Dive Brief:
- The Texas Board of Education voted (15-2) to change how Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses are taught, namely by mandating that educators teaching these courses stick to the state's Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards.
- News of this change comes days after the College Board announced a new AP U.S. History exam, replete with new instruction material for educators, that some Texas conservatives believe perpetuates "anti-American" themes.
- Those against the new AP course also believed it was a covert way to bring the Common Core into Texas, where it is currently banned.
Dive Insight:
"This new APUSH (AP U.S. History), the professional development of the teachers, is using the Common Core progressive teaching strategies, versus the old APUSH allowed for the Texas TEKS to be taught in the classroom," conservative activist Alice Linahan told the Texas board, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The initial issue individuals like Linahan found with the new course was that it lacked a sentiment of "American Exceptionalism." For example, Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust were not mentioned in a section on World II, but in that same section, students were asked to answer a question about Hiroshima and how dropping the atomic bomb raised questions about American values.
A representative from the College Board responded defended the exam's fairness but said a few changes would be made. These changes occurred a few days ago, but still the board wants AP teachers to use the state's standards.
This is somewhat disappointing, since the beauty of AP and IB courses is that teachers can really pull from a variety of sources and treat the class like a college course. Additionally, the exam is going to be based on the AP instruction plan from College Board, so Texas could be setting its students up for failure. Ultimately, however, many educators said in the past that they used a mix of TEKS and the College Board suggestions to teach the course. Ultimately, things might not be too different.