College Board appeases conservative furor over AP African American studies curriculum
On Wednesday, the body tasked with overseeing the nation's Advanced Placement curriculum published its finalized educational framework for its new African American studies program, initially outlined in August. In a press release trumpeting the more than 200-page document, the College Board — which also runs educational programs such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test — heralded the course as an "unflinching encounter with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture" while acknowledging that the curriculum differed from the initial framework offered at the start of the school year with an "an overall reduction in the breadth of the course."
Among the material reportedly excised from the new framework are modules on contemporary topics like the Black Lives Matter movement, Black/queer movements, and works of notable authors like Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Columbia University law professor Kimberle W. Crenshaw. Rather than occupying a compulsory role in the curriculum and ultimate exam, much of the material in question has instead been diminished into optional research project topics, alongside an added option of "black conservatism." These "reductions," while given little overall attention in the College Board's announcement itself, have raised red flags among some educators and scholars who worry the new curriculum is a capitulation to a broader effort by Republican lawmakers to block schools from teaching topics that don't comport with their political ideology.
"This response by the College Board, caving to bad-faith attacks by conservatives and letting them determine the proper way to examine the Black experience will only encourage more of this," historian and journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote of the new framework. Hannah-Jones' Pulitzer-winning 1619 Project examining the role race and racism has played in the development of the country has been specifically targeted by Republican lawmakers like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump and bashed as "toxic propaganda" and "ideological poison."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"[The AP course] is a corrective, it is an intervention, it is an expansion," Crenshaw, a pioneer of the legal "Critical Race Theory" that has become conservative shorthand for racial studies at large, told The New York Times. "For it to be true to the mission of telling the true history, it cannot exclude intersectionality, it cannot exclude critical thinking about race."
DeSantis in particular has been at the forefront of the Republican attack on the AP coursework, and its broader implications for how race and history are taught in the United States. Just weeks before the College Board's rollout of the revised curriculum, Florida's Department of Education rejected the AP African American studies course, writing that it was "inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value." And on Tuesday, at an event debuting his plans to significantly overhaul Florida's educational system, DeSantis seemingly compared the AP course with "Zombie studies," which he claimed wasn't "grounded in actual history, the actual philosophy that has shaped Western Civilization."
That same day, a group of African American studies educators published an open letter defending the AP's original coursework. The faculty described DeSantis' efforts to block and subvert the course as racist, and part of a "broader effort to degrade, erase, and rewrite our history" which, if successful "would mean that the worst dystopias of science fiction have taken root, their encroachments on the classroom forcing us further down the path to an extraordinarily dangerous future."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.
-
'Making a police state out of the liberal university'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
8 looming climate tipping points that imperil our planet
The Explainer New reports detail the thresholds we may be close to crossing
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Try 6 free issues of The Week Junior
Spark your child's curiosity with The Week Junior - the award-winning current affairs magazine for 8-14s.
By The Week Published
-
'Presidential debates are more performance art than actual ways to inform'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Trump, DeSantis meet for first time since primary
Speed Read The former president and the Florida governor have seemingly mended their rivalry
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
'Biden is smart to keep the border-security pressure on'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
'Make legal immigration a more plausible option'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Ukraine cheers House approval of military aid
Speed Read Following a lengthy struggle, the House has approved $95 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Poland, Germany nab alleged anti-Ukraine spies
Speed Read A man was arrested over a supposed Russian plot to kill Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Israel hits Iran with retaliatory airstrike
Speed Read The attack comes after Iran's drone and missile barrage last weekend
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Peter Murrell: Sturgeon's husband charged over SNP 'embezzlement' claims
Speed Read SNP expresses 'shock' as former chief executive rearrested in long-running investigation into claims of mishandled campaign funds
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published