The decision by the top education official in Georgia not to approve Advanced Placement African American Studies has left students uncertain of their courses and teachers unsure if their lesson plans will make it off a syllabus just days away from the start of a new school year.
State School Superintendent Richard Woods declining to approve the course means schools could offer the class but would not receive state funding for it.
Backlash has been swift, with activists and lawmakers planning a demonstration Wednesday in Atlanta to oppose the decision. The course was piloted in 33 Georgia schools the previous academic year.
Raymond Pierce, president of the Southern Education Foundation, said Woods is “embracing the politics of hate,” adding, “There is a subculture in this nation and definitely in the state of Georgia that has a nostalgia for antebellum, a nostalgia for anti-Blackness, a nostalgia that believes the country was greater when a particular population of people was oppressed, if not enslaved. It is un-American and it is wrong.”
There still are paths forward for the course to be in Georgia classrooms. While some are advocating for Woods to change his mind, the state Board of Education also can initiate an approval directly. Some have called for districts to pay for the courses regardless.
Reaction to Woods’ decision began Monday, with state Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn, posting her displeasure on social media after hearing Gwinnett County Public Schools, the largest district in Georgia, was dropping the course.
“The fact that AP African American studies was removed from our schools is alarming and an injustice to our students who eagerly anticipated taking this course. Erasure of Black history from our schools is not and never will be OK,” Clark said.
The state created a course on African American studies in 2020, and a spokesperson for Woods said the superintendent believes it “is the best path for schools to offer students instruction on this topic.” The course, however, is an introductory-level class with a narrower scope, and it does not come with the opportunity for college credit.
Whether to forge ahead
Atlanta Public Schools will continue to offer the course, using district funds to pay for it. The school system issued the following statement Tuesday to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
”Atlanta Public Schools’ charter system status gives us the flexibility to continue offering Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies, even though it will not be supported with state funding. APS will provide the course to students with local funds. AP African American Studies will continue to count for credit toward graduation. This district is committed to providing rigorous instruction that helps our students become globally-minded citizens.”
APS students still will be able to take the AP African American Studies exam for college credit, officials said.
What APS is doing is highly unusual, said Georgia school financing experts. David Schaefer, vice president of research and policy at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said, “This is almost a first-off. I just don’t know of a single case where it has occurred that a district has picked up a course and paid for it.”
The Gwinnett district said in a statement Tuesday, “Since the state will not recognize the AP African American Studies course, GCPS will not be able to offer it as originally planned. This decision impacts approximately 240 students at six schools who have registered to take the course.”
One Gwinnett County teacher slated for the course said, “Teachers report back for school on Thursday, and I don’t know what I’m teaching.” The teacher, who’s starting his seventh year in the classroom, asked not to be named due to concerns with retaliation.
Sixty students enrolled in the course in its first year, and nearly all passed the exam, earning a chance to receive college credit, he said. More than 100 students signed up this year.
“We do not talk a lot about African American figures” in the rest of the curriculum, said the teacher, who also teaches U.S. history courses. “In the (U.S. history) course, the story of African Americans and Africans starts with slavery.” African American studies starts the story in Africa, he said, covering the kingdoms and empires on the continent, eventually elaborating on important but lesser-known Americans like civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and abolitionist Sojourner Truth.
Former Gwinnett social studies teacher Aireane Montgomery called Woods’ decision “heinous.” She leads Georgia Educators for Equity and Justice, a group that started in Gwinnett County and has grown to include teachers and advocates across the state.
As a teacher, she developed and taught a course designed to reflect the diversity in the school and teach about different cultures. “My students enjoyed having an ethnic studies course to be able to think about their lived experiences and see it within the classroom. And that was just the start,” she said.
A rising senior at Dunwoody High School, Daniel Herrera, 17, was looking forward to taking AP African American Studies this year. When he and his classmates learned the class might be in jeopardy, they were shocked.
“It was going to be a very popular class,” said Herrera on Tuesday.
“As a Hispanic student and a student who identifies with the Hispanic community, I try to also take a role with minority issues. I have been at the forefront of trying to get this class back in session, trying to get it to go. It is the responsibility of students to encourage remembrance of all of our history, whether good or bad.”
Credit: Contr
Credit: Contr
Herrera said he wants to tell Woods, “We must remember our shared history and we must be able to say that we adequately teach everybody’s history equitably and fairly.”
Tyler Lee, a senior at Gwinnett’s Peachtree Ridge High School and a youth activist, signed up for AP African American Studies but has not received any information from his school about his schedule or if it’s changed.
He said it was hypocritical that African American studies is not being supported while schools have long offered AP European History. “This class does no harm, so why are they fighting against it?” he asked.
Introduced as a pilot in 2022, the African American Studies course earned the condemnation of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other conservative governors who called it radical indoctrination. In 2023, the College Board changed the curriculum, downplaying Black Lives Matter, critical race theory and the African American queer experience. Despite the concessions, Florida banned the pilot, and Arkansas and South Carolina withheld state funding.
Seeking other options
A spokeswoman for the College Board said the organization is aware of Woods’ decision, and “We regret that students and educators won’t receive the full benefits provided by the state as with other AP courses.”
Districts could follow Atlanta’s lead, funding the course themselves.
DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond said, “This is a sad day for public education in Georgia. And an embarrassing moment for the state school superintendent who I considered an honest, objective person.”
Thurmond, a historian specializing in Georgia history and a former DeKalb County Schools superintendent, urged Woods to reverse this decision. If Woods will not, Thurmond said the state Board of Education should overrule him. And, if that fails, Thurmond said local boards of education should approve funding to underwrite the cost of the class.
Montgomery similarly said Gwinnett should offer the course regardless of state funding. With Gwinnett’s size and influence, it would be a strong message to other districts as well as state leaders that the course is important.
