The Advanced Placement African American Studies course, which students can take in high school for college credit if they achieve a specific score on an end-of-course exam, will not be offered in Gwinnett County, Georgia, according to a report in Education Week.
Voxitatis reported that the school board in Harford County, Maryland, recently reversed a decision and voted to offer the new course, which was piloted last year and is being launched in 2024-25, to meet the AP needs of about 90 students there. In Georgia, though, the situation is different because the state decided not to provide state funding for the course, as it does for other approved courses. An estimated 240 students at six schools had already registered in Gwinnett County.
Georgia is among 17 states that have either passed bans or imposed significant restrictions on certain teachings about race in public schools. Florida outright banned the course before the pilot, and Arkansas and South Carolina treat it as it is being handled in Georgia: schools can offer it but can’t use state funds to pay for it. Only Massachusetts, Nevada, California, Vermont, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia have kept “teaching about race” out of their legislatures so far.
The interdisciplinary course outline is available from the College Board and in our coverage of Harford County’s decision to offer the course.
“[Georgia State] Superintendent [Richard] Woods has opted not to recommend this course for state approval at this time,” Education Week quoted a spokesperson for the state department of education as saying. “Districts have multiple options to offer courses on this topic to their students. Local districts may still offer the AP course with local funding.”
Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) is the largest school district in Georgia, with an estimated enrollment of more than 182,000 students in more than 140 school buildings last year.