College Board accuses Florida Department of Education of ‘slander’

The College Board lashed out late Saturday against Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his state’s Education Department, saying that their disparagement of the nonprofit’s new Advanced Placement African American Studies course amounted to “slander.”

The organization’s heated remarks come after a statement last month from the Florida Department of Education’s spokeswoman, who said the AP class - now under a pilot program at about 60 public high schools nationwide - “lacks educational value and is contrary to Florida law,” and even implied that the class contained falsehoods. “If the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the Department will reopen the discussion,” said the spokeswoman, Cassie Palelis.

On Saturday, the College Board issued a response, saying it was time “to clear the air and set the record straight.” The group, which oversees the AP program and the SAT, said it regretted “not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander” and that its failure to speak up, “betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field.”

The Post emailed Palelis on Sunday afternoon seeking a comment but did not receive a response.

The College Board is fending off criticism from the political right and left over the course, which, according to its official framework, “foregrounds a study of the diversity of Black communities in the United States within the broader context of Africa and the African diaspora.”

DeSantis - who recently called for the defunding of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the state’s colleges and universities - last month said the AP class taught elements of a “political agenda.” More recently, some on the academic left have denounced the College Board for revisions the group recently made to the class - changes that they view as caving to conservatives but that the nonprofit has argued were strictly apolitical.

Last week, Florida’s Education Department released a timeline suggesting it had been privately protesting to the College Board for months about the class. The state agency said it was “grateful” that the nonprofit made some alterations to the course but that it wanted more information before it could grant approval.

But the College Board on Saturday insisted that the communications with the state were merely “transactional emails.” It said the state consistently declined to list specific problems with course material.

“We had no negotiations about the content of this course with Florida or any other state, nor did we receive any requests, suggestions, or feedback,” the College Board statement said.

The College Board also said that when Florida notified the nonprofit of its rejection of the course, its officials called the state seeking an explanation.

The College Board said these phone calls with the Florida Department of Education “were absent of substance.” The nonprofit added: “In the discussion, they did not offer feedback but instead asked vague, uninformed questions like, ‘What does the word “intersectionality” mean?’ and ‘Does the course promote Black Panther thinking?’”

This academic year, only five schools in four Florida school districts offered the pilot AP course in Black studies. When it became public in January that the state was not going to authorize the new class, a district with two schools offering the course ended it.