To critics on the left and the right, the College Board’s handling of the controversy has been clumsy at best.

Based in New York, the nonprofit organization also oversees the SAT. It has long drawn scrutiny for the power it wields over schools and college-bound students nationwide. The curriculum choices it makes, the many tests it designs and markets and the revenue it collects are major and much-debated elements of the education system.

With the launch of AP African American studies, though, the College Board has stepped into a political firefight of rare magnitude. One possible comparison is a pair of revisions to the AP U.S. history course framework in 2014 and 2015. The first enraged conservatives who said it ignored American “exceptionalism.” Then many liberals accused the College Board of bending too much to conservatives in the second version.

Frederick M. Hess, an education policy analyst with the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said that debate foreshadowed the uproar over AP African American studies. Hess said the battle over the writing, editing and revision of these course documents resonates well beyond the classroom.

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Design and development by Frank Hulley-Jones. Illustration by Katty Huertas. Editing by April Bethea and Christian Font. Copy editing by Brian French