This autumn, around 60 high schools throughout the country will offer a new AP African American studies course that covers topics like black pride, black power, and black feminism.
The New York Times reported that Marlon Williams-Clark, a history teacher at the Florida State University Schools, identified himself as one of the instructors for the new course despite the College Board, which approved the pilot programme, declining to release a syllabus or name the institutions instructing the course.
Williams-Clark, 35, promised that the course will be a thorough exploration of African American history, but others worry that the AP course may be a front to introduce Critical Race Theory, a contentious concept that has recently triggered a cultural war in the US, in schools.
Republican Williamson County, Tennessee, board of education member Eric Welch told the Times he would be scrutinising the new program’s material for any political bias.
As a member of the school board, he said, “Any curriculum that was agenda-driven would disturb me.” We’re attempting to educate, not indoctrinate, he continued.
Williams-Clark, a sixth through eighth grade teacher, said his pupils would study early African kingdoms, the transatlantic slave trade, historical abolition campaigns, and black pride movements.
He said that the course did not violate the legislation against CRT, which Governor Ron DeSantis signed in April, and that he will adhere to Florida’s standards for teaching history.
Williams-Clark told the Times, “I believe people need to realise that critical racial theory is not a part of this course.” In relation to the 1619 Project, this course is also not that.
“There may be aspects that overlap.” However, this course provides a thorough, mainstream examination of the African American experience.
The College Board said in a statement announcing the initiative, which has been under development for a decade, that more institutions would be added to the programme next year with the goal of a countrywide deployment by the 2024–2025 academic year.
Trevor Packer, senior vice president of AP and teaching at the College Board, said in a statement that the initiative “would hopefully expand the invitation to Advanced Placement and inspire students with a greater knowledge of the American experience.”
Although CRT is not covered in the class, according to Henry Gates Jr., a former head of Harvard’s Department of African and African American Studies who acted as an adviser for the new course, it might be briefly discussed when students explore the current discussions regarding race education.
Gates Jr. told the Times that “this hypothetical unit would address the debates over various interpretative frameworks used to understand the history of racism in America.”
I most definitely do not support using such ideas as conceptual frameworks for the course itself. That difference is significant.
The introduction of the new course coincides with a national assault on critical race theory, with legislation banning racial education being passed mostly by Republican politicians.
According to a survey by PEN America, 36 states have so far this year submitted 137 measures trying to limit the teaching of race and gender. This is an increase from 22 states and 54 proposals last year.
The Biden administration’s attempt to promote programmes on how racism is pervasive in American culture was met with opposition last year from scores of Republican senators, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel, who called it “divisive drivel.”
The senators wrote to the education secretary, “Americans never determined our children should be taught that our nation is intrinsically bad.”