whether CodeHS was the main curriculum for a classroom, we looked at the median student progress. If the median student course progress was over 80%, CodeHS was considered the main curriculum provider.
**High usage is defined by a median student course progress of over 80%, while moderate usage is defined by a median student course progress between 50% and 80%.
