"The growing popularity of Java has been reinforced by a
decision to standardize advanced-placement courses in U.S. high
schools around Sun Microsystems' programming language."
"The College Board has decided to switch to Java to test for
programming skills in advanced-placement (AP) computer science
tests. The change from the current programming language, C++, will
be made in the 2003-2004 academic year, the board said."
"When the College Board moved from Pascal to C++ in the
mid-1990s, Kim Bruce of Williams College suggested skipping
straight to Java. "I think that the weight of evidence no longer
supports the belief in the eventual dominance of C++," Bruce wrote
in 1996. "The advantages of Java over C++ at this point seem
overwhelming."