Students can’t earn credit for AP African American Studies
Access to AP African American Studies is now in question for dozens of students in Arkansas, the latest state to challenge the course over what it calls “indoctrination.”
Teachers were told late last week about the shift, just ahead of the school year beginning across the state. The Arkansas Department of Education said students who take the course, banned earlier this year in Florida, could not earn high school credit for the class in part because it is still in a pilot phase.
The course, the agency said, is still being revised, and could violate Arkansas laws about prohibited topics. That could put teachers at risk of violating state law. “The department encourages the teaching of all American history and supports rigorous courses not based on opinions or indoctrination,” state education department spokesperson Kimberly Mundell told USA Today Tuesday.
Arkansas began looking into the College Board course months ago, following executive orders from Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. One of those orders, signed on her first day in office, bans “indoctrination and critical race theory in schools.”
