Well, AP Stats is in for a big new change. CollegeBoard has announced that Desmos will be included in the Bluebook app for the 2026 exam. Bob Lochel has a helpful post here. And his YouTube channel is going to feature help sessions starting August 11.

I do have to say that I don’t totally love this move by CB. If they are going to add software to Bluebook, I wish it was stats software, not graphing software with stats functions pasted in. When I want to really do stats, I open up StatCrunch.

But I think this is a big positive change for AP Stats for one simple reason. TI calculators stink. Casios are a bit better and NumWorks are really enjoyable to use. But I don’t see the day where all my students can buy a NumWorks. And they can all access Desmos. There are screenshots of the normal and binomial calculators on Desmos at the bottom of this post.

My plan for this year is follows:

A graphing calculator is optional
Teach all stats commands in Desmos
Have scientific calculators available in class
Show some calculator steps for students who have a graphing calculator.. Probably normal functions. Certainly NOT binomials. Time will tell.

Finally, this will present a new challenge for test days. There are lots of ways to put Desmos into a secure test mode. As the school year gets going I’ll have to figure that out. Maybe just use the Bluebook app.