Florida Board of Education approves controversial standards for teaching Black history

The new guidelines come after the state passed a controversial education law, which required lessons on race be taught in an “objective” manner that does not seek to “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.” The state also prohibited a pilot Advanced Placement high school course on African American studies in early 2023, saying it violated state law and “lacks educational value.”

The updated standards on African American history instruction include “benchmark clarifications” to provide additional guidance to teachers on specific topics for instruction. One updated standard that has, in particular, come under fire directs teachers to include instruction on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Another “benchmark clarification” under increased scrutiny directs teachers to include instruction on “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans” when teaching about the growth and destruction of Black communities during Reconstruction and beyond. Among the examples listed as an act of violence was the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, when dozens of African Americans were killed when they went to vote.

The Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union, slammed these standards and others in a statement issued Wednesday as “a big step backward.”