Response to Current Events Surrounding AP African American Studies Course
The Social Studies Accelerator was created to respond to the demand from educators, parents, and students for more diverse and inclusive content and to support teaching topics that are often perceived as complex and hard – slavery, Indigenous people’s history, religion, culture, and civic practices. It has been well documented that there is widespread failure to accurately teach the hard, nuanced, history of slavery and enslaved people. And the confusion around teaching the history of marginalized groups extends far beyond the issue of slavery itself. Textbooks have characterized the Civil War as a war fought for states’ rights and downplays the lasting effect of Jim Crow laws. Unfortunately, there has been a long track record of political efforts to sanitize the history of the United States.
In response, the Social Studies Accelerator has jumped to action by identifying solution providers who can respond to the growing demand for high-quality instructional materials, which includes diverse perspectives and voices, intentional selection and integration of primary resources, teacher supports for inquiry-based instruction, and evidenced-based practices. We continue to collaborate with partners and solution providers to accelerate the adoption of high-quality and culturally sustaining social studies instruction resources across the country.
The recent events in Florida around the Advanced Placement African American history course and the possibility of teachers facing felony charges for resisting the current ban on certain books is disheartening for so many in education, especially Black History advocates, like us, who are now further mobilized to respond to this obvious attack on students’ rights. The Social Studies Accelerator is proud to partner with several organizations to advance high-quality social studies instructional materials and resources, and we support this response by The National Council for the Social Studies, we believe everyone can actively take steps to combat the efforts to suppress Black and underrepresented communities’ histories by focusing on solutions, including calling for transparency and taking the following actions:
Ask your local district if they are offering AP African American Studies course.
Sign up for a Black History course with Reconstruction.
Plan a visit your local or regional Black history institutions, the National Museum for African American History and Culture, the Whitney Plantation, etc.
Monitor your state legislative actions on anti-CRT efforts and book bans.
Sign up for more information on how to preserve our education systems with Campaign for our Shared Future.
