1. A South Carolina high school forced an AP English teacher to scrap a unit on Between The World and Me, the award-winning memoir by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The teacher was accused of BREAKING THE LAW & trying to indoctrinate students on racial issues
Follow along if interested
🧵
2. The AP teacher who was targeted, Mary Wood, is good at her job.
In 2022, 82.6% of Wood's students received a 3 or higher — a passing score — on AP English
Globally, the pass rate is just 55.7%
Mary Wood teaches English literature at Chapin High School in Chapin, South Carolina. Wood, who has been teaching for over a decade, offers a variety of honors courses, including Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and Composition. AP courses give high school students the opportunity to earn college credit. To get credit, students must receive a passing score on an exam produced by the College Board, the same organization that produces the SAT.
3. Since AP courses are intended to be college-level, they include more sophisticated texts than are typically assigned in high school.
The AP itself, in the course description, says texts with controversial viewpoints on a variety of issues, including race, are appropriate
4. So Wood assigned Coates' memoir, which won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
She also assigned writings by Donald Trump, Malcolm Gladwell, Lou Gehrig, and many others
Mary Wood teaches English literature at Chapin High School in Chapin, South Carolina. Wood, who has been teaching for over a decade, offers a variety of honors courses, including Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and Composition. AP courses give high school students the opportunity to earn college credit. To get credit, students must receive a passing score on an exam produced by the College Board, the same organization that produces the SAT.
Judd Legum
Nate O
Martha Lemert