A Conversation with the Past, Present, Future, and Future: The Confederate Flag as a Flag of South Carolina, during the 2016 Black Hole Reconstruction
I loved to read about the legacies of Malcolm X and W.E.B. Du Bois when I was a student at Ridge View High School.
Black inventors and artists, gay Americans who played roles in the Civil Rights movement, and people of faith from all walks of life are included in this course. Everyone is seen,” Coleman said in a statement.
Plus, it’s no small thing to test out the course in South Carolina, which didn’t banish the Confederate battle flag from statehouse grounds until 2015, in the heartrending aftermath of a White supremacist massacre.
The official framework has not been seen by any states or districts, the College Board said in a Monday announcement. The course was shaped by the input of experts and long-standing AP practices.
She said she hoped the course would be offered to people like herself and others who are just interested in learning about history that has been ignored. “And I hope that the course makes room for more conversation. Lots of people are scared to talk about race, but with more conversation comes better understanding.”
The early African kingdoms of Queen Nzinga and the role of black people in educating children in South Africa: AP African American Studies pilot course at Ridge View
In the first part of the course, we will examine early African kingdoms and some of their figures such as Queen Nzinga of Nzinga, located in present-day Angola.
It’s important we get to learn all these things as a society. She said they don’t get to hear about what these figures went through. And my classmates deserve to hear this history. Ridge View, a majority-Black school, is getting to help create this course.
Her mother, Nicole Walker, who was involved in bringing the pilot course to Ridge View and is the director of the school’s Scholars Academy Magnet for Business and Law (she also was my 9th grade English teacher), echoed some of these sentiments.
“We know that what’s best for kids is for them to see themselves reflected in the curriculum, for them to celebrate their cultures, for them to feel valued,” she told CNN. “We know that a kid who feels safe and valued is going to do better in school.”
The power of inclusivity is something that is familiar to Jacynth Tucker. She said that at a previous school, she felt like an outsider.
When we traveled to Africa, we talked about the history and the culture, but she says she can’t remember. Being in a class that has more of a focus is special to me.
The teacher asked her what all the people had in common, and she said she liked it. They all share the same trait: they are all Black. But the point of that discussion was that, yes, they’re all Black, but there’s so much diversity within the Black community, within my community: diverse religions, gender expressions, sexualities, things like that.”
The debut of the AP African American Studies pilot course comes at a time when many schools are in the middle of a racially charged controversy.
According to an August analysis by PEN America, legislators in 36 states have introduced 137 laws this year that restrict discussion of race and US history in schools and higher education. This figure is going to grow by 250% in 2020.
Book bans and censorship debates have always existed, but America’s children are facing an unprecedented moment in history. Today, school resources are stretched thin, schools are facing teacher and staff shortages and districts are still grappling with the long-term effects of the pandemic on student learning, as individuals’ rights to quality education are under increasing threat.
They are part of a larger counter-mobilization against the attempts to topple racial and social hierarchies.
Political conflicts are not seeing different political conflicts. We’re seeing one big political conflict – one big reactionary political project,” as Thomas Zimmer, a visiting professor at Georgetown University, where his research focuses on the history of democracy and its discontents, told CNN in July.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a senior mind when it comes to American studies and African American history. He was quoted recently explaining that the course isn’t political,” Soderstrom said. The information we teach is reliable.
Why Did Two Black Students Get What They Want? Critical Race Theory Explains How Virginia Wins re-elected: A Case Study from Arizona State University
According to the College Board, it’s expected that the pilot course will expand to include additional high schools next year and be available to all interested schools the following year.
Then, mirroring the same fundamental curiosity I had as a high school student nearly two decades ago, she added, “I’m just excited to see what’s next.”
The group of female minority students confronted two white male students who were studying in the multicultural center at Arizona State University.
Two men in a shirt that said, “Didn’t Vote for Biden” and a sticker on their laptop that said, ” Police Lives Matter” made the women upset. The multicultural center was chosen by the women to rile them. A heated row between both parties erupted, a video of which quickly went viral, threatening to upend the lives of all involved.
Sarah Viren, a journalist and essayist, explored the incident for The New York Times in relation to the widening gyre of the culture wars. She explained that the row at Arizona State was a symbolic fight, and raised questions of free speech and the purpose of safe spaces.
