The following chart shows the “relative strength” between Black and White students of the “conditional probability” between each layer of the HS CS pathway:
(Observant readers will note that the explanation in the two paragraphs below is the same as that in my post Women in HS CS: Just get them in the door)
The metrics in the above chart correspond to the CAPE (Capacity-Access-Participation-Experience) framework developed by Carol Fletcher and Jayce Warner at The University of Texas at Austin. The following diagram shows how the CAPE framework maps to the metrics provided by the 2021 State of Computer Science Education Report:
This post also uses data on AP CS Exam pass rates available from Barbara Ericson’s blog to add another layer to the top of the pyramid.
The following table interprets the opening chart of the relative strengths between Blacks and Whites of the conditional probabilities between each CAPE layer:
| Metric | Value | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Relative Strength Black/White FCS School Attendance Ratio | 92.7% | Black students are 7.3% less likely than White students to attend a school that offers a foundational computer science course |
| Relative Strength Black/White FCS Uptake Ratio | 106.2% | If they attend a school that offers FCS, Black students are 6.2% more likely to enroll in an FCS course than White Students |
| Relative Strength Black/White AP/FCS Uptake Ratio | 44.6% | Of students enrolled in an FCS course, Black students are 55.4% less likely to take an AP CS Exam than White Students. |
| Relative Strength Black/White AP Pass Rate | 64.1% | Of students taking an AP CS exam, Black students are 35.9% less likely to pass than White Students (AP CS P: 66.0%, AP CS A 56.1%) |
The 92.7% Relative Strength Black/White FCS School Attendance Ratio is directly related to the observation about income levels in schools with computer courses in my previous post:
“A student going to a high school with FRL % > 50% is 23.5% less likely to have access to foundational computer science (FCS) courses than a student going to a high school with FRL % < 50%.”
It is encouraging that if Black students attend a school with a computer science course, they are slightly more likely than White students to enroll in that computer science course.
And about the significantly lower rates that Black students take AP CS exams and pass AP CS exams?
The growth of computer science education in America’s high schools has primarily been top-down, starting with AP Computer Science and seeping down rather than starting with elementary school and building up. Even today, I would argue, the focus of computer science education in America’s high schools is still AP Computer Science. As I’ll describe in a future post, 22.5% of all students taking a computer science course take an AP Computer Science exam. This is very high. For comparison, imagine if 22.5% of all students taking high school math took an AP Calculus exam OR if 22.5% of all high school students taking biology took the AP Biology exam.
This focus on AP CS – which I will call “AP Envy” – places more mindshare on educating the best students in CS than on educating the most students in CS. It also indicates the immaturity of high school computer science education in the US. We are still not doing enough to build the pathways to enable all students to succeed in college-level computer science.
But conquering “AP CS Envy” is challenging. “AP Envy” is where the headlines are and where the money is. I don’t find fault with my fellow teachers. Although my understanding of equity issues grew during my seven years teaching CS, I do not feel that I ever fully conquered “AP Envy” teaching in the highly competitive greater Seattle area.
Schools and teachers have little to talk about except AP CS results and the accomplishments of individual students to compare the successes of their CS programs. For many years, AP CS results were the only available metrics. The State of Computer Science Education reports attempt to address this issue. But the report focuses on very abstract metrics: Percent of high schools offering foundational computer science and the number of pro-CS education policies implemented. How does this relate to my school or to my student? Only 35 states and the District of Columbia provided data on the number of students in foundational computer science courses for the 2021 State of Computer Science Education report. We know the contents of an AP CS exam, but we have very little insight into what is in a foundational computer science course – except for 20 hours of programming – and even less on what students are learning in these courses. Outside of AP CS results, there are not many data points that individual schools and teachers can brag about regarding the entirety of their CS classroom population.
And about the significantly lower rates that Black students take AP CS exams and pass AP CS exams? Or are you just trying to avoid answering this question?
The relatively high percentage (22.5%) of students taking any computer science course who take an AP CS exam also implies the lack of non-AP computer science courses available to US high school students. Many high school students will find that they must take an AP CS course to learn computer science at all in high school. Once students are in an AP CS course, well-meaning schools will provide waivers for FRL-eligible and other disadvantaged students to take AP exams. Well-meaning teachers will be comforted that they are providing student opportunities and that prepping for an AP exam will help their students‘ future academic success no matter the exam outcome. As a result, more students who may are exposed to CS concepts for the first time and have not had time to digest the content will take and fail the AP Exam.
In conclusion, if it means that many more Black students are taking computer science classes in high school, I should not be overly concerned about a low AP CS test-taking rate. And if the lower rate of AP test-taking means that the Black students who take the AP CS exam are better prepared to pass the exam and do, then I should rejoice.
Please visit the CSEd Analytics page for the underlying data and reports behind this blog post for more nuanced information. The attached reports will also show how your state compares to others in critical CSEd metrics. The next post in the #CSEdAnlytics series will investigate how Hispanic-Latinx students fare in HS CS education.
This post has inspired me to investigate how AP test-taking rates correlate with pass rates. Unfortunately, I did not have time to analyze this data for this post. However, I will revisit this data in a future post to see whether the data support my hypothetical scenarios above.