The University of Chicago's Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education (CEMSE) is pursuing this EAGER project, "Expanding the Reach of AP CSP Curricula," to help two of the groups that are developing curricula for the new Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) course prepare their materials for broad use. The two curricula -- both developed with NSF support -- are Mobile CSP (developed at Trinity College) and Thriving in Our Digital World (developed by the University of Texas at Austin).

The proposed work will focus on six areas that are critical for successful scaling of the curricula: usability, marketability, sustainability, robustness, standards labeling, and clarity about critical features. Researchers and curriculum developers at CEMSE will collaborate with the AP CSP curriculum developers to analyze their programs' strengths and weaknesses in these six areas and to develop templates, ancillaries, correlations, overviews, teacher's editions, and other assets that will make the curricula maximally useful and appealing to teachers across the nation. The work will provide a model for curriculum development for other CS courses, and may well provide insights into possible improvements to the CS Principles course framework itself.