College Board to release new Framework for AP US history this summer

The College Board shares Lynne Cheney’s conviction that college-level American history courses should foster a rich understanding of positive and inspiring events, individuals and ideas—and should resist a disproportionate focus on instances when Americans have failed to live up to the ideals on which our nation was founded (“The End of History, Part II,” op-ed, April 2). While there has been a great deal of misinformation and misunderstanding about the current AP U.S. history course framework, there has also been principled and thoughtful feedback. 

This summer, the College Board will release a new edition of the course framework which will clarify and encourage a balanced approach to the teaching of American history, while remaining faithful to the requirements that colleges and universities set for academic credit. Given the substantive feedback we have received from educators and the general public representing a range of political viewpoints, we are confident that the concerns some have expressed this past year—including those of Mrs. Cheney—will be resolved by the new framework.

Trevor Packer

College Board