FONTANA, CA – The College Board has honored A.B. Miller High School for expanding young women’s access to Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science classes, recognizing the school with its 2020 AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award.

A.B. Miller received the award for achieving 50% or greater female exam taker participation in its AP Computer Science (CS) Principles class.

A.B. Miller is one of 1,119 schools across the United States recognized for fostering equal gender representation during the 2019-20 school year. Currently, A.B. Miller’s AP CS Principles class has 25 students enrolled, 14 of whom are female. This is the second year in a row that A.B. Miller’s AP CS Principles has been over 50% female.

“We are thrilled to be recognized by the College Board. It’s a testament to a Districtwide commitment to providing more opportunities for young women to learn coding and computer science principles,” A.B. Miller computer science teacher Jay Windley said. “Computer coding is the language of the future and we will continue to encourage young women to pursue these opportunities.”

AP CS Principles was added to the curriculum of A.B. Miller and Summit high schools in 2016 and to Fontana High School in 2019. The course was created through a partnership between College Board and Code.org to create a computer science class that would be more appealing and accessible to a wider range of students.

“For the past 10 years, there has been an effort to get more females and students of color involved in computer science and coding in general, because of the high demand in the work force,” Windley said. “As computers and computer systems play a larger role in our lives, coding is becoming the new literacy, so we need to make sure every student has the opportunity to learn how to code.”

A.B. Miller AP CS Principles students are taught JavaScript while learning core topics such as algorithms and functions. Additionally, students learn how to represent text, colors and music using numbers, how to compress files, how data is transmitted and how data can be kept secure. As part of their AP exam, students submit written code and a video showing how the code works.

A.B. Miller’s AP CS Principles class has proven so successful that students asked for an additional course, AP Computer Science A, to be added to the curriculum.

“Fontana Unified is committed to providing instruction that bolsters college and career readiness, especially in the rapidly growing fields of technology and computer science,” Fontana Unified Superintendent Randal S. Bassett said. “Congratulations to A.B. Miller for being honored by the College Board for the tremendous job they have done in expanding the opportunities for young women in STEM subjects.”

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FUSD_MILLER_AP: A.B. Miller High School’s Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles class was honored by the College Board with its 2020 AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for expanding the young women’s access to AP computer science courses. Female participation in the AP CSP class is over 50% for the second consecutive year.