Recently, the College Board has been under fire due to changes in their newly released AP African American course, released on Feb 1st. Currently piloted in 60 schools, the course was stripped down after the Florida Department of Education rejected the AP African American Studies class and Governor Ron DeSantis called it “indoctrination.”
In a letter earlier in January, the FLDOE told the College Board that the African American studies course “significantly lacks educational value.” A couple of weeks later, the College Board released the official – and revised – framework for the course, causing people to question whether the Florida governor was a factor in this decision.
“I believe Gov. DeSantis’ condemnation was the driving force behind the change,” assistant principal Darieion Malone said.
The College Board purged the names of many Black writers and scholars associated with critical race theory, the queer experience, and Black feminism. It also ushered out some politically fraught topics like Black Lives Matter, from the formal curriculum.
“I believe this level of censorship is inappropriate for a college-level course. Each of these topics is relevant to the African American experience. Teaching someone to believe in and support something is totally different from discussing the existence and how it functions for a group of people,” Malone said. “The beauty of liberal arts electives such as this one is that it allows students to journey toward reaching their own conclusions, communicating them, forming compelling arguments, and solving problems. This is one of many benefits of having an educated citizenry.”
Instead of being a part of the main curriculum, Black Lives Matter, incarceration, queer life, and the debate over reparations are downgraded. The subjects are no longer part of the exam and are simply offered on a list of options for a required research project.
“I think taking [these topics] away as a primary source but keeping it as a secondary is much better than completely taking it away. I also think teachers or students would probably bring it up as a topic of discussion that many kids will have an opinion about,” senior Ren Lee said.
College Board has defended the decision to change the course by stating that they had a time-stamped document showing that the final changes to the curriculum were made in December before the FLDOE sent a letter informing the College Board that it would not allow the course to be taught.
“[The] College Board has been put in a tough position concerning this course. Either way, it seems that they cannot win,” junior Asmira Lugonic said.
Even with the exclusion of these topics, supporters of the course argue that the course would benefit many students as the African American experience is a crucial part of America’s history.
“Learning about black history is important because black history is a part of American history. A lot of the black trauma and black history has been erased, and acknowledging our faults in history is good. We notice the faults of other countries. Why can’t we do it to ourselves?” Lee said.