June 12, 2023 by Aditi Singh (‘24)
Saratoga Springs High School (SSHS) has recently made many additions, and some removals, to the courses offered to students. Amongst these additions are many University in High School (UHS) courses, which act as a great alternative for students who do not want to take Advanced Placement (AP) courses. In AP courses, students must take the AP exam and score well to receive college credit at all. In UHS courses that is not the case. However, amid these exciting additions are disappointing removals of classes due to a lack of interest or even a lack of teachers. One such course that will not be running next school year is AP Computer Science A (AP Comp Sci).
The news of the removal of this course is quite disheartening for many students who planned on taking it in the future. With our world becoming more and more technology and computer reliant, it is crucial that our schools provide children with the opportunity to explore these fields. AP Comp Sci gave students a chance to explore the vast and growing area of programming and algorithm development and acted as an equivalent of a first-semester college course in computer science. By taking this course, SSHS students were given a head start as they entered college or the job market since it familiarized them with an important skill at an advanced level. The removal of AP Comp Sci will also remove the opportunity of SSHS students to get this head start.
Thankfully, SSHS offers many other courses geared towards technology and STEM. Some courses that are alternatives for students interested in computer science are Discovering Computer Science and Python and Multimedia. Discovering Computer Science is an introductory course for students with minimal to no prior experience in the field and offers a comprehensive introduction to programming. Python and Multimedia is a Siena College dual-enrollment course and offers a broad introduction to a variety of fundamental topics in computer science through multimedia. Like AP Comp Sci, Python and Multimedia is the equivalent of a one semester introductory computer science course. The availability of these courses softens the blow of the discontinuation of AP Comp Sci on SSHS students.
Although the reason for the removal of AP Comp Sci is understandable, no available teacher, one must wonder why the issue of lack of teachers to teach a course keeps appearing. AP Comp Sci is not the first course to not run due to a lack of teachers. Earlier this year, it was announced that the Latin language stream will also be discontinued for the same reason. This raises the question of why this issue keeps reoccurring. Granted, a school usually cannot just hire a teacher right away, but our school had a large time frame, especially for Latin, to find a new teacher. Whatever the reason may be for the delayed hiring of a new teacher for these discontinued courses, we can only hope that SSHS quickly finds new teachers for the 2024-25 school year to bring back these courses.