The administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is blocking a new Advanced Placement course for high school students on African American studies.
In a January 12 letter to the College Board, the nonprofit organization that oversees AP courses, the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Articulation said the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacking in educational value”.
“Moving forward, if the College Board is willing to come back to the table with legally and historically accurate content, the FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” the letter said.
While the letter did not elaborate on what the agency found objectionable in the course’s content, DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said in a statement to CNN that the course “leaves large and ambiguous gaps that can be filled with ideological material.” additional, which we will not allow. .”
“As the Department of Education has previously stated, if the College Board modifies the course to be compliant, provides a comprehensive curriculum, and incorporates historically accurate content, then the Department will reconsider the course for approval,” Griffin added.
In a statement to CNN, the College Board declined to directly address the decision in Florida, but said, “We look forward to bringing this rich and inspiring exploration of African American history and culture to students across the country.”
The rejection of an advanced placement African American studies course follows efforts by DeSantis to revise Florida’s educational curriculum to limit teaching on critical race theory. In 2021, the state enacted a law banning teaching the concept, which explores the history of systemic racism in the United States and its ongoing impacts. The law also banned material from The 1619 Project, a New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning project to recast American history around the arrival of slave ships on American shores. Last year, DeSantis also signed a bill restricting how schools can discuss race with students.
The College Board revealed plans to offer an African American studies class for the first time last year. The course is being piloted in 60 schools across the country during the 2022-23 school year, with the goal of making the course available to all schools in the 2024-25 school year. The first AP African American Studies exam would be administered in the spring of 2025, according to the College Board website.
Griffin shared an apparent curriculum for the class with CNN, but did not identify which parts the state found problematic. The 81-page document, labeled a “preview” from February 2022, provided a course framework covering “key topics ranging from the medieval kingdoms of West Africa to the current challenges and achievements of the contemporary movement.”
It was not immediately clear if Florida had any schools currently participating in the pilot program. The College Board said the Advanced Placement Program has been working with higher education institutions to develop an African American Studies program for a decade.
“Like all new AP courses, AP African American Studies is undergoing a rigorous multi-year pilot phase, gathering feedback from teachers, students, academics, and policymakers,” the statement said. “The process of piloting and reviewing course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result. We will publicly release the updated course framework when it is complete and well before this class is widely available in American high schools.”
Lisa Hill, chair of the history department at Hamden Hall Country Day School in Connecticut and one of the teachers testing the new course, said she was “baffled” by the criticism from the DeSantis administration.
“I have to tell you, for sure, we don’t have a political agenda,” Hill told CNN when reached by phone on Thursday. “It is not an indoctrination course. My philosophy of education is that you learn, discuss and debate so that you gain a better understanding of what is presented to you”.
“We teach facts,” he added. “We are not delving into the theory.”
Hill, who co-chaired the committee that helped develop the course, said they spent a decade creating the framework and ensuring the historical accuracy of the material, but noted that it’s not a history course either. It is a multidisciplinary study of the African American Diaspora that includes literature, arts, science, politics, and geography.
“I just know that we’ve taken the time to make sure that we’re inclusive, to make sure that students get information that many didn’t know about,” she said. “My students have accepted it, they have been curious. It will be fair, because sometimes history is ugly, and I don’t think you should shy away from that.”
in a Twitter post on WednesdayDemocratic state Sen. Shevrin Jones, who is black, noted that Florida offers other AP cultural courses.
“This political extremism and its attack on black history and black people will create a whole generation of black children who will not be able to see themselves reflected in their own education or in their own state.” jones said.
DeSantis’s move comes as his standing among conservatives has skyrocketed across the country following his public stances on hot cultural issues and against public health officials and bureaucrats during the covid-19 pandemic. He is said to be weighing a possible 2024 presidential run.
A group of Republican state lawmakers in Michigan seeking to recruit him for the 2024 race signed a letter hand-delivered to the Florida governor last month, asking him to “seek our Republican Party’s presidential nomination.”
The letter was signed by 18 Republican members of the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives, who wrote that DeSantis is “uniquely and uniquely qualified to provide the leadership and competence that is sadly lacking at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” In closing, they said they “are ready and willing to help you win Michigan in 2024.”
The details of the letter were first reported by Politico.
This story has been updated with additional details.
The CNN Wire
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