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Monday, March 18, 2024

Florida Eliminates Sociology as a Core Course at Its Universities, New York Times, Jan. 24, 2024

Outlawing Sociology in Florida is outlandish. It's hard to take DeSantis and his right-wing activists seriously. On another matter of curriculum—namely, Critical Race Theory (CRT)—which most certainly isn't getting taught in Florida schools—consider one of DeSantis' appointments to Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice named Eric Hall. This person used CRT as a framework for his dissertation research study back in 2014, earning him a Ph.D. at the University of South Florida.

His was clearly a good and appropriate use of CRT in a study on two alternative schools and how expulsion rates and other factors create a “school-to-prison pipeline," for minoritized youth. 

Research like this is helpful to policymakers who seek alternatives to expulsions when schools work closely with youth to not only lower such rates but to do so by exposing the culprit structures and processes that do this. That is what CRT does. It illuminates disparities and possible remedies that at their best, change systems that are punishing and inequitable, particularly for youth of color, as well as for all youth, as a whole.

Clearly, DeSantis cared less about this rather important detail when making his appointment. Go figure. As for Eric Hall, what a turncoat. I'm sure his decision is paying off handsomely, albeit at Black and Brown children's and taxpayer's expense.

As for denying Sociology courses to Florida college youth that college-educated DeSantis, his staff and cabinet have all surely had, how hypocritical. I am confident that most Floridians see through all this smoke and mirrors for what it is: Doing everything they can to preserve both their white privilege and their incumbencies in office in the face of a browning America—a diverse nation that makes our country strong.

-Angela Valenzuela

Reference

Dixon, M. & Atterbury, A. (2021, December 20). Top DeSantis official embraced critical race theory in dissertation, Politico.


Florida Eliminates Sociology as a Core Course at Its Universities

In December, Florida’s education commissioner wrote that “sociology has been hijacked by left-wing activists.”


The board of governors for Florida’s state university system approved “a factual

history course” as a replacement for sociology.Credit...Erich Martin for The New York Times

By Anemona Hartocollis
Published Jan. 24, 2024

Updated Jan. 26, 2024

Students can no longer take sociology to fulfill their core course requirements, Florida’s state university system ruled on Wednesday. Instead, its board of governors approved “a factual history course” as a replacement.

The decision by the 17-member board of governors came after fierce opposition from sociology professors in the university system, which includes the University of Florida and Florida State.

And it is the latest move by the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis to challenge the education establishment, and what the governor portrayed as its liberal orthodoxy. Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, had tried to leverage his education record in his failed campaign for president.

In a brief announcement on Wednesday, Chancellor Ray Rodrigues said he was proud of the board’s decision and looked forward to the history class and “the positive impact the addition of this course will have on our students and their future success.”

The replacement history class includes “America’s founding, the horrors of slavery, the resulting Civil War and the Reconstruction era.”

Florida has one of the country’s largest public university systems, with more than 430,000 students.

The move alarmed sociology professors, who believed it could lead to fewer students taking classes and majoring in the subject. The American Sociological Association said in a statement Wednesday that it was outraged by the decision, and that it was made without any “evidentiary basis.”

“The decision seems to be coming not from an informed perspective, but rather from a gross misunderstanding of sociology as an illegitimate discipline driven by ‘radical’ and ‘woke’ ideology,” the statement said. “To the contrary, sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers.”

Manny Diaz, the education commissioner, wrote that sociology has been hijacked 
by the left-wing activists.Credit. Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat, via 
USA Today Network


In December, Florida’s education commissioner, Manny Diaz Jr., wrote on social media that, “Sociology has been hijacked by left-wing activists and no longer serves its intended purpose as a general knowledge course for students.”

He added that under Governor DeSantis, “Florida’s higher education system will focus on preparing students for high-demand, high-wage jobs, not woke ideology.”

Some professors have supported the move.

Jukka Savolainen, a sociology professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said in an opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal in December that the discipline was troubled and had become “brazenly political.” He called for including more contrarian points of view in the teaching of sociology.

“I have taught undergraduate sociology courses since 1996,” he wrote. “Through the decades, I have watched my discipline morph from a scientific study of social reality into academic advocacy for left-wing causes.”

In November, the board of governors approved removing Principles of Sociology from a list of courses that students can take to satisfy their general education requirement. The approval on Wednesday finalized that decision after a period of public comment.

The course covers topics like race, gender and sexual orientation, which conservatives in Florida and other states have targeted and tried to restrict.

