{"id":11946,"date":"2024-03-04T09:18:03","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T14:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=11946"},"modified":"2024-03-04T09:18:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T14:18:17","slug":"college-board-recognizes-two-high-schools-for-female-computer-science-enrollment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/college-board-recognizes-two-high-schools-for-female-computer-science-enrollment\/","title":{"rendered":"College Board recognizes two high schools for female computer science enrollment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
More females are taking computer science classes at Princess Anne High School. Princess Anne and First Colonial high schools were recognized by College Board with AP Computer Science Female Diversity Awards for the school year 2022-23.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Cindy Butler Focke<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Two Virginia Beach City Public Schools\u2019 high schools received AP Computer Science Female Diversity awards from the College Board.<\/p>\n

Princess Anne and First Colonial were among 834 schools nationwide to be recognized with an AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for having more than 50% female representation in the Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles course during the 2022-23 school year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Princess Anne computer science teacher Leigh Anne Fitz said it’s important for all students to take computer science classes. More females are taking those courses at PA. The school was recently recognized by College Board with an AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for 2022-23.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Princess Anne computer science teacher Leigh Anne Fitz said the honor is appreciated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled the female population is up,\u201d she said. Fitz promotes computer science courses every chance she gets and makes sure guidance counselors provide all the important information to students when selecting class schedules.<\/p>\n

The effort has paid off. In the 2021-22 school year, 38% of students in the school\u2019s AP Computer Science Principles course were female. The next year the percentage rose to 55%. The numbers of females taking the class is steadily increasing.<\/p>\n

Fitz said it is important for all students to take computer science classes, including English as a Second Language (ESL) and special needs students.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents will miss out on things\u201d without computer programming knowledge, Fitz said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t navigate these things, you are going to be left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The course is more than computer programming, Fitz said. Students learn data science, cybersecurity, networking and artificial intelligence. They also study how computers have revolutionized society and thus could bring about possible privacy, security and ethical issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are challenged to be creative problem solvers and to take a global look at computing,\u201d Fitz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use data to make predictions and gain knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the assignment she gave recently during an AP Computer Science Principles class.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Groups of two or three students collaborated to analyze and study a dataset of their choice and develop a hypothesis based on trends. One group chose sales at Walmart, while another looked at terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

Haneeta Parakala-Jain took coding classes in elementary and middle school and is in Fitz\u2019s AP Computer Science Principles class. \u201cI wanted to learn more,\u201d the freshman said. \u201cI wanted deeper insight into how it all works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophomore Ja\u2019Leeah Chesson said the class will help her prepare for the future. Her plan is to \u00a0study pre-med in college and eventually become a pediatrician.<\/p>\n

Todd Tarkenton, Princess Anne\u2019s principal, commended Fitz for taking pride in providing opportunities for all students to explore a relevant and rigorous subject that fosters a level of collaboration which will benefit them after high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a female educator for a STEM course, such as AP Computer Science, immediately breaks down barriers for young female students considering such fields of study,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fitz began teaching math at Princess Anne in 2000, and soon became fascinated with computer science. After earning a computer science endorsement on her teacher\u2019s license, she took over the computer programming courses about 10 years ago after the previous computer science teacher retired.<\/p>\n

Back then, students enrolled in computer sciences courses were primarily male, she said.<\/p>\n

According to College Board, female students who take AP Computer Science are likely to major in computer science in college and thus be prepared for in-demand, high-paying jobs.<\/p>\n

Senior Janae Tunstall, who hopes to become a software engineer one day, said she\u2019s happy more females are taking computer science classes. \u201cI think we should have more diversity,\u201d she said. \u201cWomen can add so many different ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
More females are taking computer science classes at Princess Anne High School. The school was recognized by College Board with an AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for the school year 2022-23.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cindy Butler Focke Two Virginia Beach City Public Schools\u2019 high schools received AP Computer Science Female Diversity awards from the College Board. Princess Anne and First Colonial were among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11946"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11959,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11946\/revisions\/11959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}