Just in case there was any doubt about what Governor DeSantis and Florida legislature banned when they outlawed any discussion of “critical race theory,” that doubt has been resolved. They do not want schools and teachers to acknowledge race, racism, or the very existence of people of color in the United States. Sight unseen, the DOE has banned an AP course on African American studies. The Department claimed that the content of the course is historically inaccurate and violates state law, even though the Department has never seen the course syllabus.
The Miami Herald reported today:
Without a detailed explanation, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has rejected a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies for high school students, broadly claiming it violates state law and that it “lacks educational value.”
When asked for specifics on the content, the Florida Department of Education did not respond, making it unclear what items the state believes are unlawful or objectionable.
“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” the state wrote in a letter to the College Board, the company that administers the course as well as other interdisciplinary courses and the SAT exam.
The Advanced Placement program is the first course in African American studies to be offered by the College Board. It would allow high school students to earn credits and advanced placement at many colleges across the country.
The course has been in development for more than a decade, and it focuses not just in history, but explores the “vital contributions and experiences of African Americans” in literature, the arts, political science, geography and science, according to the College Board. A syllabus is not yet publicly available.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article271362032.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Fascists are alive and well in Florida.
There is I suspect quite a difference between most AP courses in HS and actual college level work administered by college professors. There are a slew of reasons from academic to inequality to not be thrilled with AP courses.
That said: It would seem the College Board could solve this if it so desired( they wont ). If Fl insists on a State wide ban preventing School Districts from offering the course. It would seem that as a private Corporation and in the name of Academic Freedom they could refuse to do business in the Klan State of Flor-a-duh. That would include offering any residents any AP courses and the SATs. The rest of the confederacy could join them if they wish. They wont that would place ethics over profits at a supposed non profit. Of course in my fantasy it might require the other “non profit testing services to join them and Universities to deny entrance.
Some one stick me with a pin I must be dreaming .
I agree with all of this. Still, we know why the course was rejected. I bet any local districts would also find courses with similar titles rejected.
Roy Turrentine
I am sure there would be more than a few to reject the course. But quite different than a State wide ban.
Joel,
There is also a large difference between courses taught by different college professors within a college and across colleges. I am sure there is some overlap between courses in high school and courses on college campuses.
Back when my son was taking AP courses I looked at the micro exam. It was perfectly reasonable exam, and it did include some free response questions that the students had to answer. Most of my colleagues give only multiple choice exams in intro micro, so I would say that is a point in favor of the AP exam.
“The Department claimed that the content of the course is historically inaccurate and violates state law, even though the Department has never seen the course syllabus.”
Why doesn’t that not surprise me?
But hey, any pushback and challenging the College Board can be considered to be a good thing, even if done for all the wrong reasons. Many of the things done, policy wise, is done for all the wrong reasons. . . see the standards and testing malpractice regime for example.
Florida is becoming a substandard state. Maybe okay for retirees (maybe) but not for families. I personally wouldn’t send my child to college there, not if the government is dictating the curriculum. I also wonder whether colleges will be able to attract top notch teachers. As far as public schools – it’s no wonder they have to scrounge for teachers.
I bet DeSantis does not complain at other things connected with the standards and assment. He miss-uses data like Colemangates himself.
I didn’t think anyone could be a worse governor than Rick Scott. I was wrong!
Eric Greitens?!?!
Fools errand. Like picking the worst individual Covid virus. Or on the other end, as impossible to find as an honest republican.
The Florida DOE seems to have determined that the course offered is historically inaccurate based on the title since the syllabus is not complete. We can only assume that the objection is to teaching about the existence of African-Americans in general. I think Ralph Ellison was talking about that in Invisible Man.
It is apparently inappropriate to note several historical realities:
That, during the opening of rice cultivation on the Sea Islands, specific African tribes were sought for their knowledge of rice culture.
That, during the opening of cotton cultivation, over a million African-Americans were forced marched from eastern plantations to slave auctions in places like New Orleans and Vicksburg where they were sold to cotton planters.
That, despite subjugation, some of these people went on to produce various contributions to society in general.
That systematic persecution during the age of White Supremacy led to a caste system in the United States that reached way beyond the borders of the old slave states.
That, notwithstanding all of this, the Civil Rights movement’s success led us to where we are today, with at least some hope for the children of history, if we can just beat back the base nature of some of the primates in the modern political cauldron.
They should have called it “White Studies” or even better “Great White Studies” and DeSantis would never have objected.
If they had called it Great White Studies, DeSantis would probably have thought it was about sharks.
Let’s hope the College Board with millions of students’ college admissions depending on them goes goes all rebellion on the death star of Florida.
Nothing requires them to sell their product to a school district so pull out of every Florida district. If the real power brokers – Disney, NFL, etc. won’t step up (remember when Arizona wouldn’t legislate MLK Day? when North Carolina banned single-gender restrooms?) – may the College Board will!
