[Edu-sig] Could there be a new test, call it AP something else?

[Litvin]

At 11:39 AM 1/25/2010, David MacQuigg wrote:
>Is there anything in the current AP test that can't be translated to Python?

Of course not.  But AP is driven by colleges.  The AP exam used to be 
in C++ until 2003.  The current exam has heavy emphasis on OOP.  It 
took a tremendous effort to retrain HS teachers from C++ to 
Java/OOP...  If the college board decided that Python is used at most 
colleges in intro CS courses, they would eventually move.  This is 
very unlikely, though.  College courses are getting more and more 
fragmented in terms of the languages used, so it might be easier for 
the college board to move to a language-less exam.  The current exam 
is too Java specific.

>Comparing the raw scores might lead to a real awakening.

Scores depend  a lot on a particular teacher and textbook, not so 
much on the language.  The remaining AP CS exam is not very 
demanding, anyway, in terms of writing code that works.

>Bruce Eckel (Thinking in Java) says he is five times more productive 
>in Python than in Java.  I hesitate to use that number, because 
>people will think I am crazy.  I am comfortable saying a factor of 
>two, however.

Me too -- by a factor of two.  At least.  So what?  First language 
discussions flare up regularly on the ap-compsci listserve.  In this 
forum, Python would win, of course. :)  I am all for Python, but I 
don't believe in the "objects first" approach.  The College Board's 
CS Development Committee seems to be gradually moving away from heavy 
duty OOP back to algorithms.

Gary Litvin
www.skylit.com