I guess it’s fair to ask whether it’s a national, or only a state problem if Oklahoma decides that it would like to produce more ignorant high school graduates than before.
What are Oklahoma high school graduates ignorant about?
Well, the whole purpose of this change is to make them more ignorant of American history, by teaching them American Exceptionalism. I suppose it could redound to the benefit of students from other states, in terms of elite college admissions, etc.
I’m not a US historian (didn’t even do all my primary schooling in the US), but my understanding is that American Exceptionalism is an historical idea, so omitting it completely mights also lead to some ignorance.
I prefer that just the historical facts be taught as much as possible, as I believe that studying history offers the greatest opportunity to develop critical thinking skills.
I agree with your second sentence. The proponents of a curriculum emphasizing American Exceptionalism don’t, however.
I don’t think proponents of American Exceptionalism necessarily want the concept of American Exceptionalism taught, it should be an unseen hand guiding the curriculum and way it’s presented 
“and for the high-achieving students they were really the only option because the alternative was regular US History which was unchallenging was populated by mostly under-achievers.”
I don’t buy that argument. Taking one regular history class with the “underachievers” won’t kill them. They will be sufficiently challenged once in college in history courses.
“I must ask you as well: if you don’t like AP courses and don’t live in OK, then why do you care if they are eliminated there?”
Personally, I’m more concerned over the curriculum proposed to replace it - but I also understand for many kids being able to receive as many college credits as possible before college is very important in helping with affordability of university.
I don’t believe in arbitrarily limiting the options of others just because of my likes or dislikes.
I don’t really care if you “buy that argument.” It isn’t yours to buy. I had an extremely high-achieving child whose favorite subject was history.
If your smart son loved math, would you keep him off the high-achieving track simply because doing so wouldn’t “kill him?”
When I was in high school, because of scheduling vagaries, I wasn’t able to take the standard World History course for college-bound students, and ended up in World Geography–in a classroom in which all but two of the students had previously failed the course. It didn’t kill me–in fact I learned some useful things about human nature. But I didn’t learn much World Geography, because the teacher wasn’t able to teach anything other than the most rudimentary material.
It isn’t arbitrary though, unless you consider every state-mandated curriculum requirement “arbitrary.”
I have heard that our high school’s new principal has eliminated some of the AP courses that were offered when my kids attended there. The environment at our hs had become too cutthroat and onerous and divisive, it was supposedly decided. Do you object to that decision?
"if your smart son loved math, would you keep him off the high-achieving track simply because doing so wouldn’t “kill him?”
If I was opposed to the particulars of that class in the higher track, yes. I certainly wouldn’t want my kid in the US history class being proposed in Oklahoma. I suspect I would have to look for a private school whose curriculum was more in line with actual history. Likewise, the people in Oklahoma who don’t like APUSH can keep their kids out of that class, home school their kids, or enroll them in a private school whose curriculum they prefer to the one offered in the pubic school.
I think there is a cost to the state or school district for offering AP classes, isn’t there? (At least for the low-income schools. We parents had to pay for the $125 book, the $85 test and $25 to pay for “graders” at the time my kids took it).
I think there can be good reasons for dropping an AP course. A desire to replace it with propaganda isn’t one of them.
My oldest son took APUSH back in 2011-2012.He got a 5. My 10th grader has to decide whether to take it by tomorrow. He would have the same teacher that my older son did. I asked her if there were any real changes in the with the new APUSH.
Here’s what she said.
"The redesign of the class has created a substantially different class from what he took years ago. The new exam is based on skills rather than a lot of information to memorize, which I think is a move in a more positive direction. There is still a lot of information, but students use that information to argue different perspectives on events. They also have to read and compare historians, so we delve into historiography as well. The test has been changed from 80 multiple choice questions to 55, but the questions are all based on reading and analyzing documents rather than just memorizing lots of facts that “might” show up on the exam. There is still a DBQ and an FRQ but they have also added a short answer section that I really like since students can answer based on what they know, again, rather than memorizing lots of stuff. "
Anyway she seems to think it’s better. I’m not sure I think it may depend on the type of student you are. Some kids are better at memorizing information and others are better at analyzing documents. The problem my son is facing is that he is currently taking AP World History but next year he can only take 2 AP classes. He is planning on take AP Lang and would like to take AP Computer Science. He has been told however that he will be bored to death in the regular US history course. Because it is a core class,everyone has to take it and there are a number of students that have trouble reading…
I don’t have an opinion about OK’s replacement history course, as I have no idea what it will or won’t contain (other than reference to American Exceptionalism).
It is fascinating though, how the contents of history courses gets people riled up. People really react to what fellow citizens are taught about us and how we are portrayed.
[Sample new APUSH test](AP United States History Course – AP Central | College Board)
The only true marginal cost to the district is that charged by CB for the test (~$95). The cost of the “book” is a real stretch, since if not APUSH, a student would be taking another HS class which would have its own text, and the cost of that text still comes out of the high school text budget.
Hm, interesting about the book costs, because we were required to buy the book. (Students who applied for help through the counseling dept could get their’s paid for.)
Having looked at the new test, I like it a lot better than the old one. Rather than the student having to memorize a novel-length set of facts, and risk being unlucky and not memorizing a couple of facts that happen to show up in the test, the student needs to have a broad understanding of the forces and events in US History and how historians view those trends. The student also needs detailed knowledge-- but not all the details for every single year.
This is a good example of a student having to do history:
There’s no one right answer here, and the task is to marshall the facts and knowledge at the student’s disposal to write a brief persuasive essay.