The AP Computer Science program at Baldwin High School saw good results on the 2006 AP exam. Six students earned scores of 3 or 4. The success of the program is attributed to several factors, including actively recruiting from math classes, changing prerequisites to allow more students to enroll, and starting an honors section of Computer Math. As a result of these recruitment efforts and student success, the number of APCS sections has increased from one to three over the past two years.

1. Memorandum
To: Ms. Vivian Stevens, Math Dept Chair
From: A. Jorge García, Mathematics and Computer Science Teacher
Re: APCS Good News!
Date: 09/19/2006
You will be happy to note that we had very good results on our AP Computer Science
(APCS) exam last year. On the 2006 exam three students earned a 4 and another three
students earned a 3!
I think that the success of this program is due to several factors. One reason for our
success is that we actively recruit students from all the math classes during course selection
week each year to take APCS. We started this practice two years ago. At that time, we also
changed the prerequisites. In the past, only those students passing Computer Math (CM)
and Advanced Computer Math (ACM) could sign up for APCS. Now we allow those Juniors
in Math 3R and Math 4R who had not had the chance to take CM or ACM to sign up for
APCS in their senior year. This way we have a larger pool of students to work with.
We also started a new section of CM for honors students. The honors math student
was always our traditional audience as these students typically excel in APCS. However,
without the honors weighting added to the grade in CM, the GPA would suffer. Now we
have a core of honors students taking CM, ACM and APCS again.
As a result of all this recruiting and the success of our students, we went from only
one section of APCS two years ago, to two sections last year and three sections this year.
Thanks also go to those responsible in the administration who made sure that we
always had the best computer hardware, firmware, software and textbooks to work with
over the years. I would also like to thank the technology staff for keeping our computer lab,
room 429, running in tip top shape.
Sincerely,
A. Jorge García
Applied Math & CS
Baldwin SHS & Nassau CC
http://calcpage.tripod.com
calcpage@lycos.com
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