It passed committee and will go to the full legislature for a vote. Apparently, it violates the legislation which banned Common Core in Oklahoma and the course omits the concept of “American Exceptionalism.” Also, since AP courses can be seen as an attempt at a national curriculum it may lead to all AP courses taught in Oklahoma to be defunded.
Similar legislation is sliming its way through Georgia and South Carolina. I encourage everyone living in a state which has been infected with Common Core rabies to familiarize themselves with their legislature’s Education Committees and watch for bills like this to be proposed. It’s not unique to my state, Oklahoma, and it’s part of a larger agenda, friends. Beware.
I saw this but thought it would be too political for CC.
Anyway, I’m just absolutely disgusted. I can’t even process this to be completely honest.
I work with American Eugenics- an extremely dark part of American history that is never discussed (to the detriment of citizens in my opinion). I live by the words that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
But, given who is passing this, I’m not entirely convinced that they don’t want to repeat the dark parts of US history.
Regardless of political affiliation, it’s important to understand how local educational policies affect students’ ability to be competitive nationally. We moved around several times while my sons were growing up, so I saw firsthand how DIFFERENT their opportunities were depending on where we were living at the time. Where my oldest finished up was an exceptionally good school district, and he was so much more advanced compared to his peers in the other (TX being one of them) states heading into college, despite the fact that the other school districts had been considered “very good” within those states.
@Pbrain, I have noticed the same thing, both in my own upbringing and my children’s (and their friends’) experience. I know of two families who moved from MA, one to Arizona and the other to Florida, and their children were almost a full grade level ahead of their peers, even though their parents bought houses in “good” districts. One has only to look at the PSAT cut-off scores for NM to see huge differences in the quality of education among the states.
It strikes me that the same folks who believe current government can do little right want to teach young people that our past governments have done little wrong. It’s a strange interpretation given that Americans haven’t changed that much, and neither have the leaders we select. Alexis de Tocqueville had our number in 1835.
Of course this is a political topic, but I doubt we’re going to hear from many fans of this legislative committee. CC conservatives, even if they oppose national curricula, are not likely to be folks who believe that US history is better taught via narratives of heroism without significant attention to slavery, genocide, etc.
I don’t know a single student at the University of Oklahoma who’s heard of this and is for the defunding initiative. I’m on OU’s student government and last night we passed a unanimous condemnation of this initiative. Other groups as well as individual students are distributing information about how native Oklahomans enrolled at OU can write to their hometown legislators expressing their disgust that such a bill didn’t die in committee.
OU’s SGA also jokingly wanted to know if the people behind this bill had ever heard of the Trail of Tears and if so, what they thought about it.
A character encountered several times when I helped D study for AP Euro, or was it AP Gov? Probably both 
“I don’t know a single student at the University of Oklahoma who’s heard of this and is for the defunding initiative.”
No doubt that the majority of students at OU are against this bill. I hope you can organize and effectively lobby the legislature - as given it’s make-up - it will pass easily.
I do have to say, however, that I am not a fan of AP classes - but for none of the reason’s cited in this bill.
From other newspaper reports and the actual bill up on oklegislature.gov they suggest AP has changed the course curriculum this year. The bill states funding is contingent on “the course reverts back to the framework and examination in place prior to the 2014-2015 school year.” It sounds like OK is okay with APUSH the way it was.
Just a shameful game that has nothing to do with the correcting huge deficiencies in k - 12 system. All of it, common core or no common core, sad waste of precious resources
After all those years, is it still needed to remind people that matters that combine politics and EDUCATION were mostly excluded from the prohibition?
Fwiw, I still do not understand the anger directed at the Common Core initiative. Nor do I understand the continuous blind support for the AP boondoggle. But then, there might not be much to understand in the entire K-12, except that the service providers would like more freedom to do what they want, which is a proxy for as little as possible and preferably without any accountability.
kmrcollege - can you post a link to the actual bill? I can’t seem to find it. TYIA.
never mind. I found it.
The new APUSH framework is garbage, but it is just a framework. Teachers can still teach the course as they wish. There has been a lot of hyperbole about this in conservative circles.
@emilybee - Here is what came up when I googled it. Click on Bill Summaries.
http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=HB1380&Tab=0
Can one really speak about Texas as having a monolithic education system. It is a hodgepodge of districts with unequal ranges of income and dedication. One cannot compare what happens in the Valley to what happens in Dallas’ Highland Park. Heck, you cannot even compare Highland Park to the district that surrounds it. Nor can you compare Mesquite to Southlake or Coppell.
People who can vote with their feet can pick the right school districts, including one that will spend 100,000,000 on a football stadium and glorified bus parking barn.
Are there any quotes from actual historians regarding their opinions of the merits of the new test?
“The bill states funding is contingent on “the course reverts back to the framework and examination in place prior to the 2014-2015 school year.” It sounds like OK is okay with APUSH the way it was.”
CB is not going to revert back to the previous framework, so that is a moot point.
Here is the bill for anyone who is interested in reading it.
http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2015-16%20COMMITTEE%20SUBS/HCS/HB1380%20CS.PDF
while I personally think APUSH is a fine-enough HS course, I also am a strong supporter of what Justice Brandeis termed, 'laboratories of democracy." Thus, if the residents of OK wants to eliminate APUSH, its ok (pun intended) with me.
And the residents of OK will probably be ok with that result. On the other hand, they surely could use a bit more focus on their three Rs: 'riting, reading, and 'rithmetic!