The Texas state board of education is considering requiring Advanced Placement U.S. History courses to follow the state curriculum rather than the framework laid out by the test developers, reports the Associated Press.
The College Board鈥檚 new framework for the AP course has been in the news quite a bit recently. The , saying it distorts American history by emphasizing negative aspects. The College Board responded right away by and clarifying that the framework was just that鈥攁 framework鈥攁nd that teachers are welcome to populate it with other content.
Ken Mercer, a Republican on the Texas board, has been an especially vocal opponent of the U.S. history framework. The Dallas Morning News reported in July that for at least a year 鈥渨hile state officials determine whether they violate a 2013 law that prohibits the teaching of common-core materials in Texas schools.鈥� Texas is one of four states that never adopted the Common Core State Standards鈥攁nd the only one that passed a law specifically forbidding their adoption.
Mercer told , an international magazine, that the College Board鈥檚 U.S. history framework doesn鈥檛 include enough on the nation鈥檚 military victories. Of his own high school history courses, he said, 鈥淭hose great generals in the Civil War, crushing Germany in World War II, that鈥檚 all that really stands out to me.鈥�
According to the Associated Press, some Texas board members sought to block the new AP exam statewide, but the board lacks jurisdiction to do so. If the board did delay implementation of the new AP U.S. history program, which it is set to vote on this week, students would be taught the state curriculum but still take the national AP test.
AP U.S. History is one of several Advanced Placement programs that have been, or will be, redesigned to . As we鈥檝e written, another popular national test by the College Board, the , is also undergoing revisions to become more reflective of the common standards, which the group鈥檚 president, David Coleman, helped write.
This all brings up an interesting question: If national exams that have high stakes for graduates are more aligned to the common-core standards, how will students in states that are not using the standards fare?