Culture Wars Hit College Board’s AP Curriculum

Governor Murphy visits New Jersey high schoolers to announce plan to expand number of AP African-American Studies course offerings. Photo by Phil Murphy via Flickr.

Culture wars have sparked around the nation over College Board’s soon-to-be-offered Advanced Placement course on African-American history. 

On Feb. 1, the Board released a revised curriculum plan for its new AP African-American Studies course to be made available to high school students beginning in Fall 2023. The new framework has removed a requirement to teach several concepts and ideologies widely scrutinized by conservatives, such as critical race theory, Black Lives Matter and black queer studies. 

The revisions come following Gov. Ron DeSantis’s decision to ban the course from being taught in Florida high schools, with the Florida education department citing the course as “significantly lacking educational value” and failing to be “historically accurate.” 

DeSantis — a likely candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — has faced mass backlash in the past for his proposed 2021 “Stop WOKE Act,” which bars the teaching of critical race theory and related concepts. Despite accusations of bowing to the political pressure of leaders like DeSantis, College Board head David Coleman insists that it is professor input and course principles analysis that are the prime motivators behind the revision decision. 

Unlike Florida, New Jersey has pushed for the teaching of AP African-American Studies with a plan to expand the course to 25 high schools in the coming year. In doing so, however, Gov. Phil Murphy has inserted the state into what has become a nationwide debate over the way that race and racism should be taught in school systems. 

Divided responses to the updated curriculum reveal a prevailing plethora of differing opinions on aspects of African-American history and what perspectives and beliefs the teaching of certain topics encourages students to take on. 

Gov. Murphy has publicly criticized DeSantis for his resistance to the course, calling for an end to the “nonsense” and time to “tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even when it hurts.” 

Across the country many educators and scholars have voiced public disagreement with the curriculum adjustments, discussing a risk posed in overshadowing the overall purpose of the course and failing to enhance students' understanding of African-American history ties to modern social justice issues. 

Columbia Law and Critical Race Theory Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw believes that aspects of the original course outline would have nurtured student desires to learn new ways of thinking about modern issues, such as police brutality and mass incarceration. In an article by the New York Times, Creshaw attests that “the very same set of circumstances that presented the need for the course also created the backlash against the content that people don’t like.”

Yet other politicians and scholars have supported the curriculum changes, believing that many concepts introduced in the original curriculum outline promoted ideals that could negatively impact student perceptions about modern racism and race-related issues. Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz has criticized topics outlined in the curriculum via Twitter for being “woke indoctrination masquerading as education.”

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has also banned “the use of inherently divisive concepts, including critical race theory,” via executive order with the claim that “political indoctrination has no place in our classrooms.”

Dr. Robyn Rosen, professor of African-American history at Marist College, believes that it is a combination of racism and political pandering that compels politicians like DeSantis to restrict the teaching of certain topics. She shares the same thinking as many educators across the nation in that the adjusted College Board curriculum poses a potential educational threat. 

“Any purposeful distortion of the past to make history more palatable to the majority is a threat to education and civil society.” she said. 

Additionally, Rosen feels that history does not need to be taught in one particular way. She believes that a focus of educators in this field should lie in recognizing historical struggles and continuing to acknowledge and teach students about historical victories.  

“In my view, African American history can be taught without a specific theoretical foundation,” Rosen adds. “The key is not to turn away from the difficulties nor ignore the great triumphs and achievements. Desantis and his ilk just label everything they don't like CRT -- their critique has no legitimacy in my opinion.”