What black history is taught in SC? The Ministry of Education says it is enough, others disagree

Many local black leaders are concerned about the decision to end the placement of African American studies in South Carolina public schools. The Ministry of Education claims that black history is already adequately taught in the state’s schools.

The Advanced Placement class, which gave students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school, is a rigorous, interdisciplinary approach to examining the African American experience from the African diaspora to the civil rights movement.

In a June 4 memo, the Department of Education abruptly announced that after a two-year pilot program, South Carolina schools would not be able to offer African American studies as an internship course, although it could be taught as an honors elective. if schools choose to do so.

“The state Education Department maintains its unwavering commitment to teaching the actual historical experience of African Americans to our students,” C. Matthew Ferguson, deputy state superintendent, wrote in the memo. “We will continue to proactively seek ways to highlight the countless contributions that Black South Carolinians have made to our state, our nation and the world.”

But some believe that taking away AP African American Studies and still offering AP European History sends a clear message.

“It allows for a separate and unequal doctrine that makes the course unworthy of being AP,” Jennifer Bartell Boykin, a teacher at Spring Valley High School and Columbia’s laureate, said Tuesday.

Rep. Jermaine Johnson, D-Richland, called it “whitewashing” of history.

“Some have used this decision to promote a false narrative that South Carolina is avoiding teaching African-American history, thereby denying historical facts and dishonoring African Americans and their rich contributions to our state,” the state Department of Education in another memo. “This is simply not true.”

The state first implemented expectations to teach students black history as part of regular history and social studies courses by the 1989–1990 academic year, and it was the job of the State Board of Education to find and provide materials to to develop such education.

The current Social Studies, College and Career Options Standards were last approved in 2019 and outline the subjects of history, economics, geography and government that students in South Carolina should learn.

Students first begin learning the history of the United States and South Carolina in elementary school and should continue through high school.

In fourth and fifth grades, students must learn lessons ranging from colonization through the Civil War and the Reconstruction era to the 1920s, including the effects of the Triangular Trade on enslaved Africans and its role in the British colonies, the expansion and abolition of slavery. in the 19th century, the development of black codes and Jim Crow laws.

In sixth and seventh grades, students are expected to explore world history and geography, including African societies.

In eighth grade, the focus is on South Carolina, including the state’s history with slavery, the Civil War, and the civil rights movement.

High school history classes in the United States are broad in scope, but also include black contributions to the world wars and the civil rights movement.

But the state’s social studies standards are due for a routine overhaul, the Department of Education said. And since the most recent update, the General Assembly has seen a flurry of attempts to cap tuition at the state’s public schools.

A provision of the state budget, first issued several years ago and earmarked for the upcoming budget, dictates that state funds cannot be used to teach certain concepts about a person’s race and gender.

H. 3728, the “South Carolina Transparency and Integrity in Education Act,” which would ban “certain subjects” — namely those related to critical race theory — from being taught in public schools, is in conference committee. The bill, called the “Education Transparency and Integrity Act,” would prohibit public schools from suggesting that because of a student’s race or gender, that student bears responsibility for past actions committed by other members of the same race, gender, ethnicity , religion, color or national origin. It would also allow for a review of a school’s curriculum and teaching materials by parents and the public.

It remains to be seen how these laws will impact the current public school curriculum. But the state Education Department said it is working to ensure course offerings are in compliance with updated standards and state law — one of the reasons it cited for the discontinuation of AP African American Studies and the “significant controversy” surrounding the course .