Education Week - March 9, 2022 - 6

Schools to Pilot AP African American Studies
Course Amid Upheaval Over Teaching Race
At least 60 schools this fall will test out a new college credit course
that examines African American history and culture
By Ileana Najarro
The College Board is developing a
new Advanced Placement course in
African American studies at a time
when the nation is reckoning with
how teachers should talk to students
about race and America's racist past.
The new course will be piloted this
fall at about 60 schools, with more
schools to be added in the pilot's
second year. The College Board is
working in close partnership with
academic and cultural institutions,
and with the African American community
on the national and local
level, according to a spokesperson.
The course will include key connections
to the African diaspora and
will be the largest and most accessible
high school course in the discipline.
About 38 percent of U.S. public high
school graduates in the class of 2020
took at least one AP exam, according
to a College Board report. AP courses
help students stand out in college admission
applications and earn college
credits while in high school.
At the same time, as of February, 41
states are considering or have passed
legislation that limits how topics of
race are discussed in the classroom.
Asked how such legislation would
impact the development and eventual
rollout of this course, if at all, the College
Board had no direct response. In a
statement, the organization said only
that: " We have a long-standing process
for developing new AP courses that
draws on the knowledge and experthrough
a different perspective.
One question around the development
of the AP course Pitre has is who
is going to decide what bodies of knowledge
will be included. For instance, the
1963 March on Washington may be
discussed when talking about the civil
rights movement, but what about the
Million Man March, the 1995 rally over
racial injustice organized by Nation of
Islam leader Louis Farrakhan?
He also wonders if the course will involve
community engagement. One of
the key components of Black studies,
when it originated, was to be impactful
in the community, where students
would take the knowledge they gained
in the classroom and apply it to solving
real world problems.
" It will need some fine-tuning as it
Rachel Collins teaches a lesson in the elective African American history course at White Station High School in
Memphis, Tenn., in February. The school will pilot a new AP African American studies course next school year.
tise of professors and K-12 educators
and results in courses that are widely
offered and taken across the country. "
Digging deeper into past and
present African American culture
White Station High School in Memphis,
Tenn., already offers AP courses
in U.S. history, world history, human
geography, and European history. This
fall, such courses will be rounded out
thanks to the new pilot program.
The general study of African American
history, when taught in K-12
schools, is often embedded within
other social studies courses, said Lawrence
Paska, the executive director
of the National Council for the Social
Studies. But a standalone course at the
high school level that is doing more
than just providing a survey look at
history and instead digging into, understanding,
and celebrating culture
as its own area of study is less common.
The
course at White Station, part of
the Memphis-Shelby County school
district, will range from the medieval
kingdoms of Africa to contemporary
moments in America. Throughout the
pilot, teachers and students will be
asked for feedback, said James Smith,
manager of the district's AP programming.
The College Board has already
spent years working with college professors
at many historically Black colleges
and universities throughout the
country and at other colleges to make
sure that the course reflects in-depth
scholarship, Smith added.
Black studies, Africana studies, and
African American studies " cover all of
the courses that you would get in the
social sciences, and even some of the
sciences, " said Abul Pitre, chair of the
department of Africana Studies at San
Francisco State University. " But it has
this kind of perspective that kind of
separates it out because you get it from
an African-centered perspective, and
not necessarily from a Euro-centered
perspective. "
This includes courses that cover
psychology, economics, health, gender
studies, and more, Pitre said. Such
an academic discipline inspires all
students to think critically about their
understanding of the world by having
them look at pre-existing knowledge
6 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 9, 2022 | www.edweek.org
will go, " Pitre said of the course, " but
definitely a very significant contribution
to the American landscape in
terms of transforming what we've
seen in education over the past several
years. "
Meanwhile Paska, of the National
Council for the Social Studies, said
the new AP course should open up the
conversation of what work districts
can do in earlier grades to better prepare
students for this kind of in-depth
scholarship in high school.
" Elementary kids are increasingly
in very diverse schools. They work
with each other, they play with each
other, they're sitting together in small
groups, " Paska said. " So for them to
be able to see themselves reflected
in their curriculum materials, in their
stories, I think, at an earlier age, that
prepares them for this advanced level
of study later. "
A principal hopes the course will
diversify Black AP participation
White Station High School in Memphis
already offers a semester-long elective
on African American history which
will continue throughout the pilot.
Recognizing the national underrepresentation
of students of color in
AP courses, White Station Principal
Carrye Holland said she hopes AP
African American studies can speak
to students who want to learn more
about their history and culture and
who may not have thought of taking an
AP course before. For instance, while
Black students made up about 14 percent
of the nation's class of 2020 high
school graduates, they were only about
8 percent of AP exam-takers that year,
according to the College Board.
" I'm a big believer in bringing in
courses that relate to our students, "
Holland said. " I think that high school
is hard, because kids can be so bored
and find coursework that doesn't relate
to them. "
While logistics are still being
squared away, students are already
interested and asking questions about
the course content and how it will
work, Holland said.
Brad Vest for Education Week

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - March 9, 2022

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