That fuss about AP History

In October 2012, the College Board revamped its AP History course to encourage greater depth in fewer topics, writes Emmanuel Felton for The Hechinger Report. The class is the College Board's second most popular after AP English Language and Composition, with 442,890 students taking the exam in 2013. Its course description for the first time calls for teachers to impart critical thinking skills to their students, ideas in line with the Common Core, and raised little notice until July, when the Texas State Board of Education expressed concern that the class would bring the Common Core into Texas schools, where it is banned. In August, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution that the new curriculum "reflects a radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation's history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects." Other conservative groups joined in. Responding to concerns of anti-American bias, the College Board released a full sample exam and said the new course is more balanced than previously, as it requires "teachers and students to look at multiple sides of an issue." The framework does not mention Martin Luther King Jr., Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, James Madison, or Rosa Parks -- omissions that have prompted complaints -- but neither did the course description in effect from 2010-2011 through the end of the last school year. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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