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The College Board has released a revised framework for its AP African American pilot course after receiving pushback from Florida’s Board of Education. Activists and scholars are speaking out against the decision to remove topics like Black Lives Matter and slavery reparations from the official curriculum, which could have implications for future efforts to expand curricula on race. Here's what you need to know.
In January, Florida’s Department of Education said it would not approve the curriculum unless certain themes, including Black queer studies and intersectionality, were removed. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has repeatedly criticized the course, saying it “significantly lacks educational value.” DeSantis previously said he would ban the course from being taught in Florida schools.
- Some of the major changes to the curriculum, which was officially released on Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month, include cuts to teaching on the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBTQ studies, reparations, and mass incarceration, among others. Some districts, including schools in Florida, have already begun teaching versions of the course.
- The College Board, the nonprofit that oversees AP coursework, has said that no states or districts have contributed input to the released framework.
- Note: Since 1994, Florida has required that schools teach African American history, but the AP course would provide students a more in-depth curriculum and the chance to earn college credit.
? At the same time, Florida has joined other states in moving toward mandating Asian American history in public schools. Florida state Rep. Susan Plasencia (R) introduced a bill last week that would require “history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to be included in specified instruction.” A similar bill has been introduced in the Florida State Senate.
- Critics have said that Florida’s efforts to scale back a Black studies course as some lawmakers push to mandate Asian American history in schools could reinforce a tension that has historically been used to drive a wedge between Asian and Black Americans—comparing and pitting the two groups against one another.
- If successful, Florida would join Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, which have all passed legislation mandating Asian American history in schools.
- But remember: Two sister bills introduced last year that would have required AAPI history in schools failed in both the State House and Senate. DeSantis' attacks on AP African American Studies could indicate a future rejection of any requirement to teach Asian American history and other curriculum focused on race, a trend that could have profound implications.
Since September 2020, local, state, and federal governments have introduced more than 500 measures against Critical Race Theory, an advanced legal framework that suggests racism is embedded within systems and policies and is not taught in K-12 schools, according to a tracker by The UCLA School of Law Critical Race Studies Program.
?️ The impact: "Censoring out some of the most important issues we confront as a society also impedes the ability to understand the great extent to which entrenched racial disparities result from systemic barriers and not the presumed moral failings of subordinated racial and ethnic groups," Fordham University law professor Tanya K. Hernández told NBC’s Suzanne Gamboa.
This story appeared as "The Big Story" in The Yappie's Feb. 6, 2023 newsletter.
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