American Computer Science League (ACSL)

This was posted to the CSTA announcement list. I don’t have first hand experience but I hear good things.

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Computer contests for high school students are available in many varieties.   However, for those schools that annually compete in the American Computer Science League (ACSL), there is nothing BETTER.  Here are some reasons why:

•   ACSL offers all students exposure to foundational concepts in computer science that will serve them well in current high school and future college courses.
•   ACSL enables all students to compete with others at their grade level with similar programming experience by offering a Junior, Intermediate, and Senior Division.
• ACSL has provided newly written, never previously used, interesting short answer problems and programming problems every year since 1978.
• ACSL is administered in four local contests throughout the year at your school so that all of your students can participate either as part of their CS classes or as an extracurricular activity.
• ACSL offers a Classroom Division for students who want exposure to the concepts but without a programming problem.
• ACSL allows students to solve the programming problems using any language  their teacher allows.
• ACSL provides all preparation materials necessary, fast email responses to all inquiries, and follow-up feedback by posting top scores and sample programs.
• ACSL is on the Approved Activities List of the National Association of Secondary School Principals and run by current and former high school Computer Science teachers.
• ACSL is an institutional member of CSTA and will include a free contest CD in the registration for all new teams if the teacher or advisor is a CSTA member.
• ACSL sponsors an Invitational l All Star contest in a different city at the end of each year for qualifying teams. Prizes are awarded on a regional basis to top scoring students and teams in addition to winning schools after a full day of face-to-face team competition.
  

If you are interested in participating, please visit our web site: www.acsl.org
for more information. All questions about ACSL can be sent to Jerry Tebrow at jerry@acsl.org.