In this Nov. 21, 2019, file photo, Author Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)Michelle Alexander, Courtesy of Zocalo Public Square
Caving into the demands of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the College Board has pared back its Advance Placement (AP) African American Studies. The College Board on Feb. 1, ironically the first day of Black History Month, revised its high-school-level Advanced Placement African Americans Studies course. The decision seemed to be made after Florida officials rejected the College Board course over what they claimed was a “political agenda.” The College Board has received harsh criticism for making the changes, which pulled the works of respected Black authors such as Michelle Alexander and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Alexander has authored a number of books, but is best known for her 2010 book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” Since 2018, she has been an opinion columnist for The New York Times.
Among the books authored by Coates, who gained notice as national correspondent at The Atlantic, is his best-selling book “Between the World and Me” in 2015.
The organization also removed teachings on the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the names of Black writers linked to Black feminism and queer rights, the New York Times reported.
The board did add “Black conservatism” as an idea for a research project.
The College Board is a non-profit organization formed in 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. It develops and administers standardized tests and curricula used by K–12 and post-secondary education institutions to promote college-readiness and as part of the college admissions process. Advanced Placement is a program created by the College Board. AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students.
In its latest revised edition, the College Board also purged teaching on critical race theory—a college-level area of study that’s been bashed by the right and banned in several conservative-run states, Forbes reported. Critical race theory studies the intersection of race in American society.
The College Board started to get pressed by DeSantis in January, when he announced that he would ban the College Board curriculum, if changes were not made. State education officials claimed the curriculum was not historically accurate and violated state law that regulates how race-related issues are taught in public schools.
Still, the board says it did not give into pressure from Florida.
David Coleman, the head of the College Board, said in an interview with the New York Times that the changes were not made due to political pressure. “At the College Board, we can’t look to statements of political leaders,” he said. The changes, he said, came from “the input of professors” and “long standing A.P. principles.”
College Board officials also said that they had a time-stamped document showing that the final changes to the curriculum were made in December, before the Florida Department of Education sent its letter notifying the College Board that it would not allow the course to be taught in the state.
According to Chester E. Finn Jr., a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, the College Board has not just been getting pressure from Florida to change the curriculum, but from teachers across the country. As a result, they didn’t outright eradicate the “touchy parts,” but made them optional for students to study.
“DeSantis likes to make noise and he’s running for president,” Finn said. “But they’ve been getting feedback from all over the place in the 60 schools they’ve been piloting this in. I think it’s a way of dealing with the United States at this point, not just DeSantis. Some of these things they might want to teach in New York, but not Dallas. Or San Francisco but not St. Petersburg.”
College Board Communications pushed back at the New York Times article, claiming the media outlet “got it wrong on AP African American Studies.”
“Today’s New York Times piece about the official AP African American Studies framework is a gross misrepresentation of the content of the course and the process by which it was developed,” the board said in a statement.
“The Times reporting is rife with inaccuracies.” The board stressed that come of the African American Studies curriculum is still available, just optional.
In this Nov. 21, 2019, file photo, Author Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks during the Celebration of the Life of Toni Morrison, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)Michelle Alexander, Courtesy of Zocalo Public Square
