The AP African American Studies Course at the Florida High Schools: Principles, Methods, and Practices of Black Studies in the Last Tensor Regime

Black Lives Matter, the Movement of Black Lives or the case for reparations were not included in the official course framework released on Wednesday. There were no authors listed as concerning by the Florida education officials in the final framework.

Over the course of the last decade, the development of the AP African American Studies course has been iterative and has called upon the expertise of teachers, professors and experts who understand the core concepts, themes, and methodologies of African American Studies.

The course has been praised by academics and historians in recent months, but it has also become a target for legislators who want to restrict how topics like racism and history are taught in public schools.

The Black artists and inventors whose achievements have come to light; the Black women and men, including gay Americans, who played pivotal roles in the Civil Rights movements; and people of faith from all backgrounds who contributed to the antislavery and Civil Rights causes are included in this course. Everyone is seen,” he said.

Gov. DeSantis told reporters last week the decision was made because it included the study of “queer theory” and political movements that advocated for “abolishing prisons.”

The African American studies course is divided into four units: origins of the African diaspora; freedom, enslavement and resistance; the practice of freedom; and movements and debates.

Other topics include the response of African Americans to racism, Black Caribbean migration to the United States, segregation in the 20th century, and the civil rights movement.

Professors from dozens of HBCUs, as well as more than 300 professors of African American Studies, were consulted while the course framework was being developed, the organization said.

Sixty high schools are piloting a version of the course while hundreds more will get it next school year, according to the organization. All schools are anticipated to have the course in the coming school year, according to the College Board.

The College Board said that no states or districts had seen the official framework that was released. “This course has been shaped only by the input of experts and long-standing AP principles and practices.”

The college board was told in a January letter by the Florida Department of Education that the course would not be allowed in high schools in the state.

The state’s education department previously told CNN that it had concerns about some topics of study included in an 81-page document that appears to be a preview of the course framework. CNN was given the document last month by a representative of the DeSantis family.

DeSantis, who could be a Republican presidential candidate in 2024, turned down the course which sparked a political debate about how schools teach about race. The Florida chart was issued last month and it was found to have promoted the idea that modern American society oppresses Black people, and used articles by critics of capitalism.

The reparations debate, “gay life and expression in Black communities,” and Black Lives Matter are only included in a list of examples of the topics that students can pick for research projects.

The course framework for the exam is adopted by states, and these topics are not required. The College Board said that the list can be refined by states and districts.

The framework also drops its exploration of the origins, mission and global influence of the Movement for Black Lives. Black Lives Matter was listed as a sample course project, labeled “Illustrative Only.”

African American Studies of Black History Florida desantis: “The Wretched of the Earth” by Frantz Fanon

The course is being tested at 60 high schools in the US and the official framework is intended to help expand the course to hundreds of high schools in the next academic year. The College Board, which oversees AP courses, said developers consulted with professors from more than 200 colleges, including several historically Black institutions.

The College Board has been taking input also from teachers running the pilot classes as the draft curriculum has gone through several revisions over the last year.

On the first day of Black History Month, news of white men in positions of privilege horse trading essential to American history is upsetting, according to the National Black Justice Coalition. “The lives, contributions, and stories of Black trans, queer, and non-binary/non-conforming people matter and should not be diminished or erased.”

The course has been popular among students in schools where it has been introduced. Emmitt had planned on teaching just one class at Baton Rouge Magnet High School, but students were so interested in him that he has decided to teach two classes.

His students read a selection of “The Wretched of the Earth” by Frantz Fanon, in which he talks about the violence inherent in colonial societies. In a discussion, students discussed the conflict between settlers and Native Americans, the war in Ukraine, and police violence in Memphis, Tennessee.

We will go on through history, having covered the entire range from the shores of Africa to now in the 1930s. He said he was proud to see his students make connections between past and present.

The class helped fill some gaps in the information she was taught. She realized how little is said in other classes while taking this class.

Matthew Evans said that the class had educated him on many different perspectives on Black history. The political controversy is a distraction according to him.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1153364556/ap-african-american-studies-black-history-florida-desantis

The College Board of AP African American Studies: A Call to Address the Florida Teacher’s Disturbance and the Critique of DeSantis

AP courses in math, science, social studies, foreign languages and fine arts are offered by the College Board. The courses are optional. Taught at a college level, students who score high enough on the final exam usually earn course credit at their university.

In Malcolm Reed’s classroom at St. Amant High School in Louisiana, where he teaches the AP class, he tries to be mindful of how the material and discussions can affect students.

Light bulbs go off when I give them information. I ask them how it affects them. “How do you feel about learning this?” he asked. “It’s also new for me, and I’m just taking it in stride. We are making history, not just learning about it.

The College Board now says it should have come out more strongly against the criticisms by Florida officials sooner and that its “failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field.”

“We reject any claim that our work either indoctrinates students or, on the other hand, has bowed to political pressure,” Haynie said in a statement issued by the College Board on Wednesday.

Though the nonprofit maintains it did not “purge” the curriculum of key lessons concerning “Black feminism” and “gay Black Americans,” it also acknowledged a reduction in the “breadth” of the new framework.

The works of scholars like Roderick Ferguson, a professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Yale University, are no longer included in the curriculum because of these revisions.

“This ‘culture war’ targeting intellectuals, artists, and academics has a long, distressing history,” Ferguson wrote in an op-ed in the Chronicle of Higher Education, connecting the Florida criticism to his removal before the revisions were made public.

The changes to the AP course come after weeks of tension between the College Board and the DeSantis administration. Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. called the course “woke indoctrination masquerading as education.”

“Too often politics interfering with education, which is exactly what DeSantis tried here,” said Weingarten. We remain committed to our conviction that AP African American Studies should be available to all high school students.

At the beginning of school year, Marlon Williams-Clark spoke to NPR about his excitement about teaching a version of the course that was part of the pilot program. Williams-Clark would teach the class at the high school in the capital of Florida.

The College Board of Florida apologizes for the “Slander” Florida’s ban on an AP African American Studies course that isn’t teaching sexual orientation or gender identity

“I told them that there were some topics in which we might want to be careful about how we talk about some things, and that they might not want to hear about it,” he said. “I am unable to lead any conversations.”

The College Board is hitting back at top officials in Florida over the state’s ban on a new AP African American Studies course that’s being piloted in several states.

In a lengthy statement released Saturday, the national education nonprofit said it should have more quickly addressed claims by Florida’s Department of Education that the course was indoctrinating students and lacked educational value, which the College Board called “slander.”

The organization also said that Florida’s public and private objections had no bearing on changes the College Board made to the final curriculum of the course, which it released earlier this month.

The college board said that Florida was attempting to claim a political victory by taking credit for changes that they never suggested to us.

There are laws that restrict what can be taught in Florida schools. One such law – officially called the “Parental Rights in Education” law but dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics – bans classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity under certain circumstances. Another law, known as the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, limits how issues of race can be taught.

“We have made the mistake of treating FDOE with the courtesy we always accord to an education agency, but they have instead exploited this courtesy for their political agenda,” the organization said in its statement. “After each written or verbal exchange with them, as a matter of professional protocol, we politely thanked them for their feedback and contributions, although they had given none.”