CompuScholar is a College Board-endorsed curriculum provider for AP Computer Science A (AP CSA). What do the upcoming changes to the AP CSA Course and Exam Description (CED) mean for CompuScholar teachers? Read on to find out!
CompuScholar's Endorsement
CompuScholar's materials have been updated to match the 2025 version of the AP CSA CED. These materials include:
- Our Java Programming curriculum
- Our AP CSA Professional Learning
- Our approved Course Syllabus
The College Board is currently reviewing revised materials from all endorsed providers like CompuScholar. We expect to announce their formal endorsement for the updated materials in the March 2025 time frame - stay tuned!
We will make our revised Java Programming course available for review just as soon as the endorsement is announced. Teachers will be able to enroll in the new Professional Learning at that time as well.
UPDATE 3/26/2025 - The College Board's formal endorsement is now complete! You can select CompuScholar's approved syllabus during your Course Audit. The 2025 edition of Java Programming is available for review (Get Started Here), and new registrations to our AP CSA Professional Learning will be enrolled in the 2025 edition of the PL course.
AP CSA Updates - When?
There is NO IMPACT to the 2024-2025 SY or the AP CSA Exam administered in May 2025. The new CED takes effect for the 2025-2026 SY, and the May 2026 exam will be the first to test the new standards.
AP CSA Updates - Why?
The primary goal of the AP program is to give students a chance to earn college credit by scoring well on the AP exam. For colleges to award credit, they must be confident that the AP exam requirements closely align with their own standards for introductory computer science classes at the college level.
Therefore, the College Board will regularly survey colleges and professors to see what topics they teach in "CS 101" or similar classes. If there are popular topics missing from the AP exam, they should be added. When topics are less likely to be taught in an introductory CS classroom, they can be dropped from the exam.
This process is not without debate and is unlikely to make everyone 100% happy. However, it is a good faith effort to maintain the credibility of the AP exam and is not something the College Board does without careful consideration and data analysis.
AP CSA Updates - What?
At a high level, there were two main topics removed from the exam (because they are less likely to be required for a first-year college course).
- Inheritance
- Polymorphism
While these topics are certainly important and represent the heart of OOP, the College Board's data shows they tend to be taught in second-semester or second-year classrooms.
What are we gaining? Modern introductory classrooms are more likely to include elements of data sets and data analysis, so these topics have been added to the exam.
- Data set management and analysis
- File input with Scanner
The ability to ready data files with the Scanner object allows students to explore data set analysis topics in a more realistic manner.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, the CED has also undergone a number of additional revisions.
- There are now 4 larger Units instead of 10 smaller Units. We believe* this provides some additional flexibility for the sequencing of topics within a Unit.
- Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings have been removed from the CED. We believe* these overlapping, cross-cutting topics served as clutter without adding much value.
- The Computational Thinking Practices: Skills have been updated and remain as the only cross-cutting skills woven through the main content.
- Many other individual Learning Objectives or Essential Knowledge statements have been tweaked for clarity or content.
*These statements represent CompuScholar's opinion and are not an official College Board explanation.
Finding the new CED document
The new CED is currently posted in an alternate location. To find it, visit AP CSA course description page on the College Board's website:
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-computer-science-a
Click on "Learn More" under the "Future AP Computer Science A Revisions" panel, and you'll find the "Download the 2025-26 Revised CED" panel off to the right. Go ahead and download a copy of the new CED if you haven't already done so! This document is your official reference for all AP CSA questions.
Exploring the new Java Programming Curriculum
The 2025 edition of the Java Programming curriculum has been updated as follows:
- Chapters on Inheritance and Polymorphism have been moved to "optional" areas later in the course. No content was removed, so teachers can still teach these concepts, but they are no longer required on the exam.
- A chapter on File I/O was moved from "optional" up into the required sequence, and a lesson on the Scanner object was added.
- A chapter on Data Sets was added.
- A chapter on AP CSA Exam format and preparation was added.
- Units 2, 3, and 4 now have their own unit-level labs for additional practice.
- A variety of small-scale tweaks were made to match the new LOEK in the CED.
To review these changes for yourself, please click the "Request Review Access" button on your CompuScholar Dashboard once we've released the new materials. If you don't already have a CompuScholar teacher account, request one here.
Completing the 2025-2026 Course Audit
CompuScholar teachers will be able to complete the 2025-2026 SY Course Audit as soon as CompuScholar's approved syllabus is published into the endorsed provider list by the College Board. We expect this to happen in the March 2025 time frame. When you complete the audit, please be sure to:
- Select CompuScholar as your textbook
- Select CompuScholar as your endorsed provider syllabus
What do you do if you have an existing course audit that was approved using a different textbook or syllabus? The College Board has shared with us that the only way (currently) to change an existing audit is to delete the existing audit and start over with a new audit. This is a quick process but may have implications for your existing AP Classroom setup. Therefore, we encourage you to complete any audit updates before you start enrolling students in AP Classroom. For more information and the latest official guidance, please contact the College Board directly.
Updated AP CSA Professional Learning
Our new Professional Learning course will be released as soon as it's approved by the College Board. We expect that to happen in the March 2025 time frame. After the release announcement, you can visit our AP CSA Professional Learning registration page to learn more and enroll.
AP Computer Science A Registration Page
For More Information
For a video walk-through of the AP CSA and Java Programming updates, please view our February 2025 Professional Development webinar, "2025 AP CSA and Java Programming Updates". As always, please Contact Us if you have questions!