Consider This from NPR - Views From The Classroom On The New AP African-American Studies Course

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

There are a lot of different Advanced Placement history courses out there: art history, European history, U.S. history. Now, after a decade in development, there finally is an AP course focused on African-American studies.The course hasn't official launched yet, but it's currently being piloted in 60 schools across the U.S.The course has drawn national attention after controversies erupted over what is, and isn't, in the curriculum. We ask three educators who are teaching the course what they are actually teaching and why it matters.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Golden Mair High School is nestled in downtown Milwaukee. Nearly two-thirds of the students there are Black. We talk about arts. We talk about cultural trends. We talk about the diaspora outside of the United States as well, which might not be included in some of the other classes that I've taught before. That's Alex Yonke, a teacher at Golden Mair. He's talking there about the new advanced placement course in African American Studies, which he's been teaching at the school. And during a recent lesson, Yonke pulls up a photograph of

Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey, who supported the Back to Africa movement in the 1920s. We've looked at this a couple of times throughout this class, right? We've talked about people who supported separatist ideas and people who supported more like accommodationist or integrationist ideas as well. Now, the College Board, which creates AP courses, has been developing this curriculum for a decade. Devin Hayden, one of the students in Yonke's class, says the material in the course goes deeper

than your average social studies class. I think taking this class really helped me understand that there's a broader history besides slavery and civil rights movement that we can all stand and know about. And being able to learn about all of that really just kind of made my education a lot more wholesome. Right now, this course is in a pilot phase. It's being taught only at 60 high schools across the U.S. with plans to expand to hundreds of schools next year.

But even before the curriculum was finalized, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida threatened to ban the AP course in his state, saying it amounted to, quote, a woke indoctrination of students. Then on the first day of Black History Month, the College Board finally did release the course's official curriculum, and there were several revisions. Certain themes and certain authors were no longer included, and critics accused the organization of caving to the political pressure from DeSantis and others. My colleague Mary Louise Kelly spoke with College Board CEO David Coleman and the Senior Director of the Advanced Placement African American Studies Program, Brandi Waters. She asked them about those curriculum changes and the backlash.

For people trying to follow all this, let me just put a basic question, a yes or no question, and you can each take it. Was the curriculum changed to appease Governor DeSantis or other critics who have accused the College Board of being woke? Yes or no? No. Absolutely not. Consider this.

Despite all the controversy over its curriculum, the AP course on African-American studies is going to be launched nationwide over the next couple years. We asked three educators who are already teaching it for their perspectives. That conversation is just ahead. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Thursday, February 23rd. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR.

We're going to hear now from three educators who've been teaching a pilot version of the AP course in African American Studies this year. These educators are Maurice Cowley from McDaniel High School in Portland, Oregon, Lauren Bernstein from Randallstown High School in Baltimore County, Maryland, and Nelvie Williamson, who teaches in Houston, Texas at the Young Women's College Preparatory Academy. I asked them how they felt about the revisions that the college board made to the curriculum, revisions that downplay or altogether eliminate certain topics like Black queer studies or intersectionality or the Black Lives Matter movement. We hear first from Nelvie Williamson in Houston. In regards to revisions or things that were taken out, as a longtime educator, I know that any framework or curriculum, there are going to be revisions and so forth.

And part of what a lot of people are saying was taken out are actually things that when you think about it, many states are saying, we don't want that to be taught. So you have to think about, in general, how the course could be received no matter where it is, because it is a national course. And you don't want one state to say, okay, we're not going to teach it because of this. We're not going to teach it because of that outside of what's happening in Florida. So putting those types of contemporary topics into the framework as additional resources that students could use for research, I believe it's appropriate just for the fact that even though it's not in the framework, those topics do come up in class. And we, as teachers, address them in class. It's not like we are not going to address it. How can I address the March on Washington without talking about Baynard Rustin? How could I do that? And by mentioning Mr. Rustin, that helps to affirm one of my students

who identifies as LGBTQ plus. And they could say, oh, okay, I have a place. There's this person who had a significant place in history. How can I teach James Baldwin without mentioning his background and his gender identity? Or within the jazz age. So those things come out kind of organically, don't you think, colleagues? Yeah. Let me hear from Maurice and Lauren. I hear murmurs of agreement there. Yeah, just to piggyback off of that, Nelvie, I didn't really think of it that way when you say that we have to make sure that the course is not just appropriate, but that we're making the course so that it is available to all students. And at first when the changes came out, my first reaction was,

oh, how could they take these things out? They're so important. But when I thought about it a little more, like you said, they're so intertwined throughout the curriculum that even if there isn't a designated lesson on queer studies, on intersectionality, Those topics are so intertwined in African-American studies already that it's impossible to completely ignore them. Yeah. Maurice? And I would just chime in,

like I don't have much to add. I just, I agree with what's being said. I think that as an educator, I think about what impacts, whether it shows up in my classroom is whether it's relevant to the experience of my students and their whole understanding of the topic. So stuff being moved from a primary to kind of secondary or more optional or however AP college board wants to handle it, if it's in black history, if it's in black studies, it will show up in my classroom in some way. Right.

