College Board CEO asked to resign over AP African American Studies curriculum changes

The back-and-forth between Florida and the College Board continued this week with the circulation of documents suggesting the state and company had been in talks well before the release of guidelines for the new AP African American Studies course.

The College Board – a nonprofit with immense clout over the country's education system, overseeing the entire Advanced Placement program as well as the SAT college admissions exam and its precursor the PSAT – has insisted that Florida officials had little influence over the revised framework.

Now, some organizations including the National Black Justice Coalition are calling for the longtime head of the College Board, David Coleman, to step down.

An updated outline of the course this month excludes or de-emphasizes topics including reparations and Black Lives Matter, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had criticized as woke indoctrination, vowing to ban the course from the state's classrooms. Certain well-known Black authors, such as Kimberlé Crenshaw and Angela Davis and others associated with topics including critical race theory, were also absent from the new guidelines.

In a statement Saturday, the College Board said "contemporary events like the Black Lives Matter movement, reparations, and mass incarceration were optional topics in the pilot course. Our lack of clarity allowed the narrative to arise that political forces had 'downgraded' the role of these contemporary movements and debates in the AP class."

'Black history is not inferior': Black leaders object to Florida's 'culture war against African Americans'

Critics: College Board caved to DeSantis

A letter sent Tuesday from the Florida Department of Education to the College Board, first reported by the Daily Caller and also obtained by USA TODAY, suggests the two corresponded starting in early 2022 about the pilot course.

"By no coincidence, we were grateful to see that the College Board’s revised February 1, 2023, framework removed 19 topics, many of which FDOE cited as conflicting with Florida law, including discriminatory and historically fictional topics," the letter says.

Yet Coleman, who joined the College Board roughly a decade ago as president of the SAT, in interviews with USA TODAY and other news outlets, has been firm that changes to the framework have been in the works for a year and were not influenced by political pressure

On Feb. 3, NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly asked Coleman, "For people trying to follow all this, let me just put a basic question, a yes or no question, and you can each take it. Was the curriculum changed to appease Gov. DeSantis or other critics who have accused the College Board of being woke, yes or no?"

"No," Coleman said.

The College Board reiterated that in a response to the Florida Department of Education this week.

"As is always the case in AP, our selection of topics for this course has been guided by feedback from educators, disciplinary experts, and principles that have long shaped AP courses. Your letter claims that we removed 19 topics that were present in the pilot framework at the behest of FDOE. This is inaccurate," the College Board wrote.

"We need to clarify that no topics were removed because they lacked educational value," the letter also said.

In its statement Saturday, the College Board said it was proud of its new AP course but "we have made mistakes in the rollout that are being exploited."

"We deeply regret not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent comments, that African American Studies 'lacks educational value,'" the statement said.

Florida first rejected the course last September, the College Board said.

"We had no negotiations about the content of this course with Florida or any other state, nor did we receive any requests, suggestions, or feedback," it said.

Florida rejected AP African American Studies: Here's what's actually being taught in the course.

Groups call for Coleman to step down

But revelations about the interactions between Florida and the College Board are "deeply disturbing," said David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, in a statement.

“It is now clear, to the public, that the College Board’s leadership cared more about political approval from radical anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ, anti-truth extremists than making sure our children’s education prepares them for the future, and teaches them, in an age-appropriate way, the uncensored, and full history of the United States," he said. "The fact that the College Board not only catered to, coordinated with, and then capitulated to the DeSantis administration, but then also attempted to cover it up with collusion makes matters worse."

Johns called for Coleman's resignation as the College Board's CEO: "The organization should seek new leadership and keep anti-democratic, segregationist, white nationalistic politics out of our kid’s education.”

Another petition in the works to have Coleman ousted, from a cross-sector group of educators and activists, says the AP African American Studies controversy is just the latest "example of the harm Mr. Coleman has done both to Black people and to the College Board itself by consistently putting product before mission and more often than not asking people of color to pay the price."

Coleman and the College Board did not respond to several requests for comment about requests that he be fired or step down.

Board shake-ups, threats to tenure and money: How conservatives are reshaping colleges

College Board, Coleman no stranger to controversy

Coleman, who makes more than $2.5 million a year as of 2020, is no stranger to controversy. He's faced numerous calls for him to step down over the years.

For example, after the 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the College Board was accused of using the massacre to promote the Advanced Placement program.

A letter from Coleman reflecting on a speech by survivor X González, who previously went by Emma Gonzalez, said that "One of the things that makes Emma's speech so striking is that it is infused with references to her AP Government class. At a time of utmost passion, she insists that she has been trained in evidence."

The College Board later apologized.

In 2019, several groups challenged the University of California's use of the SAT and ACT tests in college admissions, and later sued, claiming they were biased against students with disabilities, from low-income families and whose native language isn't English. The College Board disagreed that the tests discriminate. The UC system ultimately agreed not to use these scores in admissions through 2025.

"All of these things suggest somebody who's far more interested in appeasing conservative voices than leading educational progress," said Akil Bello, a senior director at FairTest, which advocates for limits in the use of standardized testing. Bello wants to see Coleman fired.

Before taking the reins of the College Board in 2012, Coleman was a co-founder of the group that helped develop the Common Core State Standards. He faced backlash over the standards, which were designed to increase rigor in math and reading classes.

"He's more focused on trying to promote his product" than "offering equity solutions and addressing historic wrongs," Bello said. "This is not an educational leader."

Contact Alia Wong at (202) 507-2256 or awong@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @aliaemily.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College Board CEO asked to resign over African American Studies class