College Board announces removal of CRT teachings from AP African-American Studies

The College Board has backed down to challenges brought by Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis. After receiving pushback from DeSantis and others, the Board announced it will change its framework for the Advanced Placement African-American studies course (APAAS).

Florida had initially rejected the College Board’s pilot AP course saying it violates Florida law in part due to controversial teachings “centered on hard-left voices” including critical race theory. DeSantis told reporters last month the state rejected the course, which was kept a secret as to which schools it would be implemented in, because it advocates for radical political positions and attempts to indoctrinate students.

One aspect in particular DeSantis mentions is over its 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,” DeSantis said. “And so, when you look to see, they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons. That’s a political agenda.”

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.

National Review reports:

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.”

College Board CEO David Coleman claims the changes were made despite pressure from DeSantis and other education and conservative groups. 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,” said Coleman, suggesting instead that the changes came from “the input of professors” and “longstanding A.P. principles.”
Coleman also told the paper “We experimented with a lot of things including assigning secondary sources, and we found a lot of issues arose as we did…I think what is most surprising and powerful for most people is looking directly at people’s experience.”