College Board to revise AP curriculum after critics decry lack of ‘intersectionality,’ BLM content
Fox News
The College Board announced plans to revise its AP African American studies courses on Tuesday, bowing to pressure from critics who argued the course does not emphasize Black Lives Matter, reparations or intersectionality enough.
The organization is responsible for national AP courses and the SAT test. It released a version of the African American studies curriculum earlier this year and faced immediate backlash from critics who argued the course shied away from divisive topics in an attempt to please Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The board released a statement explaining its decision on Monday, saying its original curriculum had been designed to reach the maximum number of students possible.
“In embarking on this effort, access was our driving principle—both access to a discipline that has not been widely available to high school students, and access for as many of those students as possible. Regrettably, along the way those dual access goals have come into conflict,” the board wrote.
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“The updated framework, shaped by the development committee and subject matter experts from AP, will ensure that those students who do take this course will get the most holistic possible introduction to African American Studies,” the board continued.
The move comes months after a group of 1,000 faculty and administrators involved in “African American and black studies” published an open letter calling on College Board CEO David Coleman to revise the initial curriculum.
The letter stated that the faculty represented “a rich body of interdisciplinary academic production that incorporates indigenous, gender, queer, ethnic, feminist, and social movement scholarship.”
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They argued that any African American studies course must include “key words and related concepts in the field including intersectionality, Black feminism, racial color blindness, institutional racism, and Black Lives Matter.”
The faculty members went on to name DeSantis, who warned earlier this year that he would not tolerate a curriculum with a woke “political agenda” being taught in Florida schools.
The College Board has yet to release its updated curriculum, saying the process of revising it may take months. The board did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.