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DENVER (AP) — There are no plans to review the new Advanced Placement U.S. history curriculum in the suburban Denver district where hundreds of students left class to protest the proposal last fall, the school board president said Thursday.
President Ken Witt said the Jefferson County school board recently stated its intent not to pursue the proposal in response to inquiries from the public.
Amid the protests and vocal opposition from others in the community, the board never acted directly on the proposal to review the history course with an eye toward promoting patriotism and downplaying social disorder. In October, members instead broadened representation on the committee that reviews curriculum but left open the possibility that it could review AP history, leaving many students and parents wary.
Witt said the public outcry over the changes in the history course nationally led the College Board, which administers the AP program, to make changes to the curriculum.
"I'm delighted that the College Board reviewed and revised their framework," he said.
The new curriculum was designed to be more like a college-level course built around themes such as "politics and power" and "environment and geography". The College Board was faulted for not mentioning famous figures like Martin Luther King Jr. in the curriculum's instructions but including the Black Panthers. The board later explained that teachers knew to include King but asked for help with less obvious examples of people and events to discuss around some of the themes in the course.
Conservatives also took issue with the new design for taking an overly critical view of American history and downplaying the nation's successes.
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