Apple and Microsoft write their own AP courses, and no other subject allows that
The College Board says the company-made lessons were vetted for rigor and give schools more choice.
The Vergecast · Schools are catching onto tech’s playbookIn every Advanced Placement subject but one, the system works the same way. The College Board, the nonprofit that runs AP exams, sets the standards for what students need to know, and teachers build the daily lessons to get them there.
Computer science breaks the rule. For AP Computer Science Principles, a broad introductory course, the College Board approved ready made, boxed curriculums that teachers can teach straight out of the package. Among the approved providers are Apple and Microsoft.
The Apple course teaches students coding in Swift, the language Apple created for its own apps and devices. The Microsoft course teaches coding through Minecraft for Education, which is Microsoft's game for schools. No other AP subject has an official course written by the industry that profits from it.
The College Board says it made an exception to grow the field quickly. Trevor Packer, the head of the AP program, told New York Times reporter Natasha Singer, who has covered the rise of school computer science in her book "Coding Kids," that the organization vetted every curriculum for rigor and did not distinguish between one built by a university and one built by a company.
Packer also called the arrangement democratizing, and a matter of choice. If a wealthy district already gives every student a MacBook laptop, he argued, the Apple course might fit it perfectly.
Singer's point is what that would sound like anywhere else. Parents, she writes, would not want Pfizer AP Biology, or ExxonMobil Environmental Science AP. In computer science only, the company selling the tools also gets to write the class.
Questions people ask
What exactly is an AP course?
AP stands for Advanced Placement. These are standardized high school courses, run by the College Board, that end in a national exam. A high score can earn college credit, so colleges trust the College Board to keep the standards independent.
What is Swift?
It is Apple's own programming language, used to build apps for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Teaching it in school introduces students to coding while also introducing them to Apple's software world.
Do companies provide materials in other AP subjects?
Teachers in all subjects use commercial textbooks and materials. The difference Singer points to is formal approval: in computer science, the College Board approved entire courses created by Apple and Microsoft as official ways to teach the AP class, which it has not done for drugmakers in biology or energy companies in environmental science.