Right. Right. So it sounds like none of you saw the downplaying or the elimination of those topics from the course as a message to not talk about Black queer studies or intersectionality. Oh, no. No. But let me ask you, you know, Nelda, you were saying, if it comes up, I will certainly address it. But are any of you planning to intentionally weave any of those topics in some way into the school year? Intentionally? I would say that I am intentionally going to weave in Black Lives Matter movement because my students here in Houston participated in those marches. George Floyd is from Houston. He grew up about a mile away from my school. There's no way that I could not bring

Black Lives Matter when my students have, they actively participated in the marches. And they saw me actively participate in marches, especially for Breonna Taylor. And it's part of our history, as Maurice said, it's part of the history and we cannot not teach it because that's one part of history that our children have actually lived. Can I ask about your students? Like, have they brought up the controversy over the AP course curriculum? Do they have questions? What have those conversations been like in class? Tell me.

We took a whole day to talk about it because my kids are very much involved in the news. They follow the news. You know, they brought it up to me. We took a look at the statements from the Florida Department of Education. I wanted to give them the space to reflect and kind of express how they felt about it. Because you have a state department of education stating that African American studies lacks educational value. And I teach a class full of black students. So a statement like that coming from a state government that kind of invalidates their experience and their history, that's a tough blow.

And I wanted to give them the space to talk about that and to really kind of explore their feelings. Yeah. So my students definitely pay attention. And it was actually really, fun is going to be not quite the right word, but our final was happening shortly after the Florida Department of Education made the statement that the class lacks educational value. And so I turned that quote into part of their final, reflecting on the first semester and all the things that we've learned. And I just said, somebody is saying that this class lacks educational value. So what would you say in response to that? And like, what have you learned that would kind of disprove that statement?

And it was fun to have them be able to like talk back to this imaginary person in the room who would say that what they're learning doesn't have value. And all of them, to a person, had loads of things that they learned and that they took away from this semester. And none of them are repetitive. They all have a different piece of the course that kind of struck with them. And so there isn't a lesson that doesn't have value.

Everything connected to some kid in some way. I love that you did that. Yeah. You know, we should point out like the college board has been developing this course for about a decade now. And even after the controversy and the changes that we just talked about, it is still the first ever AP course in African American Studies. Does that at least count for something? Can you talk about why this kind of course really matters? This class matters because there are students in my class who want to learn about it. And it matters because I think there are students in my class who are excited about

the opportunity to learn this stuff in ways that they are not excited to learn about other things. And I think the controversy is annoying to me because it takes the focus off of the incredible experience that our students are having and puts it in a political spectrum that is... I mean, it's not that the political spectrum is irrelevant, but my kids deserve to have themselves represented in the curriculum in this kind of a powerful way. And the joy of that experience shouldn't be robbed of them for our adult nonsense.

What about you, Neldy and Lauren? Yeah, they're kids. They're people, you know, and their experience deserves to be validated. You know, they're not political pawns on a chessboard. And so I completely second what Marie said. Nelvie? For me, in regards to that question, it is this class matters because my students matter. They matter and they should be allowed to learn about, in particular, the history, the culture, traditions of their community. Yeah. And if I can just add on to that, I think a lot of what we're talking about is the validity of the experience and why it is so important for our

students to see themselves in the content. But on top of that as well, most of our schools teach US history in one year. Now our country is almost 250 years old. It is incredibly difficult to fit that much content into one year, especially as the country progresses and every year there's more and more to teach. So I think one of the reasons why this course is so unbelievably important is because a lot of times in US history, we don't have the time to really dive into those topics because we've got a curriculum, we're trying to get through it in a year. So I think a lot of times there are so many important topics, you know, especially social topics that either get skimmed over or sometimes completely ignored just because of the issue of

timing. And so that's one of the reasons why I think this course is so important is because it finally is allowing for a space for us to really dive into those social issues and really pay attention to a marginalized group of people that, you know, they've been marginalized in our history and then on top of that marginalized within our history classes. It has been such a pleasure speaking with all of you. I've been speaking with educators Lauren Bernstein, Nelby Williamson, and Maurice Cowley. Thank you all so much for what you do every day. And I wish you the best of luck with the rest of the school year. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang.