The Findings Group, LLC

Authors: Barbara Ericson, Shelly Engelman, Tom Mcklin, Ja’Quan Taylor

Abstract

This paper describes Project Rise Up 4 CS, an attempt to increase the number of Black students in Georgia that pass the Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science (CS) A exam. In 2012 Black students had the lowest pass rates on the AP CS A exam both in Georgia and nationally. Project Rise Up 4 CS provided Black students with role models, hands-on learning, competitions, a financial incentive, and webinars on AP CS A content. The first cohort started in January of 2013 and finished in May 2013. Of the 27 students who enrolled in the first cohort, 14 met all of the completion requirements, and 9 (69%) of the 13 who took the exam passed. For comparison, in 2012 only 22 (16%) of 137 Black students passed the exam in Georgia. In 2013, 28 (22%) of 129 Black students passed the exam in Georgia. This was the highest number of Black students to pass the AP CS A exam ever in Georgia and a 27% increase from 2012. In addition, students who met the completion requirements for Project Rise Up 4 CS exhibited statistically significant changes in attitudes towards computing and also demonstrated significant learning gains. This paper discusses the motivation for the project, provides project details, presents the evaluation results, and future plans.

Citation:
Engelman, Shelly & Mcklin, Tom & Taylor, Ja’Quan. (2014). Project rise Up 4 CS: Increasing the number of black students who pass advanced placement CS A. SIGCSE 2014 – Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. 439-444. 10.1145/2538862.2538937.