Editor’s Note: This roundup is part of the CNN Opinion series “America’s Future Starts Now,” in which people share how they have been affected by the biggest issues facing the nation and experts offer their proposed solutions. The opinions expressed in these commentaries are not of the authors. Read more opinion at CNN.
The pandemic and broader turmoil afflicting the nation have left public education in peril. Every one of us has a stake in reversing this decline because, whether we’re talking about growing the economy or strengthening democracy, every path to redeeming the promise of America runs through public schools. Addressing lost learning is important, and so is addressing the lack of trust in public education.
Last year, Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe lost his reelection campaign, at least in part because his Republican opponent, Glenn Youngkin, repeatedly declared that McAuliffe’s reelection would lead to the widespread teaching of critical race theory in schools across the Commonwealth. It was critical race theory that helped thegovernor of Virginia win.
Critical race theory attempts to explain the structural causes of inequality and racism in the United States. The term was attacked by its critics, who blamed White Americans for some of society’s ills.
It began with the Lockups in 2020. Many parents suddenly discovered what their children were being taught thanks to online conferencing apps. Toxic and divisive ideas about race are contrary to the belief that most Americans share with civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The campaign to eliminate critical race theory succeeded mostly because White parents and state lawmakers were led to believe that White school children were being made to feel badly about being White. There isn’t any proof that nearly 80% of the teachers were doing this. They weren’t, certainly not in any widespread fashion.
With no credible evidence of an actual problem and no opportunity to vote on the issue, citizens who recognize the value of teaching our children the truth about America’s racial past and present won’t have a voice in the upcoming election.
There’s at least one state where voters will decide this fall what gets taught in the classroom. The Education Accountability Amendment, which will be on the November ballot, would amend the state constitution to give the Republican-controlled legislature more control over public schools.
Those that care about the advancement of our democracy have to insist that its full truth be taught. We may have to wait until the discussion returns in our public schools.
Fixing Problems Public Schools: Culture Wars Around The Ugly: Shaun Harper Addresses the 2016 New Hampshire Senate Bill 2 Disagreement
Shaun Harper is a professor at the Rossier School of Education and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Race, gender and equity in the workplace are the focus of his research. He wrote to Dr.ShaunHarper.
I teach social studies at a middle school in New Hampshire. Participation in a democratic institution that is for everyone is the greatest joy of my teaching career.
I stand for all my students by committing myself to perpetual learning and growth. I continue to update strategies, let go of old projects that no longer suit my students and adapt my curriculum to ensure my approaches are culturally sensitive.
I have developed a healthy resilience around differing opinions because of my work in social studies. My entire career has been centered around navigating one tricky topic or another. I facilitate a variety of debates, as well as talks about the events of September 11 and presidential elections.
The House Bill 2 was a very disappointing law that passed in New Hampshire. The disrespect and lack of trust it sends to the educators I know and work with cannot be overstated.
It was written with a wrong idea that discrimination is practiced in classrooms and public places.
There are obstacles to growth, student well-being and compassionate practices caused by legislation like HB2 and similar laws in other states. New Hampshire does not allow mandatory equity training for faculty for fear that someone will feel bad.
At what point did we decide it’s divisive to take a stance on cruel and dehumanizing activities? Who is hurt by taking a hardline on slavery? Our silence is an endorsement. That is our ethical crisis. That is what fear-mongering yields.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/03/opinions/fixing-problems-public-schools-culture-wars-roundup/index.html
Fixing Problems: Public Schools in the Era of Civil Rights and Civil Liberation. A Reflection from the Founding of the American Dream
Shame and blame have been imposed upon teachers, who are filled with loving, kind, compassionate and principled people. Choosing a career in education is almost always driven by a heart-centered desire to make a positive difference. I have never encountered a teacher in four districts, two states and 22 years who displayed devious political intentions.
Future voters must know that disagreement is healthy and normal. Changing your mind in light of new evidence is logical and admirable. Nothing could be more patriotic, or democratic, than a society that is more just.
Feeling discomfort and dissonance often accompanies growth and learning; this is something I strive to normalize for my students. Students are being taught critical thinking and analysis by asking them to wrestle with challenging ideas. At some point, we have confused feeling uneasy with a lack of safety. There is a huge difference.
