Sacred Heart Preparatory teachers and students lead push for first-ever AP U.S. women’s history course

Sacred Heart Preparatory (SHP) students along with teachers Kristen Kelly and Serene Williams presented this past week at the National Council of Social Studies about their proposal for an AP United States Women’s History course.

No standalone women’s history course currently exists among the College Board’s slate of AP offerings, and that needs to be rectified, say Kelly and Williams. Last spring, after reading the curriculum by Kelly and Williams, the College Board voiced its support for the course and outlined extensive steps toward its pilot, which include gathering letters of support from high schools and universities nationwide.

After the conference presentation, the veteran teachers took the four SHP students to the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, where, two years ago, they began their research for the proposed AP U.S. Women’s History course as part of a 2022 Harvard teaching grant. Their goal is to uncover stories of underrepresented women leaders to enrich the course curriculum.

“Teaching the history of women in the United States and their contribution to both society and the political spheres allows students to see their value and their place in history,” says Williams. “The youth of America deserve to hear these stories traditionally left untold in current AP courses.”

And it is youth who are propelling the course creation forward. The teachers have mentored
students to undertake important feminist research, from the Wikipedia Women in Red project where their students created 16 Wikipedia pages for important women in history that did not exist before, to original research of the California women’s suffrage movement. They have brought over a dozen students along to present at the nation’s most prestigious women’s studies, social studies, and history conferences in the nation. In July, two SHP seniors presented the initiative to establish an AP U.S. Women’s History course at the College Board conference in Las Vegas.

Most recently, the students have founded WAPUSH.org to advocate for the creation of the course, document their work, and tell inspiring stories from little-known women in history through their WAPUSH Wednesday social media series, as well as recruit other students nationwide to get involved.

The grassroots campaign is gaining momentum as SHP leads the way with these efforts, which include garnering national support from a diverse group of at least 250 high schools, gathering at least 100 letters of support from universities, collecting sample syllabi from universities currently offering an equivalent course, and fundraising for a pilot of the new AP course.

“We’re that much closer to an AP U.S. Women’s History course being a reality,” said SHP senior Samantha Pyle. “This is so important in empowering girls — to know that they had a vital role in shaping history and society as it is today, and that they have the power to change it.”