What is AP Psychology, and why did Florida try to ban part of it?
Since 1992, students interested in getting a head start on their college or university classes have taken the AP Psychology course while still in high school. A passing grade on the exam often meant college credit, or placement, or both.
That program nearly came crashing to a halt in Florida Thursday when the state Board of Education informed school districts that teachers could not teach the portions of the AP course that related to gender or sexuality because it violated state law, according to a press release from the College Board, the organization that approves the courses. The College Board said that if the course was taught without those topics, it would not be considered an AP course and should not count toward a student's transcript for college credit.
A letter late Friday afternoon from Florida Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. reversed course on what had been decided the day before.
What is the AP Psychology course and what does it teach?
What are Advanced Placement or AP courses?
The Advanced Placement (AP) program allows motivated high school students the opportunity to study 38 different undergraduate university-level courses created by a panel of experts and college-level educators in each specific field of study. Every course ends in a test that may count for course credit, advanced placement, or both in colleges and universities in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. Often, this means getting credit for and being able to skip an otherwise required introductory college course.
The curriculums are audited and approved by the College Board, a nonprofit organization founded in 1900. The College Board has run the AP program since 1955 after it developed from a post-WWII education program.
What is the AP Psychology course?
Psychology is the study of human and animal behavior and mental processes.
In AP Psychology, also known as "AP Psych," students will "explore the ideas, theories, and methods of the scientific study of behavior and mental processes," according to the course description. The course looks at notable psychologists and studies, and students will "explore and apply" different theories, concepts and phenomena associated with "biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, learning and cognition, motivation, developmental psychology, testing and individual differences, treatments of psychological disorders, and social psychology."
Nearly 28,000 students in Florida, part of just over 326.000 students nationwide, took the AP Psychology exam in 2023, according to the College Board, making it the sixth most popular AP course.
What does AP Psychology teach?
The AP Psychology curriculum is broken into nine units:
Unit 1: Scientific Foundations of Psychology: The basis of psychological theory and how psychologists design and conduct research.
Unit 2: Biological Bases of Behavior: Behaviors and mental processes from a biological perspective and interaction between human biology and our environment.
Unit 3: Sensation and Perception: How humans perceive and process the world and how that influences how we think and behave.
Unit 4: Learning: How humans and other animals learn, and how that changes over a lifetime.
Unit 5: Cognitive Psychology: How memory, intelligence and other mental processes impact human behavior.
Unit 6: Developmental Psychology: How physical and social changes over a human's life can influence behavior and mental processes.
Unit 7: Motivation, Emotion and Personality: How behavior and mental processes interact to produce a person's personality.
Unit 8: Clinical Psychology: How psychologists evaluate, study and treat a range of psychological disorders.
Unit 9: Social Psychology: How humans interact in groups and social situations.
What is the AP Psychology exam?
The test at the end of the course is made of two sections.
The Multiple-Choice section has 100 questions that test students on their knowledge of the contents of the course and asks them to apply what they've learned to concepts and theories from course topics. Points toward the score are given for correct answers. As of 2011, no points are deducted for incorrect answers. The multiple-choice section counts for 67% of the final score.
The Free Response section has only two questions which ask students to explain behavior and apply theories using concepts from different areas in the field of psychology and to analyze psychological research studies and data and interpret them. This section requires written answers and accounts for 33% of the final score.
Possible scores on an AP test run from 1-5.
5 is "extremely well-qualified," the college course equivalent of an A+ or A.
4 is "very well qualified," the college course equivalent of an A-, B+ or B
3 is "qualified," the college course equivalent of a B-, C+ or C.
2 is "possibly qualified."
1 is "no recommendation."
"Colleges are generally looking for a 4 ('well-qualified') or 5 ('extremely qualified') on the AP exam," according to The Princeton Review, "but some may grant credit for a 3 ('qualified')."
However, the College Board points out that even students earning a score of 1 or 2 are more likely to succeed in future AP classes and have a "smoother transition to college."
Is AP Psychology hard?
All AP courses are designed to be challenging and the final exam will be difficult. The AP Psychology course is designed to be the equivalent of the Introduction to Psychology course usually taken during the first college year.
In 2022, only 58% of the 170,666 students who took the AP Psychology in the U.S. scored a passing score of 3 or higher.
The reason many colleges and universities accept AP test scores for college credit is that those students have already proven themselves to be capable to college-level work.
