Out of 20,000 other schools offering AP classes, Coronado has achieved the Computer Science Diversity Award for containing the highest female attendance. 1,119 institutions achieved 50% or higher female attendance in the AP computer science classes, and it almost exceeds the years before by 37% of the 818 schools before. In 2019, Coronado was one of only 56 other schools to participate in closing the gender gap in AP computer science courses.

As the female percentage of members in the classes begins to grow, participation from all students is on the rise. When the AP computer science course was first offered in 2016-2017, it attracted more students compared to any other AP course and it had only begun. Now as of last year, more than 116,000 participated in the course and the exam. The numbers were almost double from the year before, and the numbers continue to increase!

Computer sciences isn’t just an extra class either, it can lead to a future career. As of right now, women represent only 24% of the five million people in the career field. That’s only 1,200,000 women. The available class is working to affect this data. To show, female students who take the AP computer science course are more than five times as likely to major in computer sciences in college. So, the AP course is only a stepping stool to lead you to give you a higher chance at succeeding in the career field you want! From this, you can see the importance of gender parity in computer science classrooms.

Coronado will continue to grow the attendance of females especially in the AP computer science course along with the other 1,119 schools to achieve the Female Diversity Award. Overall, other schools to provide this course should serve as a model to other American high schools. While 34% of students are females in the course, there is still a long path to achieving equal gender representation among not only the class, but the career field that it leads to. Even though achieving equal gender representation is a big goal, less than half of the nations schools provide and teach a computer science class. The schools and their students who provide this course have a clear opportunity to make a change.