In 2022, Mr. DeSantis signed legislation that restricted how racism and other aspects of history can be taught in schools and workplaces. The law’s sponsors called it the Stop WOKE Act. Among other things, it prohibits instruction that could make students feel responsibility for or guilt about the past actions of other members of their race.

“The governor-appointed administrative bodies overseeing Florida’s institutions of higher education have found a new target in the culture wars they are waging on the state’s campuses,” Anne Barrett, a sociology professor at Florida State University, wrote in an opinion essay published Wednesday on the website of the National Education Association.

She wrote that the removal of the course would be ”devastating for sociology in Florida,” adding, “enrollments will plummet. The opportunity to recruit majors will almost disappear. Weakened sociology departments are ripe for elimination and, ultimately, layoffs.”

Saturday, March 16, 2024

NAACP urges Black athletes to avoid Florida public universities over anti-DEI policies

 Great leadership and smart move by the NAACP. 

-Angela

NAACP urges Black athletes to avoid Florida public universities over anti-DEI policies

by Becky Sullivan | March 12, 2024 | NPR


A University of Florida football game last fall. (James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Black college athletes should rethink any decision to attend public colleges and universities in Florida, the NAACP advised in an extraordinary letter issued in response to efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis to weaken diversity, equity and inclusion efforts statewide. 

The letter, authored by the NAACP's top two officials and addressed to Charlie Baker, the head of the NCAA, comes on the heels of last week's announcement by the University of Florida that it would eliminate the school's diversity, equity and inclusion staff in order to come into compliance with an anti-DEI law signed last year by DeSantis. 

"From racist voting policies, to unraveling reproductive freedoms and attempting to rewrite Black history, DeSantis has waged war on Black America," wrote NAACP Board of Directors Chairman Leon Russell and President and CEO Derrick Johnson in the letter.

"To all current and prospective college student-athletes — the NAACP urges you to reconsider any potential decision to attend, and compete at a predominantly white institution in the state of Florida," they continued. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs at educational institutions typically aim to help create and maintain a student body and faculty that is diverse in many senses of the word, often with a goal of reflecting the school's home community or state. (For example, before the legislation was passed last year, the DEI division at Florida International University said it was committed to "building an academic community whose members represent and embrace diverse cultures, background and life experiences that reflect the multicultural nature of South Florida and our global society.")

DeSantis and other supporters of the Republican-led legislation say DEI programs are costly and ineffective, and they accuse the programs of being discriminatory. 

The law signed last year by DeSantis prohibits the state's 12 public universities and 28 four-year and community colleges from spending money on DEI programs. 

"DEI is toxic and has no place in our public universities. I'm glad that Florida was the first state to eliminate DEI and I hope more states follow suit," DeSantis wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in response to the University of Florida's move to eliminate all DEI positions last week. 

DeSantis has made cultural issues a centerpiece of his time in office, especially in education; he has signed multiple pieces of legislation designed to limit instruction about race and sexuality. And he has taken aim at sports, including legislation signed in 2021 that bans transgender girls from playing on public school girls' teams. 

"The value of Black talent is undeniable" 

About 17% of the state of Florida's population is Black, according to the Census Bureau. Yet Black students made up just 8.5% of students at Florida State University and fewer than 5% at the University of Florida. 

But Black students make up an outsize proportion of college athletes, especially in football and basketball, the two sports that traditionally bring in the most revenue for major athletics programs. Black players represent around half of Division 1 basketball and football players nationwide, according to data compiled by the NCAA. 

Florida is home to two of the largest athletic departments in the nation — the University of Florida and Florida State University, both of which rank in the nation's top 15 programs in total revenue, according to USA Today. 

"The value of Black talent is undeniable, especially when it comes to college sports," Russell and Johnson wrote in the NAACP letter. "At UF and similar institutions, if football stadiums emptied, if merchandise stopped selling, if TV deals fell through, the monetary loss would extend beyond athletics to other university programs."

In total, nine of the state's public universities field NCAA Division I athletic teams, and a tenth plays in Division II. (One of the 10, Florida A&M, is a historically Black university, which the NAACP expressly omitted from its call to boycott.) 

Emmitt Smith, the one-time star running back at the University of Florida who went on to become an NFL Hall of Famer for the Dallas Cowboys, said he was "utterly disgusted" by the school's decision, and he criticized university leadership for bowing to political pressure. 

"To the MANY minority athletes at UF, please be aware and vocal about this decision by the University who is now closing the doors on other minorities without any oversight," he said in a statement posted to social media. 

A handful of other states have taken aim at DEI programs at universities. That includes Texas, where a sweeping ban took effect on Jan. 1 that eliminates DEI offices, diversity training and most activities based on race, color, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation. 