Poorly constructed laws were drafted to stop good, productive work, and have resulted in the oppression of free thought, critical thinking and children. I am aware we can do better.
My message to the legislators? Trust the teachers. Asking them to be thoughtful, sensitive and inclusive is always reasonable. You’ll find that’s what they generally already are.
Public education has played an enormous societal role: In the 19th century, common schools forged shared identity when government of the people, by the people, for the people was a novel idea. In the 20th century, universal high school fueled the growth of the middle class.
The murder of George Floyd added fuel, prompting many public school officials to target systemic racism – discrimination built into American institutions – and conservatives to demand colorblindness and an emphasis on America’s basic goodness. There were accusations of “hate” and “indoctrination” when there were depictions of sexual activity in graphic novels.
The US population was 70% white in 2000. By 2020, that was down to about 58%. The support for gay marriage in the United States increased from 27% in 1996 to 77% in 2021 while the share of people in a church, synagogue or mosque decreased.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/03/opinions/fixing-problems-public-schools-culture-wars-roundup/index.html
Parents, Teachers, Sports Teams, and Public Schools: A Call to Act Now to Protect the Rights of Children in the State of California and Implications for the Children of the Pandemic
Parents are always fighting for their rights when it comes to public education. They’re fighting because they sense that those rights are under attack.
Giving parents more say does nothing to change a system that forces diverse people, including parents, to fund – and fight to control – government-run schools.
Freedom is the answer: Attach money to students – as many other countries do – and let families choose among diverse options. This can be accomplished through universal education savings accounts, such as Arizona recently enacted, scholarship tax credits and other choice vehicles.
Regardless of how it is done, the goal of choice is to enable diverse families to access education they think is right rather than forcing neighbor to defeat neighbor to control public schools.
Hundreds of thousands of students have disappeared from school rolls and budget troubles are predicted when emergency Covid-19 relief funds are up and running. The Nation’s Report Card reported historic declines in reading and math scores, not surprising given pandemic disruptions.
Critics see this as a chance to use kids for political purposes. We see it as an urgent call to institute short-term and long-term investments and proven strategies to support students’ emotional development and to accelerate learning, especially for Black and Latino students and students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who were underserved and behind their peers prior to the pandemic.
What we must not allow is for students and educators to be dragged into bad-faith battles over bathroom access and participation on sports teams as an unwelcome distraction from ensuring that every student receives a great education and the supports needed to thrive academically and socially.
Both of our organizations are engaged in long term strategies to address the needs of kids, families and communities but there are interventions that can help students right now.
In the short term, targeted, intensive tutoring has large positive effects on both math and reading achievement. Teachers tend to be the most consistently effective tutors; however, recent studies have found that paraprofessionals (teaching assistants), AmeriCorps volunteers and others who are trained to support student learning can be just as effective when tutoring one-on-one or in small groups.
These policies and practices will make teaching more desirable and accessible and will work to increase the racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the teaching workforce, a move that research shows has a positive impact for students.
Safety was required to return to in-person teaching and learning. The US has not fulfilled its promise to provide every child with high quality public education, so now is the time to use proven strategies to do so, using the resources we have.
How Test Scores Have Been Overruled by MAGA in Public Schools for the Last Ten Years and Their Impact on the Teacher Education and the Teaching Profession
But critical race theory is far less shocking than the radical gender ideology that seems to have overtaken our nation’s schools. It teaches children that “some people are boys, some people are girls, some people are both, neither, or somewhere in between”’ – as one popular children’s book puts it.
When parents come to school board meetings to complain, far too many are met with silence or risible accusations that they are politicizing education. Parents have primary responsibility to raise and teach their children.
Jay Richards is the William E. Simon Senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, where he is also director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family.
It is necessary to make important investments towards giving more supports for teachers as well as classroom aid and salary increases. That measure would provide teachers tax credits amounting to up to $15,000 a year.
While parents are working with teachers and librarians to ensure that every child is acknowledged in school curricula and has a chance to thrive in school, regardless of who they are or where they live, far-right MAGA extremists are increasingly running for vacant school board seats or for reelection to gain control and power over decision-making at all levels of government.
