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Just days before the start of the semester, Arkansas announced that high schools will not be allowed to offer the College Board’s new AP African American studies course, ABC reported.
According to the Arkansas Education Association, the decision was made last Friday, with classes in some districts beginning Monday.
This is that second academic year that the College Board is offering the pilot course; it was rolled out at 60 schools across the country in 2022-2023, and was slated to be offered at hundreds in 2023-2024, including six in Arkansas. It is the second state to ban the course; the first was Florida, which announced in January that schools would not be allowed to offer it.
The Arkansas Department of Education said in a statement that it “encourages the teaching of all American history and supports rigorous courses not based on opinions or indoctrination,” ABC reported.
The College Board expressed disappointment that the course, which it said underwent a thorough development process involving consultation with over 300 African American studies professors, would not be available to Arkansas’s students.
