College Board warns students, schools could lose AP classes over CRT-inspired legislation

The College Board seemed to weigh in last week on the flux of state legislatures that have considered restricting the teaching of certain topics in response to the debate about "critical race theory" in public schools.

The board's position is especially noteworthy in Indiana, because House Speaker Todd Huston suddenly left his high-paying job at the institution while supporting Indiana's own CRT-inspired legislation.

The College Board's Advanced Placement Program said that it will remove the AP designation from courses when required topics are banned, a move that would jeopardize the ability of high school students to earn college credit for success in those courses.

More: Indiana Senate kills CRT-inspired legislation that created outrage among educators, Black Hoosiers

The AP Program, which enables students to pursue college-level studies while still in high school, issued a “Dear Colleague” letter Wednesday in response, it said, to hearing from AP teachers across the country who are concerned about the integrity of their classrooms.

The letter said the concern was “in light of recent policies.” The College Board, which administers the AP Program, did not respond to requests for clarification, but the letter seems to be referencing recent attempts in dozens of state legislatures to control school curricula and restrict what teachers can say about race, racism and history.

“Confusion about what's permitted in the classroom disrupts teachers and students as they navigate demanding work,” the letter stated.

The letter comes less than one month after the College Board and Huston parted ways. Huston, a Fishers Republican first elected in 2012 and promoted to lead the chamber at the end of the 2020 legislative session, had been with the organization for nearly a decade. He quietly and abruptly resigned from his position as senior vice president in early February.

According to 2019 tax filings from the College Board, Huston was making $460,738 in his role there.

At the time, a spokesperson for Huston said his departure was not related to any legislative efforts. Huston did not respond to a request Friday for comment about the letter from the AP Program.

More: CRT-inspired bill aims to address parental concerns. Black families ask, which parents?

In the weeks leading up to Huston’s resignation, some political activists and education advocates had begun raising questions about Huston’s role at the College Board in light of his support of legislation that would restrict what and how Hoosier educators could teach.

Huston voted in favor of House Bill 1134, which would have prohibited teachers from promoting certain “divisive concepts,” including that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin or political affiliation is inherently superior or inferior to another and that any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish responsibility, or any other form of psychological distress on account of those same characteristics.

Indiana’s Senate killed House Bill 1134 last week. Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, said Senate Republicans were divided on the bill and he didn’t have the votes to pass it.

The move came after months of sustained opposition to the bill, much of it from educators concerned it would impede their ability to teach full and accurate history to their students.

There were also concerns about how much control the bill would cede to parents. Various iterations would have allowed parents to opt their children out of nearly any lesson and created parent-centered curriculum review committees. These proposals were designed to respond to the parents who have spent the better part of the last year protesting at local school board meetings over largely unsubstantiated claims that public K-12 schools were teaching “critical race theory” and indoctrinating students with leftist propaganda.

Other states have adopted or are still exploring similar concepts.

The letter from the AP Program seems to be speaking to many of the concerns raised in Indiana, and elsewhere.

It lists seven principles upon which the AP Program is built, including “an unflinching encounter with evidence,” opposition to censorship and indoctrination and “an open-minded approach to the histories and cultures of different peoples.”

'Nail in the coffin': Hoosier teachers say CRT-inspired bill will drive them from classrooms

Should schools, presumably on their own at the behest of state or local government, violate these principles, the letter says they could lose their AP Program designation. It gives as an example the concepts of evolution.

In 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, nearly 13,000 Hoosier students took and passed at least one AP exam.

Call IndyStar education reporter Arika Herron at 317-201-5620 or email her at Arika.Herron@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: House Bill 1134: Schools could lose AP classes over CRT legislation