Recruiting

We are registering for classes on Dec 14th this year. Really early, but it overlaps nicely with CS Education Week. Have you pledged to participate? Do it now, Ill wait.

So this year the CS club is holding an open house during our regular weekly meeting. I havent had time to go to classes to do demos, so instead I am asking teachers to nominate students they think will do well.

Next week I will hand deliver a nomination letter to each student  inviting them to the open house. I usually also mail a letter home to the parents letting them know their child was nominated.

The plan is to have student programs set up to demo what we do in the various classes. I usually try to serve food - this year were doing ice cream and toppings. CS Club kids bring in the toppings and I supply the ice cream.

Also, following the rule of reciprocity, everyone will get a button. They all say Computer Science is... then the words underneath were suggested by my current students. I do think the button maker is one of the best investments I have ever made - super useful.

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Recruiting for Computer Science the AP Potential Report

For many high schools it is recruiting season. If you school has an AP program there is a little kown report, called the AP Readiness Potential, that can help you in attracting kids to your classes. This is an especially helpful way of identifying girls and other groups that may not already be taking your Computer Science classes.

Basically this report takes students PSAT scores and predicts the AP tests they are statistically likely to score well on. It is based on a past correlation between past PSATs and AP exams.

While we do not yet have this for APCS Principles, since no AP tests have been given yet, we do have it for the current APCS class.

A new feature is teachers can now log in to see the reports. To access the report you will need an access code. You can get this code from the person in your building that coordinates the AP exams. I find that person often doesnt know about the report, or have any idea of how to find the code.

You can call to get your schools code. The number is 866-630-9305. You just have to identify yourself and your school.

The login for the site is here. Youll need an account for AP Central. Once you pull the report the site even has sample letters to send home to parents. I have found letters directly to parents to be a powerful way to attract kids to computer science.

Long term I am very curious to see how this test correlates for the new APCS Principles class. Since much of the assessment for this course will be written it will be interesting to see if a correlation with the writing section of the PSAT.

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