Political agenda under scrutiny as UNT students fail teacher exams
The University of North Texas’ College of Education edited numerous course titles and descriptions this semester to comply with state law, although it is not clear which law.
A conservative group that has publicized ideological language in courses told The College Fix the school should go further.
The changes come following several legal developments concerning DEI in higher education.
Universities must implement Senate Bill 17, which prohibits DEI offices. However, the law does not apply to “academic course instruction.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has also asked the state Senate to “[e]xamine programs and certificates at higher education institutions that maintain discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.”
The directive also asks the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee to “[m]ake recommendations for any needed reforms to ensure universities are appropriately educating students to meet workforce needs.”
The university’s teacher preparation program is at risk of losing accreditation due to declining scores on state certification tests, raising concerns about the College of Education’s priorities. This has led Texas to placing the teacher preparation program on probation.
The Fix reached out to the lieutenant governor’s listed email twice in the past two weeks, but he did not respond.
The Fix asked university spokeswoman Devynn Case if the deeper content of courses would change, if UNT was aware of any student complaints about the material, and if it could provide a list of each altered course.
Case did not respond to requests for comment. However, she told The Dallas Morning News: “The College of Education is currently conducting its state-mandated curriculum alignment review to ensure its curriculum is in line with teacher education standards as required by the state.”
She said the changes were not due to SB 17.
However, education professor Bill Camp told colleagues that course changes were made to comply with Lt. Gov. Patrick’s directive or SB 17, as reported by the Dallas Morning News.
The university adjusted 78 courses so far following the memo and external scrutiny from Parents Defending Education, according to the North Texas Daily. The university cited Parents Defending Education’s criticism when editing the titles and other “public facing” elements of courses, according to an email obtained by the student newspaper.
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Advocacy group Parents Defending Education has posted publicly available syllabi of UNT courses on its website, highlighting elements of “white privilege,” “queer theory,” and other left-wing concepts that the College of Education tells future teachers to promote in classrooms.
Rhyen Staley, a researcher for the organization, said the college should reflect more deeply on the “far-left political ideology” in its curriculum.
“It appears that University of North Texas’s College of Education professors have no interest in changing the content of courses or teaching methods,” Staley told the The Fix via a media statement. Staley is a former teacher at the K-12 and college level.
“Changing course names, syllabi, and course descriptions is like putting a [C]orvette body on a 1956 Renault Dauphine,” Staley said. “A new, shiny, sleek exterior, yet the same old engine.”
He said the priorities for the education college are wrong, given how the college of education is currently on probation.
“[UNT] needs to make an honest assessment as to why the students they educate are failing professional teacher exams at an alarming rate,” Staley told The Fix.
The decision comes after UNT removed language from course syllabi that declared teachers to be “activists” tasked with “dismantling oppression.” The statements appeared as a list of central “commitments” for the teacher preparation program but no longer appear in fall 2024 syllabi.
These “commitments” drew national attention last year after the College Fix highlighted them alongside a class titled, “Teaching as Advocacy for Equity.”
The course drew from sources such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, race scholar Ibram Kendi, and a children’s book about “whiteness” – all of which do not appear in this semester’s syllabi.
The latest move to hide progressive language from courses prompted outcry. Faculty and activists have accused UNT of overreacting to a Texas law banning campus DEI programs.
The law, which took effect in January, excludes course instruction.
“UNT seems to be arguing that the principle of academic freedom only exists when state law allows it,” advocacy group PEN America’s Freedom stated in a news release. “This ludicrous interpretation effectively nullifies academic freedom as a protection against government censorship, setting a perilous precedent for higher education institutions across Texas and potentially beyond.”
The group said letting professors advance left-wing political causes in class is “essential to the mission of higher education.”
Staley, with Parents Defending Education, said UNT should answer to the public.
“The university’s faculty and teacher education program can earn trust by successfully preparing future teachers for the K-12 classroom,” Staley told The Fix. “They also need to no longer be allowed to use ‘academic freedom’ as a hedge of protection when they are called out for pushing their de facto far-left political ideology on future K-12 teachers.”
Editor’s note: The author is a photographer for North Texas Daily.
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IMAGE: AJR Photo/Shutterstock
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