The Jefferson County, Colo. school board has cancelled its review of the controversial new AP U.S. History course framework, more than four months after students initially protested the board’s attempts to revise the course.
The board will instead defer any reviews to existing committees comprised of students and parents, CBS Denver reported on Thursday.
“The JeffCo Board discussed reviewing the curriculum, but ended up passing revisions to current district policy that added community members and students to existing review committees and rejected board-directed review of any curriculum,” Board President Ken Witt said in a statement.
After the College Board’s revised AP U.S. History exam sparked controversy among conservatives, the Jefferson County board of education proposed the creation of a committee to review the course. The committee was tasked with ensuring that the AP U.S. History course materials “present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage” and do not “encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.”
The school board’s proposal prompted students to stage major walk-outs protesting the potential changes to the AP history curriculum. The board then removed the references to patriotism and civil disobedience from its proposal and voted to include students in the review process. Now, the review has been scrapped all together.
The news in Colorado comes as an Oklahoma lawmaker said he would “fix” a bill he introduced that would have eliminated state funding for AP U.S. History courses.
