CLEVELAND — High school teaches students lessons both in the classroom and far beyond it, and learning about Black history is a lesson that Cleveland Metropolitan School District leaders said they want all students to learn.
"African American history is U.S. history, and I think all students should learn about the contributions," said CMSD Chief of Schools Lisa Farmer Cole. "I think it also helps to deepen the level of awareness; it helps to make us more connected. We have a commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion in the district."
That's why CMSD plans to offer the course in two of its high schools this fall, at Garrett Morgan Leadership Academy and John Marshall School of Engineering.
"Many of our schools already offer it as a course, but when we have the opportunity to take part in this pilot program with the college board to offer the advance placement opportunity to better prepare kids for college and career, we had to be a participant," said Farmer Cole.
The course is still in its pilot program stage; it started with just 60 schools nationwide this school year, and Lakewood High School was the only one in Ohio offering the course. Heading into the fall, college board officials said 700 schools nationwide are participating in this second phase of the pilot. Nineteen of them are here in Ohio, and five are in Northeast Ohio, including CMSD, Akron, Mansfield, Euclid and Lakewood.
"We thought that there would be interest; we didn't think that there would be as much interest and desire," said Greg Walker, who works for the College Board. "Myself being out and doing workshops and working with educators, I'm seeing people that missed deadlines and are visibly frustrated."
But the College Board has faced a lot of criticism nationwide regarding this course. On one side, some say the course doesn't dig deep enough into Black history, while others say it pushes a political agenda.
"What AP does not do is put students into 'this is the way that you should think.' Students have to be able to create arguments, but they have to look at multiple sides through multiple lenses," Walker said.
Now Walker said a team of experts will be making changes to the course framework before it's fully offered in the 2024-2025 school year.
"As we tighten it up for the full launch, we want to allow them to do their work so that higher education institutions, the scholarly community, as well as the K-12 educators all are in agreement that this is a true representation of African American studies at the collegiate level," said Walker.
RELATED: Lakewood one of 60 schools in US offering new AP African American Studies course
You can watch more about Lakewood's AP African American studies course in the player below:
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