The Department of Education (DOE) required all New York City schools to change their program codes this year to standardize the programming system throughout the city.
“This way, anyone looking at any code in any school would know what course it is,” said Assistant Principal Technology Edward Wong, who heads the Programming Office.
“A standarized program code deck allows for reliable data collection. It also allows for consistency across the DOE while allowing for school level flexibility,” said DOE Deputy Press Secretary Maibe Gonzalez Fuentes. “Using this code deck, we will know the types of courses being offered in high schools as well as all information related to high school course offerings.”
According to Principal Stanley Teitel, this change will facilitate interpreting student transcripts that are sent to colleges during the application process. Previously, Stuyvesant sent legends along with transcripts to help decipher these codes.
Legends will be sent to colleges until the Class of 2010 graduates because the program codes currently listed on student transcripts have not been converted to the new system.
Ted O’Neill, Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago, said the programming code change will not affect the college admission process. “We don’t pay attention to the codes [because] they’re different throughout America,”he said. “[We examine] course description and course name, not code.”
The DOE gave the programming office a 45-page book of guidelines programmers are required to follow.
According to Wong, the book contains instructions about how to create the new codes, which are longer than the codes previously used by Stuyvesant.
These guidelines require placing the letter ‘X’ in the fourth slot of an Advanced Placement course code, instead of the third slot. Many technology codes were also changed. For example, 10th period photography was changed from VRD5 to TQPPDPA. The pre-calculus code was changed from ME81 to MM81. In most city high schools, seniors usually take pre-calculus. The M8 indicates that a class is a senior class.
Some program codes, including those for foreign language and English, have not been changed.
Assistant Program Chairperson Larry Barth said these new regulations make programming slightly more complicated. However, Barth said, “Like anything new, once you get used to it, it becomes second nature.”
Many Stuyvesant students find the programming change cumbersome. The new codes are “too long and unnecessary,” said junior Lily Fung.