The nonprofit reiterated Wednesday that no state or territory had seen the new framework before it was unveiled and denied it considered any feedback from state officials.
“What I’m talking about is bullshit — you’re just a puppet of Ron DeSantis,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. tweets Targeting College Board CEO David Coleman, it included a photo from a New York Times story about the final frame.
At least two governors, DeSantis and the Democratic governor of Illinois. In a letter to the College Board about the course before the final framework was released, J.B. Pritzker warned that Illinois schools would not accept “downplaying history.”
“… [T]His refining process is part of all AP courses and is free from political pressure,” said Robert J. Patterson, a Georgetown University professor and educator who developed the course, in a statement Co-chair of the committee.
A 234-page overview of the African American studies course shows that the course covers a range of topics from the origins of the African diaspora to the slave trade and the civil rights movement. Students taking this course will learn about the Black Panther Party and the growth of the black middle class, abolitionists, and the role of black women in society. The new requirements will take effect at the start of classes for the 2024-2025 school year.
The updated syllabus also excludes mandatory courses on intersectionality, which is part of critical race theory, among other topics Florida Department of Education It used to be called “Related”.
The classes taught in the pilot about Black queer studies and the Black Lives Matter movement didn’t make it to the final stretch. However, these topics are listed as potential ideas for students to pursue in their mandatory 1,500-word project. Students can choose such “contemporary topics or debates” for their projects, including the Black Lives Matter movement, the reparations debate, intersectionality and dimensions of the Black experience, and queer life and expression in the Black community.
While coursework has curriculum and resource requirements, the AP program says it supports each school with its own curriculum that enables students to develop skills and understanding within the framework.
“This course is an unwavering engagement with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture,” College Board CEO David Coleman said in a statement. “No one is excluded from this course. …Everyone is blessed.
Over the past year, more than 300 African American studies professors from more than 200 colleges across the country consulted with the AP program as it developed the framework for the curriculum, which concluded in December, the College Board said.
DeSantis said the original coursework “drove an agenda,” and he declared victory when the College Board announced that the program would be updated before its release. However, the curriculum still ultimately needs to be reviewed by the Florida Department of Education before it becomes available to students in the state.
Florida’s decision to reject the course drew national attention and sparked a row between the state and Illinois, with Pritzker calling DeSantis’ actions “political grandstanding.” Civil rights attorney Ben Crump also pledged to sue DeSantis if Florida again prevented schools from teaching the subject. Vice President Kamala Harris also condemned the course’s rejection, recently stating that “every student in our country should be able to learn about the cultures, contributions and experiences of all Americans.”
DeSantis insisted on disavowing the class following the state’s “stop arousal” law, which bans instructional origins that make someone “feel guilt, distress, or any other form of psychological distress” because of their race, color, sex, or national origin. “
Some 18 states have similar “divisive concept” laws that limit how educators can discuss racism, sexism or systemic inequities in the classroom. Most of the bills are aimed at refuting critical race theory and examining how racism has been woven into American law and institutions throughout history. Most public school officials across the country say they don’t teach the theory. But those states may follow the example of the DeSantis administration in deciding whether to adopt the new interdisciplinary curriculum.
“Our core curriculum . . . needs to teach black history, but real black history — and I mean the things that really matter,” DeSantis said on the Jan. 1 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show podcast. Said in one episode. 26. “This course has stuff like queer theory, it has stuff like prison abolition, intersectionality, it advocates for reparations, etc.”
He continued: “That’s political activism. If that’s what you want to do in your own time, it’s a free country. But we’re not going to use Florida tax dollars to put it into our schools because that’s Not to educate children, but to try to impose an agenda on children.”