America has become more inclusive because of it. The result has been overwhelming bipartisan support for public schools over generations.
Fear-based arguments were used by the Reagan administration in a report on education in 1983 to argue that reading and math test scores were essential for national security. This logic transformed test scores from one of the most important indicators to the very purpose of public schools.
Gains in low-income and students of color were led by early reform, but progress stopped a decade ago. Test-and-accountability reforms over-promised and under-delivered and no longer command broad bipartisan support.
It starts with rebuilding trust. Local education leaders were left holding the bag on school closings that should have been shared with health officials and political leaders.
However, they also want to preserve their mental health and have financial stability, and the teaching profession’s low pay and structures that challenge work-life balance are deterrents – especially when the average student-loan debt is nearly $30,000 and many other professions offer flexible schedules and remote work options. The profession has been trying for years, and it is affected by the disconnection. The number of traditional teacher education programs graduates went down between 2008 and 2019.
It is time to include all of the skills and mindsets that students want and need to thrive in our 21st century world and careers of the future in the traditional definition of learning.
Technology could allow expert educators to teach multiple classes virtually while a colleague who is expert in creating productive learning spaces focuses on one area. Many teachers excel at both roles – we just don’t have enough of them to staff every classroom in our country. This shift is not only about making teachers’ jobs more sustainable, but also about positioning teachers to further develop their areas of greatest expertise.
The CEO of Teach For America is a woman who works to improve educational access and outcomes for young people in low-income communities. She tweets @VillanuevaBeard.
Liz King is a program director at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 civil rights groups. It would be difficult to separate attacks on children’s education from the way in which they are interacting at school.
The department is investigating four complaints, including one that the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense Fund filed against the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, a predominantly white, affluent suburb at the center of a fiery national battle over racial education in the public schools that was documented by the NBC News podcast series “Southlake.”
In a statement the district said that it was cooperating with the investigation, and that it had taken significant steps to address any instances of discrimination and harassment.
Russell Maryland of the Legal Defense Fund said that the civil rights complaint is the last chance for reconciliation in the county. The group, known as the Cultural and Racial Equity for Every Dragon, or CREED, worked for years on a plan that the district had commissioned to help address racial harassment among students, only to have it abandoned after backlash from a conservative group of parents. The group is hoping that the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights will help mandate reforms.
“We want a desirable plan that will not only protect marginalized kids in this community, but will educate all kids on how to be the best citizens when they leave the school system,” Mr. Maryland said.
The civil rights movement of the 1960s became a Second Reconstruction, where states like Mississippi became battlegrounds for the nation’s democratic future, as observed by the 1619 Project. Scenes of bombed out black churches, white youth brandishing confederate flags, and interviews with civil rights activists such as Greenwood have cast into relief the historic and contemporary stakes of voting for the health of our nation.
The first two episodes of “The 1619 Project,” a documentary series which premiered on Hulu on Thursday, brings to life the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times multimedia project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones.
As the first two episodes of “The 1619 Project” make dramatically clear, “the relentless buying, selling, insuring, and financing” of Black people “would help make Wall Street and New York City the financial capital of the world.”
The series contains interviews, graphics, and audio clips about race, slavery and history, as well as personal recollections of slaves and Jim Crow, and offers an experience that is both intimate and expansive. It demonstrates how individual biographies of Black Americans tell a collective narrative of a struggle for Black citizenship and dignity that remains this nation’s defining story.
The documentary series provides additional flesh and texture to the original New York Times Sunday Magazine special issue, the multimedia educational social media supporting materials and bestselling anthology subsequently published.
The Sex Life of Black Women: A Conversation with Hannah-Jones About a Black Mother and a Daughter: The 1619 Project
We learn that after her White mother and Black father met and fell in love in 1972, Hannah-Jones’ paternal grandparents initially disowned their daughter, before reuniting after the birth of their first grandchild. Race defines our lives in the US according to Hannah-Jones.
Hannah-Jones characterizes it as being the challenges for democracy ahead, one “The 1619 Project” does with passionate erudition. Her framing shows how modern voter suppression tactics like denying voters access to food and water on long lines and allowing anyone to object or challenge a voter’s ballot in states like Georgia are part of a larger historical context that links past and present.
