AP African American Studies (APAAS) is a relatively new AP class, currently being taught as a pilot class and officially being launched in fall 2024. While single-semester classes such as African Studies and African-American history have been offered at CHS, AP African American Studies is a full-year course that examines the 400-plus years of contribution from Africans and their descendants to the United States. While the course has been banned in Florida, according to CHS social studies department head Justin Quick, there hasn’t been any opposition to the course at CHS.

According to James Ziegler, who teaches the class, the AP exam consists of a multiple choice section, four free-response questions and a final project presentation. 

Ziegler said,“For that project presentation, it’s centered on a research topic of the students choosing. They could choose any topic pertaining to African American studies to focus upon. It’s pretty cool because it’s very open ended. (Students) do that final presentation to their peers in the class.”

Senior Nerland Veillard said this course goes into more depth than African American History did. 

“This course definitely has more details about different content in history. I feel like African American History was kind of a broad glance of it all. We kind of go more into not only U.S. history but also the Middle Passage. We talk about the Carribean islands and more about Africa, its roots and how that continent and its nations were super prosperous,” Veillard said.

Ziegler said pacing for a pilot course can be difficult. 

“I have to kind of pace each class period in order to make sure I get through all the material that’s required for the exam, as well as still having time for all the supplemental things we want to do,” he said.

An example of these supplemental activities includes a field trip the class took to the Indiana State Museum to watch a hip hop and jazz tribute to the life of Frederick Douglass. 

Veillard said, “Mr. Ziegler makes (the class) really fun by including different media like music, writings and poems. So I feel like that makes it fun. When we get into talking circles and seminars and everything, I feel like it’s really fun to hear different perspectives and all of us come to a good conclusion and opinion on things.”

Another difficulty of pilot courses is the lack of online resources. For example, senior Kate Russell said, “Sometimes to help you study, people want to look at Quizlet or look at past textbooks, and with this course, you don’t really have that because even though it is a pilot course and other schools have taken it before, there aren’t a lot of resources online so that can make it difficult. But I feel like in the class, you are kind of given what you need and it’s not really a textbook-heavy class. You get taught the material and then you take a quiz over it. So I feel like I’m well equipped even though I don’t have those resources, but that could also differ from school to school.”

Junior Sophie Jallow said she also found online resources for APAAS to be lacking.

Jallow said, “I know it’s a pilot course because when I was registering for the AP exam, I realized that it was a pilot course. And yes, there’s information on African-American history online, but it’s not the same as APUSH (AP U.S. History). When I was studying for U.S history, there were a bunch of APUSH Quizlets and stuff like that and just a lot of resources dedicated specifically to APUSH, but it’s not the same for AP African American history.”

Discussions are a well-liked aspect of the class.

Russell said, “I really enjoy the class, the discussions we had, and I think it’s important that people take these courses just to broaden their horizons on their view of history. So I was really interested in gaining more knowledge about something that I didn’t already have prior knowledge about. I think taking courses like these should be required for everyone just because it helps you broaden your knowledge of history.”

Ziegler said the benefits of the class go beyond purely academic. 

“I think it offers kids a good idea of understanding (of) where the problems that exist in our society, especially regarding race relations, originate from,” Ziegler said. “So I would say for a lot of students, this is a great opportunity to get exposed to content that you will not see, you know, in any other place.”

Jallow said, “I just really recommend (APAAS) because, like I said, African-American history is U.S. history and you will learn so much more from this course than you will in any other history class. It’s just really eye-opening.”

Ziegler said he hopes to encourage kids of all races and ethnicities to sign up for the class. 

Ziegler said, “My hope is still to allow all students to see themselves represented whether it’s through the heritage month mini lessons or just the intersectionality of issues we look at when there’s an issue that impacts multiple races or ethnic groups.”