The College Board is not backing down in its defense of its new AP African American studies course, even as the state of Florida continues to ask questions about its value.

In a letter to the Florida Department of Education on Thursday, the company that publishes Advanced Placement courses took issue with the department’s statements that the course violates Florida law and that portions of it are “historically fictional.”

It also rebuked contentions in a Feb. 7 letter from the department that changes to the course had anything to do with complaints raised by the department or Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis, widely expected to run for president in 2024, announced in January that he had rejected the course because it “lacks educational value.”

His statement set off a firestorm nationally, sparking a broader debate over lessons relating to race and its role in society, which many conservatives have grouped together and called “critical race theory.”

“As is always the case in AP, our selection of topics for this course has been guided by feedback from educators, disciplinary experts, and principles that have long shaped AP courses,” the College Board wrote in an unsigned letter also posted on its website. “Your letter claims that we removed 19 topics that were present in the pilot framework at the behest of FDOE. This is inaccurate.”

In its Feb. 7 letter, the department suggested that changes to the course came “by no coincidence” after the governor said the course would be...

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