Its release follows a three-year pilot program in 11 public schools with widely varying racial demographics — urban schools enrolling mostly students of color in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Miami, as well as predominantly White schools in suburban communities such as Norman, Okla., and Huntsville, Ala. Each school partners with a mentoring university.

This effort could not be more timely, according to Ernest Morrell, a professor of Africana studies at the University of Notre Dame who co-chairs the AP committee that oversees the curriculum. “I think there is going to be a convergence between the work we are doing and the larger universe demanding some form of racial justice,” he said.

The curriculum, which covers people of African descent who were dispersed globally through the slave trade and other historic movements, aims to help answer two key questions about educational equity and diversity. Can a widely available college-level curriculum on the Black experience boost Black students to greater academic success in AP programs, where they are historically underrepresented? And can other students, whether White, Latino or Asian, deepen their personal racial awareness by studying an Africana curriculum?