A national conservative push against revised standards for teaching AP American history has come to Georgia, with leading Republican Senators demanding changes in the curriculum guidelines that critics say present a distorted picture of the country’s founding.
Majority Caucus Chair William Ligon, R-Brunswick, along with other influential senators, last week filed Senate Resolution 80, which demands that the College Board change its AP history curriculum framework in effect this school year.
The revised framework removed the term “American exceptionalism” included in the previous version and instead says “students should be able to explain how various identities, cultures and values have been changed in different contexts of U.S. history, with special attention given to the formation of gender, class, racial and ethnic identities.”
“This is a significant shift in the terms by which we teach American history,” Ligon told InsiderAdvantage Georgia. He said that the Senate Education Committee will conduct a hearing Feb. 18 to explain the changes. Trevor Packer, head of the College Board’s AP program, has been meeting with Georgia officials and plans to appear at the hearing, according to a College Board e-mail to InsiderAdvantage.
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