1.10. PD Becoming an AP CS Principles Instructor¶
Please review the following information from the College Board:
- 5 steps for bringing AP CSP to your school
- Teaching AP for the first time checklist
- AP CSP Course and Exam Description with the exam and performance task guidelines
- AP CSP Exam information with rubrics, samples, user guides to the Digital Portfolio Site
Below is an overview of the process of becoming an AP instructor and offering the Mobile CSP course for AP credit. Note: No official certification is needed.
Preparing to Teach the Course:
- Have your Mobile CS Principles course approved by your district and school to teach it during the upcoming academic year.
- Determine who your school AP administrator is, often it is the guidance counselor, but your supervisor will know for certain. Ask about becoming an AP teacher at your school. Your school AP administrator must grant permission to the teacher to teach an AP course, and will order exams for your students.
- Make sure you have the recommended IT resources at your school.
- Recruit students, especially those who may be traditionally underrepresented in computer science. See College Board Recruitment Strategies for AP CSP and the Inclusive Teaching webpage on Active Recruiting
AP Course Audit:
- Create an account at the College Board AP Course Audit site and register your course. Here are step by step directions to complete the audit process. You may create your own syllabus or use our pre-approved Mobile CSP syllabus. More details on this process are in lesson 1.12.
- It is strongly recommended that you join the AP Teacher Community for CSP. To do so go to https://apcommunity.collegeboard.org/web/csprinciples/home/ and follow the instructions on the right hand side to sign in (follow the instructions to create an account if you do not have one). After signing in, request access to the group with a note that you are with the Mobile CSP project. Wait until your request is answered by the moderator (usually within 24 hours) and then click the link above to sign in to the community site.
- Inform your AP Administrator/Coordinator at your school that you've completed the AP Audit process and inform them that they should be receiving an email soon to verify that you are teaching the course at your school.
More details on this AP audit process are in lesson 1.12.
AP Digital Portfolio:
- When you are approved by the College Board, you will receive an access code for the AP Digital Portfolio Site. You will need to enter your class roster at that site which students use to submit the student performance tasks to the College Board. Here is a teacher guide to the AP Digital Portfolio.
- Review the AP CSP purple book (course and exam description) with the exam and performance task guidelines and the AP CSP Exam information with rubrics and samples page.
- Tell your students to create accounts on the AP Digital Portfolio Site. They will need to enter their AP numbers, from your AP coordinator once s/he has ordered the exams, to upload their student performance tasks to the College Board. When they receive their AP numbers, tell them to take a photo of the number and email the photo to you in case they lose the card.
- The deadline for student submissions on the AP Digital Portfolio Site is April 30th. You will be able to see what they have uploaded and should check for completion and plagiarism/security violations before this deadline.
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