AP Psychology course will remain unchanged in Fla.
In an abrupt reversal, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr., sent a letter to the state’s Superintendent’s Association late Friday reversing Thursday’s notice that the Advanced Placement psychology course curriculum must be scrubbed of its gender and human sexuality unit in order to continue being taught in Florida classrooms.
In his letter to the state superintendents, Diaz said the state believed the psychology course could be taught “in its entirety.” Charged by critics as censorship of course content, the Florida Department of Education initially maintained that teaching the AP course’s lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity, are topics forbidden by the state’s new laws known colloquially as the “Stop Woke Act” and “Don’t Say Gay” signed by Gov.
Ron DeSantis earlier this year. In a statement after Diaz’s actions on Thursday barring the AP course, the College Board, the non-profit organization that oversees the AP Program, SAT Suite and other programs for public and private high school students seeking to attend college, issued a statement that read: “We are sad to have learned that today the Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law.” The College Board then instructed Florida’s high schools to not offer the course unless it was taught to students in full.
The Associated Press reported the College Board refused to modify the psychology course to comply with Florida’s new legislation.