During the Reconstruction period, there are more juxtapositions than any other time. Between 1865 and 1898 Black Americans created new schools, churches, universities and civic, political, and business groups and organizations. Those years also saw the rise of racial terror, the passage of Black Codes that suppressed votes, the use of convict-lease systems that profiled African Americans, and the establishment of sharecropping and peonage systems.
The show focuses on both slaves and modern day women, allowing us a glimpse into the sex lives of Black women throughout American history. Black women were raped by White owners of their own children, whose existence added more economic value to their fortunes, as was recounted in a detailed examination of a Georgia plantation.
Our racial identities being listed on certificates of birth and death are more than bureaucratic signposts. They serve as signs of fate and signifiers of prosperity for some and punishment for others.
As viewers we eavesdrop on recordings from the formerly enslaved conducted by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Laura Smalley, a formerly enslaved Black woman, recalls that plantation owners would “breed them like they was hogs or horses, something like that, I say.”
This is an incredibly painful history to confront – and one that is more necessary in our own time than ever. It also may help to explain how a Black woman as rich and famous as Serena Williams almost died from complications after giving birth to her daughter Olympia.
Our only chance of change is through confronting the history that has marginalized Black life and in doing so has a potential threat to America’s democratic future.
Last month, at a news conference in Jacksonville, he stated that it was a political agenda. That is the right side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them when you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that he intends to ban state universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in hopes that they will “wither on the vine” without funding.
Diversity, equity and inclusion programs are intended to promote multiculturalism and encourage students of all races and backgrounds to feel comfortable in a campus setting, especially those from traditionally underrepresented communities. The state’s flagship school, the University of Florida, has a “Chief Diversity Officer,” a “Center for Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement” and an “Office for Accessibility and Gender Equity.”
Tuesday’s announcement was foreshadowed in December when the governor’s office asked all state universities to account for all of their spending on programs and initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion or critical race theory.
DeSantis announced his higher education agenda in Bradenton, a 15-minute drive from New College of Florida, a public liberal arts college where DeSantis has installed a controversial new board with a mandate to remake the school into his conservative vision for higher education. His budget will include money to hire faculty and restructure New College.
One of DeSantis’ new board members, Eddie Speir, wrote in an online post that he planned to propose in that meeting “terminating all contracts for faculty, staff and administration” of the school, “and immediately rehiring those faculty, staff and administration who fit in the new financial and business model.”
Comments on a Multidisciplinary Course on Black History, Black Lives, and the Education of the U.S. Senator John DeSantis
In recent months, the multidisciplinary course has been praised by academics and historians, all while becoming a target for lawmakers aiming to restrict how topics like racism and history are being taught in public schools.
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 origins of the African diaspora, freedom, enslavement and resistance, the practice of freedom, and movements and debates are some of the four units in the African American studies course.
The responses of African American writers and activists to racism and anti-Black violence are just one of the topics included in the units.
More than 300 professors of African American studies, including faculty from dozens of HBCUs, were consulted during the development of the course framework, which was completed in December, the organization said.
Unlike the pilot version, the College Board said the official framework includes additional topics, only requires the analysis of “core historical, literary, and artistic works,” does not have a required list of secondary sources and adds a research project that counts as part of the AP exam score.
According to a lengthy statement published Saturday, the College Board admitted it made mistakes with the course framework and that it is being exploited. The board disputed how Florida officials – who have asked that the course be resubmitted for consideration after initially rejecting it – have characterized their dialogue and influence with the testing non-profit.
The state’s education department told CNN that it had concerns about some subjects in an 81-page document, that appears to be a preview of the course framework. The document, which was dated February 22, 2022, was shared with CNN last month.
The organization clarified that the course framework is only an outline, and certain controversial topics such as Black Lives Matter were always optional in the pilot program and not required to be taught.
The debate on Black Lives Matter, gay life and expression in Black communities, and a list of similar topics are examples of topics that students can think about for research projects.
The topics are not part of the framework that the states use to define the exam. The College Board said the list can be refined by states and districts.
The College Board refuted claims from a New York Times article that it removed all mentions of Black feminism or the “gay experience” from its curriculum, or that some of the revisions were made to appease the DeSantis administration.
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.
