FIFTH CONSECUTIVE DAY OF PROTESTS
Despite controversy over the AP history curriculum, a teacher says notmuch has changed
More than amonth into the Jefferson County school year, Wheat Ridge High School teacher Stephanie Rossi is covering the creation of the colonies in her Advanced Placement U.S. history course.
After teaching the same course for nearly 12 years, she says the only thing that has changed in her class with this year’s new College Board framework is that she can go deeper into topics— like the role of religion, geography and ideologies in the development of the colonies. “It’s all of the same material,” Rossi said. A proposed Jeffco School Board committee to review the new framework has been cited as a catalyst for the pastweek’s issues around the district — a group of teachers calling in sick Sept. 19 and thousands of students leaving class to protest.
College Board revisions to its AP framework started rolling out in 2011 and have included redesigns for language classes, world history, physics, biology and chemistry courses.
A nonprofit based in New York, College Board oversees Advanced Placement courses, writes the frameworks for teachers to follow and the exams that can earn students college credit. The organization began a process in 2006 to review and edit the framework formost courses to ensure they still align towhat colleges require to offer credit.
The Common Core does not include standards for history, so alignment to what has been called the national curriculum was not a factor. However, just as Common Core emphasizes a stronger focus on critical thinking, College Board authors say the new U.S. history framework emphasizes analyzing and thinking skills using primary sources.
Exam questions this year will include
“If the kids are going to understand the current controversy over gaymarriage, they need to knowit didn’t just arrive in 2010 or 2006. It’s a long-simmering discussion.” Fritz Fischer, University of Northern Colorado history professor
more short-answer questions and less multiple choice.
The frameworks never have been viewed as a curriculum, and teachers say they have some freedom to design their courses.
Rossi says she looks at Jeffco’s curriculum for the other classes her students have taken to help her plan.
“I go back to see what has been covered,” Rossi said. “By the time they get to me, they are steeped in Civil War. So you take their knowledge at that spot and you expand on it.”
In Denver Public Schools, teacher Mark Thalhofer told The Denver Post this month that he had freedom to use the framework as a guide.
He said he always has taught topics he considered important even when they weren’t clearly laid out in the framework.
Officials for Douglas County School District refused to answer questions about the freedom their AP teachers have in designing their classes and how they currently teach U.S. history but said in a statement they support student choice.
“In DCSD, we value and prioritize choice — empowering students and parents with quality information to make the best choic- es aligned to their unique needs and goals. AP U.S. history is an elective (choice) available to our students,” their statement reads.
Previously, teachers complained they knew so little about what would be on each year’s test that they had to skim centuries of history in one school year.
Having an organized framework and better idea ofwhat will be tested, teachers say, helps them better plan what theywill cover in class.
Fritz Fischer, a history professor at the University of Northern Colorado and former AP history teacher, says part of the changes that caused controversy across the country are due to a change in how scholars are reviewing history.
Going farther back in history helps provide more context to understand historical issues, he said.
While some teachers already focused on pre-1776 history, Fischer said the framework now is more explicit about the coverage, meaning slavery became a broader topic to cover.
And in adding more years to come closer to present day, challenges faced by the gay community were introduced.
“If the kids are going to understand the current controversy over gay marriage, they need to know it didn’t just arrive in 2010 or 2006,” Fischer said. “It’s a longsimmering discussion.”
Around the country, some upset over the new framework have challenged states and schools to reject it.
This month, the state education board in Texas voted to abandon the College Board framework and use only its state curriculum.
In Jefferson County, a proposal — now edited and tabled— would create a panel to review that history materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights” and that they don’t “encourage or condone civil disorder.”
Fischer believes the caution with the new framework is unnecessary.
“The framework does accurately reflect scholarship, and most of all there is a focus on historical thinking,” Fischer says.