Three metrics of success for high school csforall initiatives: Demographic patterns from 2003 to 2019 on advanced placement computer science exams

Abstract

There has been an expansion of computer science (CS) in high schools in the USA. In most cases, initiatives seeking to expand high school CS offerings are not focused simply on increasing the number of students enrolled, but are focused on broadening participation in computing (BPC). Ideally we can evaluate and replicate effective BPC, or CSforAll, initiatives at the high school level. However, analyses of CS expansion frequently focus on the national landscape, despite the decentralized nature of public education in the USA. State-level analyses, when present, often do not take into account the demographics of high school students in the state, which are also changing over time. We propose three metrics for evaluating the impact of state-level initiatives to broaden participation in computing at the high school level. These metrics and our data set can be helpful benchmarks for evaluating high school CSforAll initiatives.