WASHINGTON — The College Board, which has been under fire during the past year from conservatives for revisions it made to the AP U.S. History course, released a new version Thursday that it says responds to “principled feedback” from critics.
“This new edition addresses the legitimate concerns expressed about the 2014 framework,” Zachary Goldberg, a spokesman for the College Board, wrote in an e-mail.
“Every statement in the 2015 edition has been examined with great care based on the historical record and the principled feedback the College Board received. The result is a clearer and more balanced approach to the teaching of American history that remains faithful to the requirements that colleges and universities set for academic credit.”
The new version will take effect in the coming 2015-2016 school year.
Conservatives, including the Republican National Committee and 2016 GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson, had slammed the 2014 AP history course for overemphasizing negative aspects of U.S. history, portraying historical events as conflicts between groups of people and failing to fully explore the unique and positive values of the American system.
Rick Hess, director of education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, was critical of the 2014 version but said Thursday that the newest edition was “surprisingly good” and free of bias of either a liberal or conservative nature.
“I expected to be disappointed — I thought the last version was horrific,” said Hess, a one-time high school social studies teacher. “But what I see is … fair-minded, reasoned and coherent, and I would be very comfortable teaching U.S. history with this.”
Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, said there is still room for improvement.
