New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Tuesday that the College Board’s latest Advanced Placement course is being offered, AP African American Studieswill be expanded to 26 schools in the 2023-24 school year.
The course was rolled out in a two-year pilot program across 60 anonymous high schools in the US this year, one of them in New Jersey. This is the College Board’s first new offering since 2014, and it gives “students an opportunity to learn about the incomplete ways in which Black Americans have shaped and strengthened our country,” Murphy said in a statement.
“With governors like Ron DeSantis of Florida prioritizing political culture wars over academic success, New Jersey will proudly teach our children that Black History is American History,” Murphy continued, referring to your comments.
The decision by Murphy is in stark contrast to the Florida Department of Education, which is under Republican administration Gov. Ron DeSantisand it has been inserted into constant conflict with the College Board over the course. The College Board last week attributed the Florida Department of Education “defamation” characterized as “politically motivated” following continued criticism of the curriculum.
“Although the DeSantis Administration has said that AP African American Studies is ‘severely lacking in educational value,’ New Jersey will stand by teaching our entire history,” Murphy said.
The AP program, which allows high school students to take college-level courses before graduation, covers 38 subjects, including English literature and composition, US government and politics, statistics and art history.
“Teaching AP African American History is an honor because it is an opportunity to provide our students with an in-depth and engaging exploration and discussion of our experiences in the United States of America,” said Alnazir Blackman, who will teach AP African American Studies at High School Science Park in New Jersey in the coming academic year, in a statement. “I’m sure the seniors would be happy to know that we’ve come to a place on our journey worth an AP course.”
“African American history has been enshrined in our statewide social studies standards since the 1990s, and subsequently codified in law with the passage of the 2002 Amistad legislation requiring New Jersey schools to incorporate African American history into social studies curriculum,” said the Acting Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education, Dr. Angelica Allen-McMillan.
The AP African American Studies program was in the works for more than a decade before its initial pilot, and the curriculum covers many topics related to Black history and culture, including literature, political science and geography.
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