College Board Removes CRT Themes from AP African-American Studies Course after DeSantis Pushback
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The College Board on Wednesday announced changes to the framework of its Advanced Placement African-American studies course after receiving pushback from Florida governor Ron DeSantis and other conservatives.
Florida rejected the pilot AP course, with critics arguing that a part of the course focused on contemporary political and culture controversies centered on hard-left voices and left out conventional liberal and conservative perspectives.
DeSantis told reporters last month that the course advocates for radical political positions and attempts to indoctrinate students. He specifically took issue with one section of the course focused on “Black Queer Studies.”
“Who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids,” he said. “And so, when you look to see, they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons. That’s a political agenda.”
The updated syllabus removes several authors whom Florida officials identified as problematic, including those associated with critical race theory, the “queer experience,” and black feminism. It also removed required teachings on Black Lives Matter and the case for reparations from the curriculum, though both subjects are present on a list of options for a required research project. The new framework adds “black conservatism” as an idea for a research project. The list of suggested topics “can be refined by local states and districts.”
DeSantis and the Florida State Board of Education said last month that the course was “contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” The governor said the course would run afoul of a state law banning instruction that defines people as oppressed or privileged based on their race.
College Board CEO David Coleman told the New York Times that the changes were not made in response to political pressure.
“At the College Board, we can’t look to statements of political leaders,” he said, suggesting instead that the changes came from “the input of professors” and “longstanding A.P. principles.”
Coleman told the paper that the board received feedback during an initial test of the course this school year that students connected more with primary sources than the secondary, more theoretical sources in the curriculum which they found to be “quite dense.”
“We experimented with a lot of things including assigning secondary sources, and we found a lot of issues arose as we did,” Coleman said. “I think what is most surprising and powerful for most people is looking directly at people’s experience.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis on Tuesday announced a proposal to eliminate programs, courses, and bureaucracies dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT) at public Florida universities. He argued taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to subsidize harmful, divisive ideologies.
“We are going to eliminate all DEI and CRT bureaucracies in the state of Florida. No funding, and that will wither on the vine,” he said at a press conference.
