The College Board announced Thursday that it would refuse to take out certain topics from its AP courses to match with a recent education law in Florida.
After House Bill 1069 was signed into law in May, the Florida Department of Education asked the College Board to review its courses to make sure they adhered to the new state standards.
HB-1069 prevents concepts like “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” to be taught to students in school in grades pre-K - 8 unless the lessons deal with health or a reproductive health course.
It also restricts classes teaching those topics in grades 9 - 12 if the instruction isn’t “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
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As a result, FDOE told the College Board that it would have until June 16 to get back with the department about any changes that needed to be made.
The terms have come under fire in Florida schools as parents expressed concern about potentially inappropriate content being taught to children.
According to the American Psychological Association, “gender identity” refers to “a person’s deep felt, inherent sense of being a girl, woman, or female; a boy, a man, or male; a blend of male or female; (or another) gender.”
However, the term has become divisive, as some people believe that gender is wholly separate from sex, and others believe that gender is instead predicated on sex.
In a statement on June 15, College Board officials said that they would not modify any of their 40 courses, including art, history and psychology, to comply with Florida’s standards.
There has been no word from FDOE about whether the course will be banned in the upcoming 2023-2024 school year.
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