The College Board, an educational group that oversees Advance Placement (AP) courses, has revised its African American studies curriculum to reflect changes pushed earlier by Flordia governor Ron DeSantis.
The new 300-page course plan reviewed by the Miami Herald found the College Board had removed topics about queer theory and downgraded content on Black Lives Matter and the reparations debate as optional content, meaning they will not make it in front of students who end up writing the AP subject exam. However, the works of Kimerblé Crenshaw and Angela Davis will remain in the curriculum despite the objections of DeSantis to remove all Critical Race Theory (CRT) concepts such as intersectionality.
The College Board has insisted that the revisions were not made out of fear of upsetting the DeSantis administration. “Amid intense public debate over this course, College Board asked subject-matter experts in the AP program, scholars and experienced AP teachers to revisit the course,” a news release published on Wednesday reads.
In January, DeSantis initially withheld the state’s approval of the pilot version of the AP African-American Studies course because it violated Florida’s Stop WOKE Act, which prohibits the instruction of critical race theory. Liberal pundits and prominent Democrats attacked DeSantis at the time for rejecting the College Board’s curriculum. “Who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids,” he said. “And so, when you look to see, they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons. That’s a political agenda,” the Republican governor said at the time.
“We are going to eliminate all DEI and CRT bureaucracies in the state of Florida. No funding, and that will wither on the vine,” DeSantis said at a press conference in late January.
The following month, the College Board announced it was changing the framework of the course. The updated February syllabus removed several authors state officials had deemed problematic, including those associated with the “queer experience” and black feminism. It also added a section on “black conservatism” as an idea for a research project.
The educational group’s chief executive, David 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,” he said, suggesting instead that the changes came from “the input of professors” and “longstanding A.P. principles.” “We experimented with a lot of things including assigning secondary sources, and we found a lot of issues arose as we did,” Coleman said. “I think what is most surprising and powerful for most people is looking directly at people’s experience.”
According to the College Board, some 13,000 students across nearly 700 schools in more than 40 states plan to participate in the pilot round of the course.
“This course is a vibrant introduction to a dynamic field that offers a broader perspective,” Brandi Waters, senior director and lead author of the program, said in a statement. “This is the course I wish I had in high school. I hope every interested student has the opportunity to take it.”