Nacala McDaniels, a 2023 graduate who majored in AP African American Studies, speaks during a news conference at the Statehouse on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA – Nacala McDaniels was excited when her Richland County high school started offering Advanced Placement African American Studies during her senior year.
“It seemed like the school system that was there to support all of their students was taking a step in the right direction,” the 2023 graduate said during a news conference Tuesday.
In 2022-2023, McDaniels High School, Ridge View in Columbia, was the only school in South Carolina chosen by the College Board to participate in a national pilot of the new course – among 60 nationwide. The pilot expanded to 700 schools in 40 states in 2023-2024, although it is unclear how many of those were in South Carolina.
The College Board updated the framework in December, ahead of its official launch in the upcoming school year, following accusations from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis about a woke curriculum.
But the South Carolina Department of Education has chosen not to include the new course in its list of AP classes for 2024-2025. School districts can still choose to offer it on its own as an honors-level course, but students cannot take the College Board AP test to potentially earn college credit. (Tuition credit was not available in the pilot course.)
Deputy Superintendent Matthew Ferguson announced the decision in a June 4 memo to school officials across the state.
“In the years since this pilot began, there has been significant controversy surrounding the course on issues directly raised by the South Carolina General Assembly,” Ferguson wrote as one of the reasons for not adding the course to the state list of AP courses.
He points to existing state law that prohibits racist concepts from being taught in elementary schools and upcoming legislation that Republican leaders say should clean up the law and make it clear that they don’t want to stifle education about the ugly parts of history.
A panel of lawmakers recently reached a compromise on the chambers’ various versions of the bill. But the compromise requires supermajority approval in the House of Representatives and the Senate during an upcoming special session to advance to Governor Henry McMaster’s desk. Otherwise the effort for the year dies.
Concepts banned from K-12 classrooms since 2021 include that each race is superior to the other, that everyone is responsible for past atrocities because of their race, and that traits such as hard work are oppressive and be racist. The bill purposefully removes a rule in current law that prohibits classes that cause a student to feel “discomfort, guilt, anxiety or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or gender.”
In addition to the ongoing debate, Ferguson said, all social studies standards in South Carolina are due for their normal revision.
“As a result, the department has not approved any new social studies courses statewide and has instead focused on efforts to ensure that future course offerings are aligned with both the soon-to-be updated standards and the state law,” Ferguson wrote.
South Carolina is also not putting AP Pre-Calculus on its 2024-2025 AP list. But it was the AP African American Studies decision that raised alarms among advocates who saw its removal as a way to erase black history from public schools.
“No longer offering this course is an insult not only to the Black community, but also to the students who have a passion for learning,” said McDaniels, an elementary education major at Clemson University.
Supporters say the course does not violate existing law or pending legislation. Instead, it covers a history of African cultures, slavery, the civil rights movement, and notable African American figures throughout history.
Removing the class “implies that the study of African Americans is politically biased and inherently a form of indoctrination,” said Clementine Jordan, a rising sophomore at the University of South Carolina who also took the course at Ridge View High.
“There is nothing to prevent districts from offering AP African American Studies as a locally approved honors course if they choose, in addition to continuing to offer other approved African American courses, as districts have done for a number of years. Ferguson’s memo reads.
But that’s not enough, said Jennifer Bartell Boykin, a teacher at Spring Valley High School.
Advanced Placement classes allow students to earn college credits while still in high school if they pass the final test with a high enough score, which can save them time and money as they pursue their degrees, Bartell Boykin said.
“That is unacceptable because it degrades the class from its original purpose of providing students with the college education that AP courses provide,” Bartell Boykin said. “It allows for a separate and unequal doctrine that deemed the course unworthy of being AP.”
AP courses are also graded on a different scale than other honors classes.
While honors classes are weighted more heavily than other classes when calculating a student’s grade point average, AP courses are weighted on an even higher scale. High-achieving students may choose to take another AP class instead of a lower-level African-American history course to maintain that higher GPA, says Biana Woodard, who teaches history at Midland Valley High School.
The education agency “maintains its unwavering commitment to teaching the actual historical experience of African Americans to our students. We will continue to proactively seek ways to highlight the countless contributions Black South Carolinians have made to our state, our nation and the world,” Ferguson said in the memo, which pointed to programs such as an essay contest focused on Martin Luther King. Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Such programs cannot replace what students learned in the AP African American Studies class, advocates said. The class delves into topics not covered in typical U.S. history classes but that are important for people of all races to know, said Rep. Jermaine Johnson.
“We need to teach the truth because if they remove this from one class, they are essentially whitewashing history,” the Hopkins Democrat said.
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