The organization that oversees Advanced Placement courses and college entrance exams on Saturday went after Florida Republicans for spreading misinformation about its new African-American studies course for political gain.
Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced that the Florida Department of Education would reject the new course because it included topics about race that he and other conservatives had pushed to remove from public schools. In its pilot phase, the course covered topics such as mass incarceration and reparations.
The law known as the Stop WOKE Act that Florida Republicans passed last year has led to an anti-black movement in state schools, where educators are effectively barred from teaching students about racism and the role of it in American history. Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz called the new AP course “Masked indoctrination in education has awakened”.
“We deeply regret not immediately reporting the Florida Department of Education’s slander, compounded by the Desantis administration’s subsequent comments that African-American studies ‘have no educational value.’ Our failure to speak out has failed scholars of color everywhere and those who have worked long to build this remarkable field,” the College Board said in a statement released Saturday.
On the first day of Black History Month, the College Board released the official course curriculum, which no longer included many of the topics denounced by Florida Republicans, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and well-known black authors such as bell hooks, Kimberlé. Crenshaw and Ta. – Nehisi Coates. The decision about what to include drew widespread backlash from scholars and the public, but the board maintained that the curriculum was set without regard to politics and was not influenced by DeSantis.
“We should have made it clear that the framework is only the outline of the course, to be supplemented with academic articles, video lessons, and practice questions that we collect and make available to all AP teachers throughout the summer for free and easy assignments. their students,” he continued. “This mistake sparked a conversation about erasing or eliminating black thinkers. The vitriol aimed at these scholars is repulsive and must stop.”
The College Board said that topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement and mass incarceration were electives in the pilot phase and that “the board’s lack of clarity allowed the narrative that political forces have ‘degraded’ the role of these movements and contemporary debates in the AP Hall.”
“In Florida’s effort to create a political victory, they claimed credit for specific changes we made to the official framework,” the College Board said. “In their letter dated February 7, 2023, which they released to the media within hours of being mailed, Florida expresses its gratitude for the removal of 19 subjects, none of which it ever asked us to remove and most remain in an official document. setting”.
Florida officials said the College Board was in frequent contact about the content of the new course, meaning the state Department of Education influenced the board to make some changes to the course. The college board disputed the claim Saturday, saying there had been no negotiations about classes with Florida or any state, “nor have we received any request, suggestion or feedback,” except for emails containing inflammatory rhetoric that Republicans they broadcast publicly about education. racism.
“This new AP course can be historic: What makes history is the lived experiences of millions of African Americans and the long work of scholars who built this field,” the College Board said. “We hope our future endeavors will unequivocally honor their work.”
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