Fla. Gov. DeSantis Didn’t Influence Decision To Revise AP African American Studies, College Board Says
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ outrage had no impact on the College Board’s revision of its Advance Placement African American Studies course, the organization says.
“We certainly didn’t modify the framework in February, or this operational final framework that we released last week, in response to any pressure from any state,” College Board spokeswoman Holly Stepp told Deseret News.
On Dec. 6, the College Board, a non-profit overseeing Advanced Placement coursework, released a revised framework for its AP African American Studies course.
The board developed the revision “amid intense public debate over this course,” the College Board’s announcement said.
DeSantis complained that the pilot course had a “woke” agenda, pointing to topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black LGBTQ experience. He directed the state education department to ban the course, claiming it “lacks educational value” and violated state law.
The College Board released a copy of the revised framework online. It appears to show a compromise. Topics on BLM and reparations, which Florida and several other GOP-led states find controversial, are listed in the Further Exploration section as suggested issues for classroom discussion, which the board excludes from the AP exam.
The board also published an online topic and sources comparison between the February and December curriculum that shows what it changed.
Several Republican-led states followed Florida’s lead after DeSantis denounced the course in January. That prompted a backlash from some Democratic governors, highlighting the nation’s sharp political divide.
“So it’s been interesting to see all sides taking credit for the work and declaring victory — some declaring that it represents the influence of conservative leaders, others declaring that it represents a denunciation of such influence by adding or restoring topics especially valued by academics in the discipline,” Trevor Packer, the College Board’s senior vice president, told the Deseret News.
Nearly 700 schools are piloting the course in the current academic year across 40 states and Washington, D.C., reaching approximately 13,000 students.