Black Trans People: The Beginnings, the End, the Beginning, and the End: A Conversation with Emmitt Glynn at the Baton Rouge Magnet High School
“To wake up on the first day of Black History Month to news of white men in positions of privilege horse trading essential and inextricably linked parts of Black History, which is American history, is infuriating,” said David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition. The lives, contributions, and stories of Black trans people should not be diminished or erased.
The course is popular with students in schools that have introduced it. At Baton Rouge Magnet High School in Louisiana, so many students were interested that Emmitt Glynn is teaching it to two classes, instead of just the one he was originally planning.
Earlier this week, his students read selections of “The Wretched of the Earth” by Frantz Fanon, which deals with the violence inherent in colonial societies. In a lively discussion, students connected the text to what they had learned about the conflict between colonizers and Native Americans, to the war in Ukraine and to police violence in Memphis, Tennessee.
“We’ve been covering the gamut from the shores of Africa to where we are now in the 1930s, and we will continue on through history,” Glynn said. He said he was proud to see the connections his students were making between the past and now.
The class helps fill gaps in what she has been taught. “Taking this class,” she said, “I realized how much is not said in other classes.”
The College Board offers AP courses in math, science, social studies, foreign languages and fine arts. It is optional for the courses. Students who score high on the final exam are more likely to get course credit at their university.
The College Board Should reconsider censoring its curriculum and the educational opportunities of young people in California: Revisiting Black History and Black Studies in the 20th Century
“We urge the College Board to reconsider censoring its curriculum and the education of our young people to meet the demands of a Governor with a radical political agenda and stand firm in the belief that Black history in its beautiful diversity is American History,” Johns said in a statement on Wednesday.
Malcolm Reed tries to be as careful with the material in his classroom as possible.
I’ve seen light bulbs go off after I give them information. I ask them, ‘How does it affect you? He asked how he felt about learning about it. It’s new for me, too, and I’m taking it in stride. We’re not just learning history, but we’re making history.”
In progressive contexts bringing graduate-level concepts to high schools can prove politically dicey. When the State of California released a draft ethnic studies curriculum in 2019 that focused largely on the four groups considered part of university ethnic studies departments — African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans — there was outrage from some organizations representing American Jews, Hindus and other minority groups. The state chose to revise the document.
The unit on Black Feminism and Womanism has been changed to Black Women and Movements in the 20th Century. There is still a concept known as “overlapping of dimensions Black Life”, despite the term “intersectionality” being avoided. The new framework discusses Gwendolyn Brooks and Mari Evans as writers whose work explored gender and class alongside race. And the Combahee River Collective, a key Black second-wave feminist group, remains in the framework.
Black female writers such as Audre Lorde and Alice Walker have been removed from the draft.
Mr. Packer of the College Board noted that the work of less controversial African American Studies scholars, such as Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and Henry Louis Gates Jr., had also been left out of the final framework, because of the decision to move the course away from prescribing present-day secondary sources.
Haynie said in a statement issued by the College Board that “we reject claims that our work either indoctrinates students or has bowed to political pressure.”
The nonprofits says it did not “purge” the curriculum of lessons about black feminism and gay black americans, but acknowledges a reduction in the framework.
With these revisions, works by scholars including Roderick Ferguson, a professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Yale University, are now removed from the curriculum entirely.
“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 state’s rejection of the AP course led to criticism across the country from other state lawmakers and civil rights organizations. Three high school students in Florida threatened to file a lawsuit against the governor if he didn’t change his mind. More than 200 AfricanAmerican history professors signed a letter condemning the changes.
The College Board said that Florida officials made exaggerated claims about getting the board to change the curriculum, but no concrete suggestions were offered to the organization when given multiple chances.
The College Board of State of Florida is Blatantly Disturbed by the AP African American Studies Course Enough to Take a Break from the Classroom
The pilot program for teaching the original version of the course was something that Marlon Williams-Clark was excited about at the start of the school year. Williams- Clark would teach the class at a high school in Florida.
He toldNPR that there are some topics in which he told them to be careful how they talk about some things. “I can’t lead any conversations.”
The College Board is accusing top officials in Florida of being hypocritical when they argue that the state’s ban on the new AP African American Studies course is justified.
