In light of reports that the Florida Department of Education has told school districts that Advanced Placement Psychology classes cannot be offered in the state because they include discussions of s*xual orientation and gender identity, the College Board issued a statement Thursday urging Florida school districts not to offer such classes.
The College Board, the nonprofit that regulates Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum and administers the SAT college entrance exam, has stated that any AP Psychology courses taught in Florida would be in violation of either Florida law or college standards.
“Therefore, we advise Florida districts not to offer AP Psychology until Florida reverses their decision and allows parents and students to choose to take the full course,” the board said.
Last year, more than 28,000 Floridian high schoolers enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) psychology courses, making it one of the state’s most popular electives, as reported by the College Board. According to data compiled by the Florida Department of Education in 2021, Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology was the sixth most taken AP course in the state.
The tweet below verifies the news:
The College Board is advising Florida school districts to not offer AP Psychology as lessons about gender identity and s*xuality could violate state law https://t.co/E1mCLkqN3F
— CNN (@CNN) August 4, 2023
Rather, the College Board is “attempting to force school districts to prevent students from taking the AP Psychology Course,” the agency stated in a statement to CNN, one week before the start of the new school year.
“The course remains listed in Florida’s Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year. We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly,” the department said.
The College Board claims that since the course’s inception 30 years ago, it has included instruction on gender and s*xual orientation principles.
“We are sad to have learned that today the Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on s*xual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law,” the board said in a news release.
The following article from the California Examiner provides a more in-depth discussion of recent events in the United States:
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Florida and College Board at Odds over School Curriculum
The newest chapter in the ongoing conflict between the College Board and the state of Florida over curriculum standards may be found in a recent decision made by the state’s Department of Education in Florida.
The “Parental Rights in Education” measure, put into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last year, prohibits some classroom discussions of s*xual orientation and gender identity.
The law states “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on s*xual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
LGBTQ advocates, including as the Trevor Project, which aims to prevent suicide among LGBTQ children, reacted strongly negatively to DeSantis’s decision. Opponents dubbed the divisive rule the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
CNN reported that LGBTQ advocates were concerned that the law’s mandate that districts “adopt procedures for notifying a student’s parent if there is a change in the student’s services or monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being” could result in some students being outed to their parents without their knowledge or consent.
The DeSantis administration requested in March that the restriction on teaching about s*xual orientation and gender identity be extended to all school levels, and the Florida Department of Education agreed.
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The next month, the Florida Board of Education reviewed the proposed rule and made the decision to prohibit discussing s*xual orientation and gender identity with students in grades 9 through 12. According to CNN’s reporting, the ruling made it clear that such material has no place in any classroom setting.
The Florida Department of Education requested a review of all AP courses in May, the College Board reported, to make sure they abided with the state’s new regulations. The board stated in a press release on June 15 that it would not alter “courses to accommodate restrictions on teaching essential, college-level topics.”
The promise of Advanced Placement would be compromised if this were to happen because the course wouldn’t be widely accepted by schools for credit and wouldn’t adequately prepare students for professions in the field.
In the same month that the College Board made its decision, the American Psychological Association issued a statement backing the board’s stance on s*xual orientation and gender. As stated in the press release, the group has expressed “unqualified support” for the College Board’s “refusal to accede to a demand by Florida to delete content regarding s*xual orientation and gender identity from its” Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum.
Keep up with the news and get some food for thought by visiting the website CaliforniaExaminer.net.