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News Release 14-168

College Board launches new AP Computer Science Principles course

New course designed to be rigorous, engaging and accessible for all students and to increase participation among females and underrepresented minorities

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students working in class

To address the challenge of making computing coursework more engaging and accessible for all students and to better prepare a pipeline of STEM majors, the College Board, with the support of the National Science Foundation, developed Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science Principles. Schools will be able to begin offering the new AP course in the fall of 2016, with the first exam being administered in May 2017.

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Students and teacher in a computer science class

The College Board designed AP Computer Science Principles to appeal to a broader audience by allowing flexibility for the use of a variety of computing tools and languages in the course and also by emphasizing how computing innovations affect people and society.

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two students with computer

AP Computer Science Principles is designed to introduce students to relevant computing topics, providing an understanding of the fundamental concepts of programming, its breadth of application and its potential for transforming the world we live in.

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