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As classrooms evolve, teachers adapt their practices and priorities, and as the body of research on what students need to learn grows, we adapt our curriculum and learning tools in response. In this ongoing series, we'll take you behind the scenes with the experts that create our programs to review updates to existing programs, new technology integrations, or brand-new programs.

Today, we spoke with Greg Simmons and Malcolm Reed, educators and co-authors of our new program: AP® African American Studies: From Slavery to Freedom. Greg and Malcolm used their teaching experience and subject area expertise to support the adaptation of a classic text to a standards-aligned, classroom-ready AP course. 

How does the book support teachers and students in tackling sensitive topics?

Malcolm: There’s a section in the teacher’s manual called “Teaching with Sensitivity” that lists topics that teachers may want to prepare to be sensitive to as they approach a new lesson. Conversations that come up in this course can be hard for teachers to prepare for. The history affects everyone differently. Local history can be significant: you might be covering a tragic, violent event in American history that happened where your students live, and they might have relatives that were there, that witnessed or were impacted by the violence. We tried to prepare teachers for some of those situations. 

Greg: Not everyone who teaches this class has a background in African American history. They may have never taken a college course on the subject. My area of research is on white people teaching Black history, and what that means for students, and many white people aren’t aware of the complexities of Black history. Additionally, as with many new AP courses, it’s often the younger teachers who get assigned to teach the class – and while many younger teachers may have lived through 2020 and Black Lives Matter, they likely lack knowledge of the depth of the historical legacies that preceded those events. 

So much of teaching Black history isn’t about what you teach, but about how you teach it. But not everyone can sit down and read forty academic books in a month to prepare!  We built as many supports into the program as we could to prepare any teacher, regardless of their own experience, their own race, and their own background, to be able to pick up this text, use it to support their own learning, and then transmit that learning to their students. 

What underscores the pedagogy of AP African American Studies: From Slavery to Freedom? Where will students be challenged, and how will they be supported?

How does the course engage students who may be new to AP-level rigor?

Greg: AP African Studies is unique in that it will probably attract students who are least likely to otherwise take an AP course, because it’s about interest. A lot of parents will be excited to hear that the course is offered – they'll say, you’re going to take that and you’re going to teach us!

That was all, of course, part of AP’s plan, to see how a course like this one could diversify the AP program. It’s an exciting and very successful way to see how we can help students who otherwise would not sign up for AP to see what they’re capable of at the college level. 

While I haven’t taught the subject as an AP course yet, I have taught it as a dual enrollment class. I saw students who were low performing in all their other classes get As in my class because they were so engaged in what we were talking about. When I did a unit on the history of hip-hop, I could recruit any student in the school to come into my classroom. Any class that allows us to utilize the richness of Black culture to pull in kids that we wouldn’t normally see in an AP course, regardless of their race, is worth exploring. No matter the politics surrounding the course, what we’re seeing is that students are eager to learn about content. 

Malcolm: It’s also been exciting to see how the course has recruited Black male teachers into teaching AP courses. I’m a football coach (typical football coach teaching history, I know) and I’ve been able to recruit players who wouldn’t have otherwise signed up for an AP course. They’re all passing the exam and doing these really rich sports-related research projects for the course. It’s all about interest and relevance. 

What do you want most for the teachers and students who take this course?

Malcolm: For students, a 5 on the exam would be great, right? But I hope that they are always going to find something to be curious about from lesson to lesson, and that curiosity causes them to go research something that wasn’t even covered, to go explore on their own, and come back to their teachers to talk about it. I want them to take motivation and inspiration from the stories they learn about, from the individuals who helped overcome the challenges that African American people face in the United States and beyond. The program highlights individuals from all backgrounds that aided in the struggle for freedom and equality. My class has a very diverse makeup, so learning about heroism of African Americans is important, but learning about people whole were allied in the struggle hits home as well. Seeing people in history united over a common goal really resonates for my students.

I got into teaching because of football – I always wanted to be a football coach. I love the game and what it’s done for me and what it’s taught me. But for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m doing some work that matters more than football. I’ve gotten emails from students who have taken the course letting me know that they now want to pursue African American studies, and that taking this course enabled them to find their passion.

Greg: For teachers, I think one of the most powerful features of the program is Franklin and Higginbotham’s bibliography. They created a list of the most quintessential books for a given topic that a teacher could use to enrich their own knowledge, or to refer to their students for further reading. We put a lot of care and thought into expanding this list, and I hope that teachers use those sorts of resources to delve deeper into the subject.

For students, I hope a lot of things. I hope that they’re successful on their test, successful in the course. But most of all, I hope that this course validates for them that African American history and culture is a legitimate field of study. That’s a big thing for them, especially Black students who haven’t yet been told that. It matters to them: to know that their history is important, as important as anyone else’s. I want them to know that their own history and their own culture are worth studying, and those studies can even lead to a successful career path. That’s the most important message this course can convey. 

For students, I hope a lot of things. I hope that they’re successful on their test, successful in the course. But most of all, I hope that this course validates for them that African American history and culture is a legitimate field of study. That’s a big thing for them, especially Black students who haven’t yet been told that. It matters to them: to know that their history is important, as important as anyone else’s. I want them to know that their own history and their own culture are worth studying, and those studies can even lead to a successful career path. That’s the most important message this course can convey.