CS in Middle Schools
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Anonymous
| My kid is thinking about dropping band in middle school so I'm trying to understand the other choices. It looks like there are 4 possible computer science choices per grade but schools can choose to only offer 1 or all 4? How does this work? How can I figure out which schools offer what? |
Anonymous
How does your kid have middle school choice? I'd call your kid's middle school and ask what they offer. Who cares what other mcps middle schools offer in this situation? |
Anonymous
Your school's website should have a list of the electives they offer. Look under the Counseling section for course bulletin, course registration, etc. |
Anonymous
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Each MS offers electives that may or may not be offered at other MS.
If your kid will be attending the MS in your cluster, if the offered electives are not listed on the MS website, your ES should have handed out the list of electives. If not, reach out to the MS and ask what CS courses they offer. Or post the MS and someone here can tell you what the choices are. |
Anonymous
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MCPS easily could post a table of elective courses by school. They do not do this because it would highlight the inequity across the system.
In the case of CS, some middle schools offer a course that is more challenging, provides the prerequisite to an AP in HS or serves to fulfill the MSDE tech requirement such that it frees up an elective spot in HS. Guess where that access is prevalent vs. a MS choosing to provide a course that doesn't have those benefits... |
Anonymous
Are you trying to hint that wealthy districts have "better" CS classes in MS? Eh. My 9th grader in a Bethesda high school just took AP Computer Science Principles without having any CS experience. It's easy and meets the tech requirement. She's on track to take a dozen APs before she graduates, but is not interested in computer science. It's not really important which CS you take in middle school or whether you take any at all - the important courses for that subject are all in high school anyway. Just go with student preference and course availability, OP. Don't stress about it. |
Anonymous
Taking APCSP without the prerequisite requires an exception from the administration. Having it count for the tech requirement requires that it be coded in the registration system correctly by the school. Once more, guess where each practice is prevalent... |
Anonymous
You are incorrect. AP Computer Science Principles counts for the tech credit and has no prerequisite, only a corequisite of Algebra 1. https://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/CourseDetails/Index/ITC2084A |
Anonymous
I wish they would just post more information more clearly in general. I just go to the Whitman HS website, when I want to understand what is possible, because they have the best written and most comprehensive info. Then I page through the information on my kid's HS and try to figure out what is going on at their school. |
Anonymous
That's just plain wrong. |
Anonymous
+1 My kid wants to do AP Computer Science Principles, but didn't want to drop music in middle school and was assured by the guidance counselor, they can do it in 9th grade without an issue despite not having a middle school CS class. |
Anonymous
Quite right. AP CS A (also called AP CS Java) is the one, correct? That's the one accepted by more colleges, particularly at ths higher end. |
Anonymous
Correct. |
Anonymous
Does AP CS A/Java require an exception to take without having taken either AP CSP or Computer Programming 1as a prerequisite? Are some schools in MCPS more accommodative of that than others? For example, do some MS/HS pyramids facilitate completion of MSDE graduation requirements in conjunction with accessing the more rigorous/meaningful AP by offering a TE course in 8th followed by allowing AP CS A/Java in 9th with such an exception? Is there different registration coding of CS courses across MCPS such that some might get TE credit with a more streamlined/rigorous/meaningful sequence? Are off-bulletin pathways more typically available at certain middle schools? For example, do some pyramids facilitate Computer Programming 1 being taken via the nearby HS while in MS to provide access to AP CS A/Java in 9th grade? Certainly not all students would match well with these options, but making them (or something like them) effectively available to some, but not all, based on where the student happens to lay their head at night would be a problem, the same as with any other differential facilitation of advanced subject pathways. Make no mistake, these should be available (and the ridiculous failure between MCPS & MSDE to recognize a course like Computer Programming 1 or AP CS A/Java as satisfying the TE requirement when less advanced/prerequisite courses do is indicative of an inefficiently siloed system), but MCPS should be making any differential practices clear along the way to making such practices broadly available. Instead of resigning to lowest-common-denominator for the bulk of the population with somewhat occult differential exception, whether formal or effectively so, MCPS should be adopting the equity of establishing high expectations across the system & meeting the needs of advanced learners wherever they are. The way things stand and without that openness, the impression is that MCPS continues to entrench privilege, with practices like those described above available only to some. |
Anonymous
Yet it continues to happen all across the district for both AP class, electives, and even new pilot courses. Why is it that the majority of pilot courses come from a handful of schools? Why is it that even though the county is currently conducting a program analysis, no survey has been sent to secondary students to understand the type of programs they would like to see? Why is that the website for this same program study doesn’t link to a consolidated list of all the current programs with relevant info instead of requiring someone to click through all the school profiles? |