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Foxcroft Honored For Computer Science Program
Foxcroft Honored For Computer Science Program
Foxcroft School in Middleburg was the only Virginia school and one of only 68 worldwide to earn the prestigious College Board AP Computer Science Female Diversity Awards for achieving high female representation in both AP Computer Science A (AP CSA) and AP Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) courses during the 2022-23 academic year.
“Foxcroft continues to lead the way in STEM education for girls,” said Head of School Cathy S. McGehee. “We encourage our students to take computer science. The technology field is one where women continue to be underrepresented, and efforts such as ours can make a difference.”
Foxcroft’s computer science offerings are intentionally designed to provide girls the opportunity to learn programming in a meaningful and engaging way.
“The AP Computer Science Principles course is a really accessible course that gets a lot of students in the door,” said Alex Northrup, History Department Chair, Director of The Innovation Lab, and AP Computer Science Principles teacher.
“There’s some computer programming, but a lot of it is just about how the internet works and basic understanding of how digital technology works. The course content is a bridge to getting people more interested in computer programming, male or female.”
It’s the third time Foxcroft has received both the AP CSA and AP CSP Female Diversity Awards and the fifth time it has received AP Computer Science Female Diversity Awards.
The longevity of Foxcroft’s computer science program contributes to its success, as students spanning multiple grade levels try their hand at programming. “Role models matter,” McGehee said. “If younger girls see older girls working in technology, they believe they can do it too.”
Northrup agreed.
“It helps to have had the program for a few years,” she said. “Students hear about what happened in the course the year before, it spreads the willingness and desire to take that on.”
The median annual wage for computer and information technology occupations was $100,530 in 2022. However, women represent just 24 percent of the five million people in computing occupations. Providing female students with access to computer science courses is necessary to ensure gender parity in the industry’s high-paying jobs and to drive innovation, creativity, and representation.
Research from the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS) shows that attending an all-girls school strengthens interest and success in STEM fields. Specifically, in math and computer skills, girls’ school graduates rate confidence in their abilities at least 10 percent higher than their co-educated counterparts.
For AP Computer Science Principles, the course is taught using a curriculum developed by code.org. According to its website, code.org is an “education innovation nonprofit dedicated to the vision that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science as part of their core K-12 education.”
Foxcroft was one of the first schools to pilot this curriculum several years ago with Northrup’s faculty involvement and two students from the Class of 2022 who sat on Code.org’s student advisory board.
“It’s a great curriculum,” Northrup said. “All of the examples that you see include different kinds of people, and you see women and people of different ethnicities being actively involved in computer programming. You begin to realize, ‘I can see myself in this, even as a career.’ So that’s a cool curriculum that we use.”