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit NPR.A handful of other states have taken aim at DEI programs at universities. That includes Texas, where a sweeping ban took effect on Jan. 1 that eliminates DEI offices, diversity training and most activities based on race, color, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation. 

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit NPR.

What is DEI and why is [DEI-Phobia] dividing America?

Unless you seek a system of apartheid and real inequality stratified by race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability, it is really is hard to argue that DEI is unimportant to the college experience, producing well-rounded graduates that can work across difference. I like Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, who quipped: 

“The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain,” Cuban wrote. “Having a workforce that is diverse and representative of your stakeholders is good for business.”

"DEI-Phobia" is most definitely a losing game. The best way to think about this so-called "division" is that it is not just contrived, but fundamentally one of either being pro- or anti-diversity. This is an untenable vision of America in that it is not for America where people of color not only matter but are core to its redefining as a multiracial and multiethnic democracy toward which we are poised. And...it's GOOD and WILL BE GOOD for us as a nation. Strength in diversity has always been true.

-Angela Valenzuela

What is DEI and why is it dividing America?

Updated 12:06 PM EDT March 11, 2024


By , CNN

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs have come under attack in boardrooms, state legislatures and college campuses across the country.




















Demonstrators for and against the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down race-conscious student admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina confront each other, in Washington, U.S., June 29, 2023. 
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters/File

CNN-Since 2023, 81 anti-DEI bills that target programs at colleges have been introduced in 28 states and in Congress, according to a tally by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Eight have been signed into law, in states like Texas and Florida.

A 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 52% of employed U.S. adults say they have DEI trainings or meetings at work, and 33% say they have a designated staff member who promotes DEI.

But recently, some companies have slashed teams dedicated to DEI and wealthy corporate leaders such as Bill Ackman and Elon Musk have made posts on social media that decried diversity programs.

Critics say DEI programs are discriminatory and attempt to solve racial discrimination by disadvantaging other groups, particularly White Americans. But supporters and industry experts insist the decades-old practice has been politicized and is widely misunderstood.

What is DEI?

CNN interviewed seven DEI experts and industry leaders and asked each to define diversity, equity and inclusion. Although their responses varied slightly, most had a shared vision for what constitutes DEI:

Diversity is embracing the differences everyone brings to the table whether it’s someone’s race, age, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability or other aspects of social identity.

Equity is treating everyone fairly and providing equal opportunities.

And inclusion is respecting everyone’s voice and creating a culture where people from all backgrounds feel encouraged to express their ideas and perspectives.

Daniel Oppong, founder of The Courage Collective, a consultancy that advises companies on DEI, said DEI was created because marginalized communities have not always had equal opportunities for jobs, or felt a sense of belonging in majority-White corporate settings.

“That is the genesis of why some of these programs exist,” he said. “It was an attempt to try to create workplaces where more or all people can thrive.”

President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964.
The law made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion,
sex, or national origin, and barred unequal application of voter registration requirements.
 
AP




When did workplaces start embracing DEI?

The backlash against DEI may feel like a pendulum swing from 2020, but the DEI practice has been around for decades.

Dominique Hollins, founder of the DEI consulting firm WÄ’360, said the origins of DEI programs date back to the civil rights movement, which played a pivotal role in accelerating efforts to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed employment discrimination based on race, religion, sex, color and national origin. It also banned segregation in public places, like public schools and libraries.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which works to eliminate employment discrimination.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, employees began filing discrimination lawsuits with the EEOC and many companies began incorporating diversity into their business strategies by providing diversity training, according to a 2008 report published in the Academy of Management Learning & Education.

These diversity training efforts emerged around the time that affirmative action began by executive order from President John F. Kennedy. Although the two concepts may seem similar, affirmative action is different from DEI because it required federal contractors by executive order from the president to treat all applicants and employees equally based on race, color, religion and sex.

Colleges and universities also used affirmative action to boost enrollment of students of color at majority-White schools. But last year, the Supreme Court gutted affirmative action, ruling that race-conscious college admissions were unconstitutional.

After President Ronald Reagan backed corporate deregulation policies that said companies should be addressing discrimination internally in the 1980s, Hollins said some of the diversity efforts lost momentum.

In the decades to follow, Hollins said many companies continued to push for DEI-focused jobs and training in a “piecemeal” fashion, instead of creating ongoing programs and dedicated teams.

Hollins said many companies didn’t have the staffing or resources to sustain DEI efforts.

But the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020 sparked a racial reckoning and a renewed push for creating DEI leadership roles and initiatives at major corporations.