And, gee, maybe the colleges, too!
And —- Worst Governor? You mean Eric AKA forced-to-resign-from-office and then lost-primary-for-Senator (and family issues) Greitens.
And, since we’re on Missouri, don’t forget one of the better MO Governors who ran for the Senate, tragically died in a plane crash three weeks before the election and still won (back when being a Democrat was not disgusting to most Missourians). Who lost that election? John Ashcroft who then went on to be the AG for Bush II and we know how that worked out).
Ha, the “Show Me” state!
Thanks to the Dred Scott decision being recently cited as precedent and resurrected from the dead, if you try to leave Missouri, I think we can send you back. At least the bbq and Italian food are good.
Let’s hope the College Board expires and goes to hell.
Related- “Donor driven censorship” is alleged at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Reporting describes the dean’s withdrawal of a Fellow position planned for the former head of Human Rights Watch. Public objection to Georgetown University’s hire of a Koch network guy, changed the course of events. It was similar influence at the Kennedy school that resulted in follow through on the hiring of the HRW guy.
I’m different from this blog’s host and commenters – I need to know a lot more about what’s in that AP course before I form an opinion about it. And this sentence should be beneath the intelligence of someone who was formerly a serious scholar and historian: “They do not want schools and teachers to acknowledge race, racism, or the very existence of people of color in the United States.” The type of absurd hyperbole that is a staple of this blog every day.
Please do us the courtesy of explaining why you consider this to be “absurd hyperbole”. Hard to understand an opinion if it’s not explained. Perhaps it will illuminate the assertion of “beneath the intelligence” as well. We need to know a lot more before drawing conclusions to form an opinion.
Unless the Miami Hearld is incorrect, only a course description is presently available. The commentary here reflects the apparent fact that rejection of the course by the DOE came without knowing more than a brief course description.
Looks like Petra applied a generalization to only the specific case of the AP course. It’s not hyperbolic to say that, in general, Gov DeSantis and his ilk do not want schools to acknowledge race. Their words and actions over the course of time clearly belie any tolerance on their part.
Petra,
If this blog is below your standards, don’t read it.
Luckily, i don’t have Petra’s problem because nothing is below my standards.
SDP: You sure?
If so I’m disappointed.
Does not having any standards come in “below my standards”?
Nothing (ie, zero) is below every positive value.
So nothing is below even the highest standards.
The AP course materials are based on a course currently offered at Howard University. “Henry-Louis Gates, Jr., one of the country’s foremost experts on African American history, helped develop the AP African American Studies program. The class is not CRT. It’s not the [New York Times’] 1619 Project. It is a mainstream, rigorously vetted, academic approach to a vibrant field of study, one half a century old in the American academy, and much older, of course, in historically Black colleges and universities.” I seriously doubt the course “lacks educational value,” and Florida should have to define how it “violates state law.”https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/henry-louis-gates-jr
Teach your children well.
Teach your children well
Their father’s hell did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by…
Sad day – David Crosby died today.
The music still resonates –
The standards and testing malpractice regime guarantees that they haven’t been and won’t be taught well.
One the one hand, shame on Florida’s government for rejecting African American studies courses. On the other hand, good for Florida’s government! College Board is trash. AP tests prevent authentic learning. If students take an AA studies class at a university, they will learn important sociological concepts that will make them better citizens and potentially better scholars. If, however, they pass a standardized AP test on AA studies in high school, they will go to college and life thinking they learned something that they didn’t, which causes hubris, which is worse than not taking a class on AA studies.
What a shame. Two wrongs don’t make a right. There can be no winners in Florida, only losers with greed on both sides: the Florida government and College Board.
You make a very good point. Now that I’ve experienced AP courses as a parent, I find it kind of offensive that students can “test out” of classes and get college credit. I know from what I’ve seen of AP government, it pales to what a good intro college course is like (or at least what I remember from my experience, which is probably archaic at best). I think these are more about being a part of the workforce than they are to be educated to act on ones’ own.
Do you have the same thought (it being offensive) about Advanced Credit wherein one can get university credit hours for high school work?
Maybe it’s time for a federal lawsuit filed by a student who would like to take the course. They are being deprived opportunities other students in other states have. Florida still takes money from the federal government and the DOE, time for some lawyers to step in.
https://www.cpalms.org
This is where you can look at Florida’s standards. Check out the history and civics standards. I noted that they seems to be more like something I’d expect from China. The focus is narrow and lacking context. There are statements about our country that reflect values instead of facts. Worse of all, there doesn’t seem to be any attempt to education students about other systems of government for them to compare and contrast and make observations on their own. It all looks like information to memorize for fill in blanks on tests.
Sure, Florida may be great for people who don’t want to pay income taxes but the people who will make the community work in the future need to be able to think and understand the world not just be complacent worker bees that will have lots of children to boost the population.