AP CSP Insider: Course Pacing, Seasonal Projects, and More!

Jan 29, 2026

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3 min read

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⏰ Course Pacing: Where Students Should Be

Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed the winter break.

At this point in the year, you should be around Unit 8 Digital Information, or moving on to the Practice Performance Task units. If your classes are running behind, we recommend that you skip the practice PT modules so you can get through the rest of the course content before the exam. You can always come back to these modules if you find yourself with extra time later in the year.

While the Practice PTs are an important part of preparing students for the AP test, students do not need to complete all of the Practice PTs. At a minimum, we recommend completing Module 7: Basic Data Structures and several practice create tasks, including “The Shopping List” and “Testing 1,2,3” found in the supplemental section. “The Shopping List” covers all the requirements for the Create Performance Task while “Testing 1, 2, 3” is more formative and focuses on row 6 of the requirements.

View the syllabi here:

📅 Upcoming Deadlines

The student registration timeline is similar to last year.

January 31, 2026- Submit Your Syllabus
The final deadline for initial AP Course Audit submissions, all renewals, removal of teachers and courses, addition of online/distance learning courses, and AP Course Audit form approvals for 2025-26 courses.

March 13, 2026- Submit Spring Course Orders and Fall Order Changes
The deadline for AP coordinators to submit any changes to existing AP Exam orders or submit new exam orders in AP Registration and Ordering.

You can sign up for AP Classroom and access AP tools and resources here.

🛒 Project of the Month: The Shopping List

For this problem, you are going to create a program that asks the user for a list of ingredients. As the user enters the ingredients, you should store them in a list. Once the user is done entering their list, you need to pass this list to a function that will compare the ingredients to an already existing list of pantry items.

This project is a practice Create Performance Task that covers all requirements. It can also be found in the supplemental section of your AP CSP course.

🌟 Resource Spotlight: Lesson Plans

CodeHS lesson plans include classroom materials, activity ideas, handouts, and discussion questions that correspond to CodeHS course lessons. Free teachers can access the first five lesson plans of any course at no cost, and CodeHS Pro teachers have access to all CodeHS lesson plans!

For AP CSP teachers, the first lesson plan contains curriculum resources that directly support key AP CSP standards.

✏️ AP CSP 26-27 PD Cohort

To help educators effectively teach AP CSP, CodeHS is launching the 2026–27 Teaching AP CSP Cohort — a year-long professional learning experience for teachers using CodeHS AP CSP (JavaScript or Python) for the first time or looking to expand their teaching practice.

🧠 AI Curriculum

CodeHS has AI courses and dozens of AI projects you can plug into your existing curriculum! By introducing AI in computer science classrooms you can prepare students for a technology driven world and students can learn that what may seem like magic is actually just programs and algorithms!