Arkansas joins Florida in nixing AP African American studies

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Arkansas is joining Florida in nixing the Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies course from its schools.

The state announced right before classes began for the 2023-2024 school year that AP African American studies would not count for credit toward high school graduation.

“On this first day of school, we share in their surprise, confusion, and disappointment at this new guidance that the course won’t count toward graduation credits or weighted the same as other AP courses offered in the state,” said the College Board, the organization that administers the AP Program.

The news of the course getting dropped by the state was first reported by the Arkansas Times over the weekend.

The Arkansas Department of Education released a statement Monday saying the course is still in the pilot stage and can not be accepted until revisions are finalized.

“The AP African American Studies pilot course is not a history course and is a pilot that is still undergoing major revisions,” the department said in a statement to Education Week. “Arkansas law contains provisions regarding prohibited topics. Without clarity, we cannot approve a pilot that may unintentionally put a teacher at risk of violating Arkansas law.”

Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders ordered curriculum to be reviewed at the beginning of this year after the state banned critical race theory — an academic framework evaluating U.S. history through the lens of racism that has become a political catch-all buzzword for any race-related teaching — including a review of AP African American studies that was in two school districts in the state last year.

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