Faculty Board pushes again on Florida calls for for AP course adjustments
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The Faculty Board is refusing to alter its long-standing Superior Placement Psychology course after the Florida Division of Schooling requested that the course and all others supplied by the group be audited and modified to suit state legal guidelines proscribing instruction on sexual orientation and gender id.
In a Could 19 letter to the Faculty Board obtained by Ok-12 Dive, the state division’s Workplace of Articulation requested the group to “instantly conduct a radical evaluation of all Faculty Board programs” and inform the state “whether or not these programs want modification to make sure compliance” by June 16.
“Some programs might comprise content material or matters prohibited by State Board of Schooling rule and Florida regulation,” mentioned the letter, which cited the state’s “Parental Rights in Schooling” regulation signed March 27 by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which regulates instruction on sexual orientation and gender id in public faculties.
In its response final week, the Faculty Board mentioned it does not plan to switch any of its 40 AP programs — together with AP Psychology — in response to efforts spreading in numerous states to control LGBTQ+ and race-related content material.
“We don’t know if the state of Florida will ban this course,” the group mentioned in an announcement. “To AP academics in Florida, we’re heartbroken by the potential for Florida college students being denied the chance to take part on this or any AP course.”
Faculty Board’s refusal to budge on its course content material comes after a months-long feud with Florida over the group’s new AP African American Research course, which the state claimed is “inexplicably opposite to Florida regulation and considerably lacks academic worth.”
The Faculty Board sparked criticism nationwide after it considerably altered that course’s framework to take away required matters associated to intersectionality, reparations and Black Queer research, and made some matters non-compulsory as a substitute.
Whereas the Faculty Board disputed Florida’s declare on the time that the adjustments to the framework had been made in response to its request, it now mentioned in an announcement it has “realized from our errors within the latest rollout of AP African American Research and know that we have to be clear from the outset the place we stand.”
Faculty Board’s 181-page AP Psychology course framework features a subject on gender and sexual orientation, which the group says has been a problem for Florida college district leaders in mild of latest anti-LGBTQ+ legal guidelines. The training goal for that part is listed as having the ability to “describe how intercourse and gender affect socialization and different points of improvement.”
“That studying goal should stay a required subject, simply because it has been in Florida for a few years,” the Faculty Board mentioned in response to Florida’s request.
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