*The College Board has released the official curriculum for a new Advanced Placement (AP) course on African American Studies after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blocked a new AP course for high school students on the subject.
The College Board is a nonprofit organization that oversees AP coursework. EUR reported previously, citing CNN, that a January 12 letter to the College Board from the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Articulation said the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” the letter stated.
On Wednesday, the 234-page curriculum was unveiled and many of the topics that DeSantis criticized have been removed, according to the New York Times.
READ MORE: Hater! Florida Gov. DeSantis Rejects African American Studies Class | WATCH
And yet David Coleman, the head of the @CollegeBoard, says “we can’t look to statements of political leaders.”
I call bullshit — you are merely a puppet of Ron DeSantis. pic.twitter.com/jMQQRcHzw0
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 1, 2023
Several Black writers and scholars who tackle topics related to critical race theory, queer issues, and Black feminism, were omitted from the framework. As Black Enterprise reports, they include author bell hooks as well as “Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, a law professor at Columbia, Roderick Ferguson, a Yale professor who has written about queer social movements; and Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author who has made the case for reparations for slavery,” the outlet writes.
The course is an “unflinching encounter with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture,” said College Board CEO David Coleman, CNN reports.
“No one is excluded from this course: the Black artists and inventors whose achievements have come to light; the Black women and men, including gay Americans, who played pivotal roles in the Civil Rights movements; and people of faith from all backgrounds who contributed to the antislavery and Civil Rights causes. Everyone is seen,” Coleman said in a statement.
Coleman rejects claims that the course was amended due to political pressure from conservatives.
“At the College Board, we can’t look to statements of political leaders,” Coleman said, noting that the changes came from “the input of professors” and “longstanding A.P. principles.”
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