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Apple has its own AP course
Company-made AP courses
AP courses in English or biology follow College Board standards, and teachers build the curriculum themselves. AP Computer Science Principles works differently: the College Board approved boxed curriculums from outside providers, including universities, Code.org, and tech companies like Microsoft and Apple.
Apple's course teaches kids to program in Swift, Apple's own programming language. Microsoft's teaches coding through Minecraft for Education. Picture Pfizer AP Biology, Northrop Grumman AP Physics, or ExxonMobil AP Environmental Science: nothing like them exists, and parents would not want them.
The teacher shortage
The boxed format answered a shortage of teachers, because computer science is a specialized area and few people are qualified to teach it. A math teacher, a biology teacher, or a school technology specialist who had never taught it could pick up a packaged course and run it. Many teachers chose the Code.org course.
The College Board's case
The College Board's case for approving company courses: every curriculum was vetted, and a university course and a tech company's course were judged on the same rigor. It also calls the choice democratizing, since a well-resourced suburban high school where every kid has a MacBook might find the Apple course a perfect fit.
Why is computer science so hard to staff?
For decades, few states offered a teaching license specifically in computer science, so schools had no clear pipeline of certified teachers. Anyone with strong programming skills can usually earn more in industry than in a classroom. Math, English, and science, by contrast, have had dedicated teaching licenses in nearly every state for generations.
How is AP Computer Science Principles graded?
Students submit a performance task called Create, in which they write a program of their own and document how it works. They also take a standardized end-of-year exam, and every provider's course prepares them for the same test. Exam readers hired by the College Board score both parts, and the final AP score runs from 1 to 5.
How does Minecraft teach coding?
Minecraft Education includes a feature called Code Builder, which lets students write code in block-based or text languages to make the game world respond. A short program can make a character build a structure or move across the map. Microsoft acquired Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, in 2014 for 2.5 billion dollars.
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