TAMPA, Fla. — The national nonprofit that runs Advanced Placement classes has declined to alter its popular psychology course to meet Florida’s restrictions on teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation.
The Department of Education asked the College Board in May to consider modifying the material to ensure compliance with the State Board of Education’s new rule prohibiting instruction on those topics at all grade levels, unless it is expressly required in approved standards.
On Thursday, the College Board informed the department in a letter that it wouldn’t be making any changes.
“Please know that we will not modify our courses to accommodate restrictions on teaching essential, college-level topics,” the group wrote. “Doing so would break the fundamental promise of AP: colleges wouldn’t broadly accept that course for credit and that course wouldn’t prepare students for success in the discipline.”
Department of Education officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The letter noted that the American Psychological Association said gender and sexual orientation is “foundational” for any college-level course on the subject. Association president Arthur C. Evans Jr. issued a statement applauding the College Board for rejecting Florida’s “unconscionable demand to censor an educational curriculum and test.”
Evans added: “Educators cannot teach psychology and exclude an entire group of people from the curriculum. Florida is proposing to remove an important body of science from the AP curriculum and test, which will leave students unprepared to continue studying psychology in college.”
The College Board’s refusal could lead to the psychology course being removed from high schools across Florida, although the organization said in a separate letter to its “AP community” that it hoped that would not occur. AP psychology is among the top programs the group offers in Florida, with nearly 30,000 students sitting for the exam in 2020.
Students use AP courses as a way to earn college-level credits, potentially saving them thousands of dollars in tuition. Florida has been among the national leaders in percentages of students taking and passing the exams, until recently celebrating this as a success.
“To AP teachers in Florida, we are heartbroken by the possibility of Florida students being denied the opportunity to participate in this or any other AP course,” the letter stated. “To AP teachers everywhere, please know we will not modify any of the 40 AP courses — from art history to science — in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement and career readiness.”
Earlier this year, College Board got caught up in accusations that it changed the framework of its new African American studies course to meet demands made by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who rejected the course saying it lacked educational value. The College Board attempted to rebound from the allegations, and in April announced it would again revise the course to confront the criticisms.
It said Thursday it learned from the “mistakes” handling African American studies, and did not want to create a similar controversy again.
Around the same time that the College Board spoke of revamping the African American studies framework, Florida lawmakers took steps toward making Advanced Placement less relevant in the state. The Legislature included millions of dollars in the budget for the creation of Florida-based advanced courses and exams.
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