Fairfax County, the largest public school board in Virginia, is eliminating a multiple choice test question from a Grade 12 Advanced Placement (AP) Government assessment asking students to identify which ethnicity and gender attributes are “an accurate comparison of liberals versus conservatives.”
Test takers were asked to consult a grid featuring four options of liberal and conservative combinations to choose from, including pairings of “Middle age, urban lesbian” and “Southern male migrant laborer.”
This is an actual question on a 12th grade AP Government test in Fairfax County Public Schools. I don’t care who you are or what side of the aisle you are on, it should infuriate you. pic.twitter.com/y0Bi1eI3QS
— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) March 10, 2023
A concerned local parent, Rory Cooper, shared the question on Twitter insisting, “I don’t care who you are or what side of the aisle you are on, it should infuriate you.”
“Teaching children that political philosophy is a tribal question based on stereotypes of your race/gender/sexuality/age is beyond ignorant, it actually harms the next generation of voters. Another shameful day,” Cooper added for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).
The publicity following the viral screenshot led the school board to remove the question from future tests noting in an official statement that it failed to “meet the division’s high expectations.”
Virginia lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a black woman and military veteran, echoed Cooper’s frustration in a tweet arguing, “Tests like these create division, low morale, fights in our schools. This is why parents are demanding school choice now!”
Why should parents pay for a product when they don’t know its contents? That’s what we’re asking parents to do when it comes to their children’s education. Tests like these create division, low morale, fights in our schools. This is why parents are demanding school choice now! pic.twitter.com/r6O7MWsxOx
— Lt. Governor of Virginia – Winsome Earle-Sears (@WinsomeSears) March 11, 2023
However, the College Board, a nonprofit organization that oversees standardized testing and the creation of AP courses in North America, argued that the question was inserted without their approval.
“This is not a question from the AP program. It is antithetical to the content and format of an AP question,” the College Board tweeted on Monday afternoon.
Fairfax County is also home to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranking public school that made headlines in December 2022 for allegedly delaying the distribution of merit-based awards in the name of equity.
Asra Nomani, a journalist and parent of a child who attended the school, revealed that the postponed National Merit awards coincided with the administration’s attempt to implement new school policies such as “equitable outcomes for every student without exception,” and “equitable grading.”
The following month Governor Glenn Youngkin (R., Va.) instructed state attorney general Jason Miyares to investigate claims of academic discrimination at the school.
“I am stunned by news reporting alleging that information about National Merit Awards, as determined by student PSAT scores, was withheld from students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology until after important deadlines for college scholarships had passed,” Youngkin wrote in an official statement released at the time.