The College Board is set to publish a revised framework Wednesday for an advanced placement African-American studies course that gained national attention after Florida rejected it for allegedly having a left-wing bias.
Shortly after Florida’s decision, the College Board, a nonprofit organization that oversees the AP program, announced it would file a review. But the academic experts responsible for creating the framework insist the reviews were scheduled long in advance of the criticism and, they said, are not bowing to pressure from the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In interviews with NBC News, they also said they were appalled by the governor’s criticism and believed his administration’s actions were driven by racism and ignorance.
“The story here is that Florida does not believe that African American studies have educational value and it is not for these reasons [provided by the state]. These reasons are kind of justification for a foregone conclusion,” said Robert Patterson, a professor of African American studies at Georgetown University and a member of the course development committee and advisory board. “I think part of it has to do with white supremacy and anti-black racism.”
Jeremy Redfern, a spokesman for DeSantis, responded by criticizing critics such as Patterson and other academics as “extremists” and condemning the media for providing them with a platform.
“There will always be extreme critics, but it is up to the media to give them a platform and legitimize their extremism,” he said in a statement. guilty until proven innocent, he will speak more of the moral bankruptcy and deceitfulness of his milieu than of anything else.”
Scholars affiliated with the College Board said the changes to the African American studies course were based on long-planned, ongoing review by a group of experts with specialties related to African American studies, as well as student feedback. and teachers from a pilot program. of the course
This month, the DeSantis administration announced that a new African-American studies course would not be taught in Florida high schools. The state education department claimed the material was not historically accurate and violated the state’s “Stop WOKE Act,” a law DeSantis signed into law last year that effectively restricts conversations about race in schools.
listed state officials six areas of concern with the course and pointed out works by black writers such as Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, bell hooks and Angela Davis that he found objectionable.
Areas of concern were: Black Queer Studies, Intersectionality, Movement for Black Lives, Black Feminist Literary Thought, Reparations Movement, and Black Struggle in the 21st Century.
“I see a lot of the fear-based course rejection coming from a place of ignorance on many fronts,” said Teresa Reed, dean of the University of Louisville School of Music and a member of the development committee for the Course Framework. PA.
Reed said that DeSantis and other officials in his administration were “enacting” the “tendency we often have to instantly reject what we don’t understand or instantly reject something for which our knowledge is too superficial to fully comprehend.”
“We do not see information. We don’t see intelligent reactions, we see fear, we see a lot of assumptions, we see an accusation of indoctrination,” Wood continued. “In fact, neither of those things is the goal of any AP course, any more than would be the case with AP Chemistry or AP Biology.”
Many of the academics also saw political motives in the moves of DeSantis, who is widely seen as a possible 2024 presidential candidate.
“The Florida decision is based on the political dogma of a conservative seeking the presidency. It is not a decision based on education, rigorous engagement with the issue, or concern for parental rights,” wrote Nishani Frazier, a professor of history and American studies at the University of Kansas and a member of the development committee, in a statement to NBC News. “If that were the case, parents would also have the last word on chemistry and math. Ultimately, this is a debate about America’s identity: who’s included and who’s not.”
The fact that the College Board announced that it would publish an updated version just after Florida’s objections raised questions about whether it was caving in to Republican pressure from Democratic politicians and academics.
But the nonprofit has always maintained that the revised material has been in development since March 2022 and would draw entirely on input from educators and experts in the field, including 300 African American studies professors in the US.
In a private letter to members sent last week, the College Board said the revised framework was “informed only by expert input and long-standing AP principles and practices” and that states had not influenced the revisions. . Experts involved with the curriculum framework interviewed by NBC News stuck with that explanation.
“The curriculum that will be released on February 1 answers to the experts, the development committee, the teachers, the students,” Patterson said. “That’s what he responds to. It is not a response to the state of Florida.”
Patterson said College Board officials decided last fall to release an updated version of the curriculum on February 1.
Spokespersons for the College Board did not respond to questions about when the specific plan to publish the revised framework on February 1 had been set, or if specific timelines had been set for future revisions.
However, Reed, a member of the development committee, reiterated that while the updated framework to be released on Wednesday “will be different from the framework that drew strong reactions,” it “will not be because of the objections.”
Patterson noted that the DeSantis administration was looking at an unfinished version of the course, and that it was possible that some of the elements that Florida officials had objected to had been removed as part of the College Board’s existing process.
They and the other College Board-affiliated educators interviewed by NBC News said they could not disclose details about what was reviewed and why.
All were adamant that politicians be excluded from all decisions.
“Politicians who don’t know history are making decisions about how it’s taught, and that’s a problem,” said Daina Ramey Berry, a professor of African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas-Austin and a member of the advisory board.
But some suggested that some of the criteria used to assess possible cuts could leave room for interpretation.
Patterson said that some revisions would be reduced to “reduce content,” meaning that some lessons would have to be cut to fit within the time limits of a literal school semester and allow students to do an end-of-term research project. but don’t say which framework elements were under consideration for removal.
And at least one person, development committee member Frazier, acknowledged that the College Board “like any institution” was “susceptible to political influence in decision-making” on what items it might decide to cut.
Many of the academics interviewed by NBC News said that even if the College Board were to throw out some of the material Florida specifically objected to, it wouldn’t be enough for critics.
“It’s doubtful that the ‘areas of concern’ end there,” Frazier said.
Still, others said DeSantis’ criticism was itself evidence that the course, if left largely intact, was vital to so many people.
“I think it’s strengthening the case for why the course is necessary,” Wood said.
“The irony here is that I think DeSantis should be first in line to sign up for the course. In which case, he might learn… that the very platforms his protests are built on are platforms of ignorance.”
