On Feb. 1, 2023, the first day of Black History Month, the College Board released a public statement announcing its finalized framework for AP African American Studies. Dr. Robert J. Patterson, a Georgetown professor who served as one of the co-chairs in developing the AP African American Studies program, stated that the new course covers a vast amount of content through interdisciplinary approaches. CEO David Coleman emphasizes the diverse range of figures and events featured in the course, stating that “no one is excluded from this course… Everyone is Seen.”
Not everyone agrees.
Even before the curriculum was finalized, AP African American Studies generated uproar in the US political scene. The draft, leaked to the public in September 2022, included contemporary topics such as Black Lives Matter and critical race theory. It triggered dissent from conservative media outlets who expressed that the course exposed the left-leaning political bias of the College Board.
The finalized curriculum notably removed some topics and scholars proposed in the curriculum draft, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and works by Kimberle Crenshaw, a scholar who writes extensively about critical race theory. Most removed topics are now listed under recommended project topics for students to research. The project is a required part of a student’s AP course examination.
The response to the revision of the AP African American Studies curriculum was met with strongly opposing views, mostly along political lines.
Critics of the revision accused the College Board of bowing to political pressure to appease conservative figures such as Governor Ron Desantis of Florida. As more states introduce legislation to ban public schools from teaching race-based topics such as critical race theory, critics of the revision insisted that the College Board only adds to the censorship of objective African American history.
Meanwhile, supporters of the revision praised the College Board for removing topics they believed were over-biased for generalized education. In fact, some supporters demanded further state intervention to limit the topics covered in the AP curriculum, citing the lack of concrete examples and potential political motivations behind the teachings.
In response to the speculation that conservative criticism influenced the College Board to remove certain topics from AP African American Studies, the organization stated, “No states or districts have seen the official framework that is released, much less provided feedback on it. This course has been shaped only by the input of experts and long-standing AP principles and practices.” Trevor Packer, the head of AP Programs at the College Board, noted that the changes made from the draft to the finalized curriculum of the African American studies resulted from teacher and professor feedback that expressed concerns over an over-emphasis on contemporary African-American issues rather than its foundational history. The College Board further clarified that the developers of the AP African American Studies course believe putting more emphasis on the history of African American studies will effectively foster analytical thinking that can be applied to better understand relatively contemporary events of the discipline.
Packer refuted the widespread narrative that DeSantis and the Florida government drove the change in the AP curriculum. Citing the fact that the government sent their disapproval of what they called “ideological conformity” after the revisions were finalized, Packer maintained the AP curriculum’s disinterest in politics. The College Board issued an apology on February 11th for insufficiently explaining the removal of prominent events and works by Black writers that are valuable to African American studies.
The strong opposition from both sides of the political spectrum on the AP African American Studies curriculum underscores the polarization of current US politics that struggles to find a way to educate future generations in a way that does not add or detract from the complex history of this country.