How many Florida students take AP Psychology?
27,990 students in Florida took AP Psychology last year, according to figures provided by the College Board.
The school districts with the most AP Psychology exams were public schools in Miami-Dade County (3,098), Orange County (2,856), Broward County (2,383), Hillsborough County (1,828) and Pinellas County (1,306). Non-public schools across the state accounted for 2,386 more.
This fall, about 30,000 students were enrolled to take the course statewide, the College Board said.
What part of the AP Psychology course did Florida target for a ban?
In Unit 6, Developmental Psychology, the course examines prenatal development, motor development, socialization, cognitive development, adolescence, and adulthood. Topic 6.7 looks at gender and social orientation and describes "how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development."
Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running to be the Republican nominee for president, signed into law a measure officially known as the Parental Rights in Education Act but nicknamed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The law outlawed instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. This spring, the state Board of Education expanded the law to the 12th grade.
'It makes students scared': As 'Don't Say Gay' and similar bills take hold, LGBTQ youths feel they're 'getting crushed'
The law requires health education classes that touch on issues of human sexuality to teach "that biological males impregnate biological females … that the female then gestates the offspring" and that "these reproductive roles are binary, stable and unchangeable," effectively erasing the existence of transgender and non-binary identities from the curriculum. Teachers are also barred from referring to students or coworkers by a pronoun that doesn't align with their sex assigned at birth.
This law became part of a broader movement by the Florida Legislature to directly or indirectly target transgender people and the LGBTQ community. In 2023, DeSantis signed laws that banned gender-affirming care for minors and restrict it for adults, barred children from undefined "adult live performances" (which effectively banned family-friendly drag shows and Pride events), required transgender people to use bathrooms that line up with their sex assigned at birth, and allowed Florida healthcare professionals to refuse services based on their moral, ethical or religious beliefs.
DeSantis vs College Board: Ron DeSantis wants to scrub AP classes of LGBTQ subjects. The College Board isn't having it
Is AP Psychology banned in Florida?
As of Thursday, it effectively was, before Education Commissioner Diaz reversed that decision.
In Friday's DOE letter, Diaz said he was writing "out of an abundance of caution" in response to The College Board's statement.
"College Board has suggested that it might withhold the 'AP' designation from this course in Florida, ultimately hurting Florida students," he wrote. "This is especially concerning given that the new school year begins in a week. I want to be clear, AP Psychology is and will remain in the course code directory making it available to Florida students."
In June, the state asked the College Board to review all their courses for compliance with Florida's new law. The College Board refused, stating in a letter that "we will not modify our courses to accommodate restrictions teaching essential, college-level topics."
"The Department didn’t 'ban' the course," the state education agency's Deputy Director of Communications Cassie Palelis wrote in a statement. The class is still listed in Florida’s Course Code Directory for the 2023-2024 year and some districts still plan to offer it.
But schools were told this week, in a decision reversed Friday, not to offer the course if it includes topics on gender and sexuality, and the College Board has stated unequivocally that "any course that censors required course content cannot be labeled 'AP' or 'Advanced Placement'" and can't be named as such in a student's transcript or used for college credit or placement.
This would have left the course, as the College Board put it, "effectively banned" in the state of Florida.
Is the AP Psychology course banned in Palm Beach County?
On Friday evening, after Diaz's letter allowing the course to be taught without changes, Palm Beach County school district spokesperson Angela Cruz Ledford announced that the course would not be offered in the county this year, citing the "uncertainty surrounding the viability of the AP Psychology exam and course credit in Florida."
Academic counselors and administrators will be reaching out to students enrolled in AP Psychology for the upcoming year to find "suitable alternatives."
Can you take AP courses and exams if you're home-schooled?
Yes. Students who are homeschooled or attend high schools that don't administer AP exams can arrange to take them at a local school that does offer them. Use the AP Course Ledger to find which schools have passed the AP Courwe Audit and find one near you.
Can you take AP Psychology online in Florida?
There are online learning providers that offer AP courses. It is uncertain if online learning providers based in Florida will have to abide by the Florida Board of Education guidelines.
But not all online AP courses are accredited by the College Board. Be sure to check each learning provider against the AP Course Ledger before signing up for classes to verify that tests taken through that site will count toward college and university credit or placement.
Katherine Kokal, of the Palm Beach Post, contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: AP Psychology in Florida: What the course is, why it was nearly banned
