The nonprofit reiterated Wednesday that no state or district saw the new framework before it was unveiled and denied that any feedback from state officials was taken into account.
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said “I call bullshit — you are just a puppet of Ron DeSantis” in a tweet directed by College Board CEO David Coleman that included a photo of a New York Times story about the final structure.
At least two governors, DeSantis and Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, sent letters to the College Board about the course before the final framework was released, with Pritzker warning that Illinois schools will not accept the “draining of history.”
“… [T]his refinement process, which is a part of all AP courses, operates independently from political pressure,” said Robert J. Patterson, a Georgetown University professor who co-chaired the committee’s teachers who developed the course, in a statement.
A 234-page overview for the African American Studies course indicates that the program covers a variety of topics from the origins of the African diaspora to the slave trade and the Civil Rights movement. Students who take the course will learn about the Black Panther Party and the growth of the Black middle class, abolitionists and the role of Black women in society. The new requirements will take effect when the course launches for the 2024-2025 school year.
The updated syllabus also excludes mandatory lessons on intersectionality, which is a part of critical race theory, as well as other subjects. Florida Department of Education called “about.”
The lessons in Black queer studies and movements for Black lives taught in the pilot didn’t make the final cut. However, these topics are listed as potential ideas for students to pursue in their 1,500-word mandatory project. Students may choose such “contemporary topics or debates” for their projects, including the Black Lives Matter movement, reparations debates, intersectionality and dimensions of Black experience and queer life and expression. in Black communities.
While the course has curriculum and resource requirements, the AP program says it supports each school with its own curriculum that enables students to build skills and understand the framework.
“This course is a relentless encounter with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture,” College Board CEO David Coleman said in a statement. “No one is excluded from this course. … All will be seen.”
More than 300 African American Studies professors from more than 200 colleges nationwide consulted with the AP program to develop the course framework last year, the College Board said, and the process of refining the course is complete. in December.
DeSantis, who said the original coursework was “pushing an agenda,” claimed victory when the College Board announced the program would be updated before its release. But it’s ultimately up to the Florida Department of Education to review the course before it becomes available to students in the state.
Florida’s decision to reject the course drew national attention and sparked a beef between the state and Illinois, with Pritzker calling DeSantis’ actions “political grandstanding.” Civil rights attorney Ben Crump also vowed to sue DeSantis if Florida also blocks schools from teaching the course. Vice President Kamala Harris also criticized the rejection of the course, saying recently that “every student in our country needs to learn about the culture, contributions, and experiences of all Americans.”
DeSantis stood by refusing the course on the heels of the state’s “Stop WOKE” law, which prohibits instruction that would make a person “feel guilt, pain, or any form of psychological distress.” anan” because of their race, color, sex or nationality. origin.”
About 18 states have similar “divisive concepts” laws that restrict how teachers can discuss racism, sexism or systemic inequality in the classroom. Most of the bills are efforts to critique critical race theory, the study of how racism has been embedded in American laws and institutions throughout history. Most public school officials across the country say they don’t teach the theory. But these states may move to follow the DeSantis administration when deciding whether to adopt the new interdisciplinary course.
“Our core curriculum … requires the teaching of Black history, but real Black history — I mean the stuff that’s really important,” DeSantis said in an episode of the Charlie Kirk Show podcast that aired on January 26. “This course has things like queer theory, it has things like prison abolition, intersectionality, it advocates for reparations and things.”
He continued: “That’s political activism. If that’s what you want to do on your own time, this is a free country. But we’re not going to use Florida state tax dollars to put that in our schools because it’s not trying to educate kids, it’s trying to impose an agenda on kids.
