The College Board said Monday that changes would be made to its new Advanced Placement African American studies course.
In a statement, the College Board said its development committee and other experts “will determine the details of those changes over the next few months.”
“We are committed to providing an unflinching encounter with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture,” the College Board said. “To achieve that commitment, we must listen to the diversity of voices within the field.”
Critics, however, assert that the College Board is bowing to political pressure to remove topics some people find sensitive, such as Black Lives Matter, slavery and LGBTQ issues.
The College Board was founded in 1990 “to expand access to higher education,” its website says. It aims to help students “prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success—including the SAT, the Advanced Placement Program, and BigFuture.” It also aims to be a resource for educators and schools.
The changes at the College Board come as there’s been a wave of conservative laws passed by Republican Governors over the past year.
The College Board’s AP Black history course gained national attention in the past few months when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he would ban it from state curricula because, according to him, it pushes a political agenda.
According to the American Library Association, the year 2022 experienced a record number of books banned—more than 1,200 across the U.S., nearly double that of 2021 and by far the most in 20 years, since the association began keeping data.
It was unclear what the College Board’s changes to its AP African American studies course would be or when they would be made public. The course was launched in 60 U.S. schools and was set to be expanded to 800 schools and 16,000 students this upcoming school year.
