Teacher who damned AP test in US history says the European AP test is ok

The College Board’s Advanced Placement exams play an outsized role in American schooling. While they are taken by only a small slice of high schoolers, their prestige and visibility means they have a broader impact.

This is especially true in areas like history and the humanities. Thus, when the College Board released a disturbingly politicized and incoherent framework for US History a couple years ago, I was an outspoken critic. When the College Board admitted it had a problem, rewrote the framework, and released a vastly improved version, I said so.

Of late, a new debate has emerged regarding the College Board’s European History Framework. The thoughtful folks at the National Association of Scholars (NAS) have issued a blistering critique of the new effort. In response, one of the most vocal critics of the US History framework, Larry Krieger, has this time risen to the College Board’s defense — arguing that NAS is wrong on the European History framework. A retired US History teacher, Krieger’s voice carries particular weight on this issue as he is credited as a key player in pushing the College Board’s revision of the AP US History framework in 2015.

This is an important discussion among serious people and, in the spirit of full and open debate, I’ve agreed to post Krieger’s take here. ...