Three Georgia professors are among more than 50 academics who have added their names to a statement decrying changes made to the Advanced Placement U.S. History course that is taught to thousands of Georgia public school students each year.
The statement, released Tuesday, says the revisions made in 2014 to the course framework “downplays American citizenship and American world leadership” and suggest local, state and federal lawmakers “may need to explore competitive alternatives to the College Board’s current domination of advanced-placement testing.” The College Board puts together about 36 A.P. courses.
The three Georgia professors whose names are on the statement are Emory University history professor Patrick Allitt; Johnathan O’Neill, history department chair at Georgia Southern University and Harvey Klehr, who teaches history and politics at Emory.
Many Georgia conservatives have criticized the A.P. U.S. History course changes, saying they deemphasize American achievements. Several Georgia teachers, though, have disagreed with the criticism.
College Board officials have said they will release a new course framework this summer that will clarify and encourage a balanced teaching of U.S. history.
“Given the substantive feedback we have received from educators and the general public representing a range of political viewpoints, we are confident that the concerns some have expressed this past year will be resolved by the new framework,” College Board spokesman Zach Goldberg said in a statement Thursday.
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