The College Board criticized the course for being “slanderous” and said it should have been more quickly addressed by the Department of Education in Florida.
The College Board stated that Florida is attempting to claim a political victory by retroactively giving credit for changes they never suggested to us.
The laws that have been signed recently restrict what can be taught in Florida schools. The “Don’t Say Gay” bill, dubbed the “Parental Rights in Education” law, is a ban on classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity under certain circumstances. The Stop W.O.K.E. Act limits the way that issues of race can be taught.
Protest of the State Education Department’s Rejection of an Advanced Placement Course on African American Studies, and its Implications for a Future of the College
“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.”
Hundreds of marchers, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and other activists, held a rally outside Florida’s state Capitol on Wednesday to protest Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration’s rejection of a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies.
Sharpton said historical inflections points on racism and bigotry in the US always involved education, from slavery through Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement.
To know how strong our children are is more important than knowing how bad you were. They come from a people that fought from the back of the bus to the front of the White House.”
Sharpton said that the crowd was made up of members of the LGBTQ, Native American and Latinx communities. You should have left us alone. You have brought all of us together.
The marchers chanted slogans like, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Ron DeSantis has got to go!” I am Black and proud of it. Some carried signs saying “Save our history” and “We will not be silenced.”
Shaia Simmons, a former teacher at the march, called the state’s rejection of the new course a gross injustice and a slap in the face to all Americans.
The testing organization accused the state Education Department of spreading misinformation about the course in order to benefit from it.
In January, DeSantis replaced six of the 13 members on the college’s board of trustees with conservative allies, including Christopher Rufo, who has fueled the fight against critical race theory.
Richard Corbett, a friend of DeSantis and the interim president of the college, was forced out by the new board. Corcoran will serve on the job from February 27 to September 1, 2024, and will earn a base salary of $699,000.
Sharf and other students are questioning their futures at the school after the college leadership was changed, while protesters accuse the governor of interfering with their educational freedom for political gain.
With mounting attacks on diversity and inclusion, students and activists fear that marginalized people will not have a safe place to get a college education in Florida.
Some critics also worry the state might influence other Republican-led states to adopt similar measures, dwindling their options even further. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demanded that state agencies stop using diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in hiring because he said it was illegal.
DEI programs are created to help people who have faced discrimination due to their race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
Mulvey, the president of the American Association of University Professors, said that she believes that DeSantis is targeting diversity programs for political advantage.
This could result in Florida colleges struggling to retain students and recruit faculty, Mulvey said. People pursuing graduate degrees might opt for schools in other states that support academic freedom, she said.
The consequences are huge for students. Students and the people who learn are denied the opportunity to hear important perspectives. The real tragedy is that.
David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, said policies that reject diversity and inclusion will only push people away from higher education in Florida.
“So much of what the policies are designed to do and the language more specifically … is to tell people that they don’t matter,” he said. The contributions, history, and methods of attempting to strengthen democracy should not be used as a reference point in the version of America that they are now calling classical.
Georgia passed an anti-abortion bill in the fall of last year, and many other states have since adopted similar legislation. He fears New College of Florida is a test case for pushing conservatism at schools across the nation.
New College of Florida has students considering other options for their education. The school has nearly 700 students and 100 full-time faculty members, according to its website.
DeSantis, New College, and the Students of the Southern Hemisphere: A Reply to Darling, O’Raifeartaigh, Sharf
Sharf believes that the board will make the college more attractive to White students by removing the inclusive queer culture.
The commissioner said that New College of Florida was supposed to become Florida’s classical college and be a part of the South. Hillsdale College is a private conservative Christian college in southern Michigan.
“I would not want to attend a school that is ‘Hillsdale of the South,’” Sharf said. “It would be too hostile to trans students and I would probably have to leave.”
Alex Obraud, a third-year anthropology student, said DeSantis’ overhaul feels like backlash against the nation’s progress on LGBTQ rights and racial justice.
Obraud also views it as an attack on educational freedom and on the safe space that New College and other universities across the country offer for students.
The New College of Florida was rejected by Republican lawmakers who claimed that it was a bastion of liberal indoctrination.
Kottke said instructors have always taught students how to think not what to think. Most of the diverse clubs on campus rely on state funding, which may mean that they will be unable to continue to operate safely.