Some ideas that were covered in the pilot course are not included in the College Board’s official curriculum for its new Advanced Placement African American Studies course, including reparations and Black Lives Matter.
The big picture: Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, and other conservative politicians have strongly criticized the changes because they say they teach critical race theory, a college-level framework that is rarely taught in elementary schools but is frequently confused with lessons on systemic racism.
In January, the DeSantis administration made an attempt to stop the course by writing the College Board that it “clearly violates Florida law and has little educational value.”
Since then, the decision to exclude specific subjects from the approved curriculum has drawn its own set of criticisms, with many accusing the College Board of caving in to political pressure.
The pilot program curriculum included instruction on “the origins and mission of the Black Lives Matter movement and Movement for Black Lives.”
The new curriculum does not require the BLM movement as a topic of instruction, instead noting it as a sample project topic on a list which the College Board says “can be refined by states and districts.”
