As the Advanced Placement computer science exam celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, the number of students who took the assessment skyrocketed, but females and minorities remained underrepresented and, in multiple states, not a single black or Hispanic student sat for the exam.
In one state, Montana, no female, African-American, or Hispanic student participated, an Education Week analysis of AP data found.
Of the 34 AP subject exams administered in 2014, computer science experienced the highest annual growth rate, with the number of exams administered increasing by 26 percent since 2013 to 39,278, according to the College Board, the New York City-based organization that oversees the AP program. That one-year increase is the test’s biggest in at least a decade.
Participation rates for female, Hispanic, and black students increased at even higher rates, with the number of test-takers in these groups growing by more than one-third from 2013 to 2014.
College Board spokesperson Katherine Levin attributed a major portion of the increase to the AP STEM Access Program. The year-old initiative aims to increase female and underrepresented-minority participation in science, technology, engineering, and math through a $5 million grant from Google.
Still, this year’s large increases in participation by underrepresented groups failed to close the AP computer science participation gap.
Females remained underrepresented in 2014, comprising just 20 percent of total AP computer science test-takers, up only slightly from 19 percent last year.
The percentage of African-American test-takers also held steady at around 4 percent while the share of Hispanic participants increased slightly to about 9 percent from 8 percent. In comparison, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education calculates that, nationwide, black and Hispanic students made up 14 percent and 19 percent, respectively, of the high school class of 2014.
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