Between 2019 and 2022, according to a LinkedIn analysis, chief diversity and inclusion officer roles grew by 168.9%.

Today, some of those efforts have been rolled back and people have left DEI roles because they didn’t feel fully supported, Hollins said.

Companies “were giving the appearance of commitment without actually doing the right work for that commitment to be sustainable,” Hollins said.

Despite the backlash against DEI programs and initiatives, many companies are standing firm in their support for DEI.

A survey published in January by the polling firm Ipsos, found 67% of people surveyed said their employers require or offer trainings, lectures, webinars, or resources on DEI. And 71% of people surveyed said they think DEI training is important to “creating a positive workplace culture.”
What does DEI look like at work?

Today, studies show that many companies are prioritizing some form of DEI. According to a 2023 study by the Pew Research Center, 61% of U.S. adults say their workplace has policies that focus on fairness in hiring, promotions or pay. And 56% of U.S. adults say, “focusing on increasing diversity, equity and inclusion at work is mainly a good thing.”

Kelly Baker, executive vice president and chief human resources officer at Thrivent, an organization that provides financial advice, said DEI in the workplace can be a mix of employee training, resource networks and recruiting practices.

Her company, for example, has resource groups for women in leadership, young professionals, Black employees, Hispanic employees, and military veterans, among others.

Their DEI training teaches employees how to understand and bridge cultural differences in the workplace, she said.

Thrivent also seeks job candidates with diversity in their race, geography, gender and industry background, Baker said.

Experts say many corporations tie DEI to their business strategies.

Diversity “is related to our business growth strategy,” Baker said. “It’s pragmatic and essential and critical for us to ensure that our client base reflects the world that we are in and the world that we are going to be in.”



What does DEI look like in higher education?

College campuses have become ground zero for the DEI debate as state lawmakers across the country launch efforts to halt or limit DEI programs in public schools and universities.

Last week, the University of Florida eliminated the office of its Chief Diversity Officer to comply with regulations from the Florida Board of Governors that prohibit spending state funds on DEI programs.

Ella Washington, professor of practice at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, said she is concerned that efforts to ban DEI on college campuses will prevent students from being prepared for the real world.

“I think a lot of it is short-sighted and politically motivated,” Washington said. “It’s hard for me to believe that all of these lawmakers want exclusion be taught and to erase all of history.”

Washington said while DEI looks different on every college campus, many schools focus efforts on recruitment and admissions, curriculum and special programs for underrepresented students.

Georgetown’s Office of Student Equity & Inclusion oversees several DEI-centered programs including the Disability Cultural Center, Women’s Center, LGBTQ Resource Center, and the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, according to its website.

Washington said there is also a program for first-generation college students where they have a chance to build community.

Prioritizing and embracing a diverse student body allows students to interact with peers from different walks of life and learn new perspectives even outside of the classroom, Washington said.

“Colleges are certainly a microcosm of the world,” Washington said. “So, having an experience where equity is centered, equality is considered, inclusion is at the forefront of people’s minds, those are things we are teaching the next generation about how they should be running the world.”
What are critics saying?

In recent years, DEI has become a social and political lightning rod for lawmakers, corporate leaders and even conservative activists, who have sought to cast the initiatives as unfair and even racist.

Some were emboldened by the Supreme Court’s decision to gut affirmative action last June.

Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an outspoken critic of DEI, wrote in a New York Times op-ed last year that “these are not neutral programs to increase demographic diversity; they are political programs that use taxpayer resources to advance a specific partisan orthodoxy.”

The Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank, holds a similar position. Ryan P. Williams, president of the institute, previously told CNN he believes the ideology behind DEI is “fundamentally anti-American.”

“The words that the acronym ‘DEI’ represent sound nice, but it is nothing more than affirmative action and racial preferences by a different name, a system that features racial headcounts and arbitrarily assigned roles of ‘oppressor’ and ‘oppressed’ groups in America,” Williams said in an emailed statement. “If we continue to do democracy this way, it will only end in acrimony, strife, resentment, and American collapse.”

Earlier this year, billionaire investor Bill Ackman posted a 4,000-word opus on X that criticized DEI as “inherently a racist and illegal movement in its implementation even if it purports to work on behalf of the so-called oppressed.” Ackman’s lengthy thesis was later reposted by billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who now owns the social media platform.

“DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it,” Musk wrote in his post.

In a follow-up post, Musk doubled down, adding, “DEI, because it discriminates on the basis of race, gender and many other factors, is not merely immoral, it is also illegal.”

Tesla, which is owned by Musk, has since omitted all language regarding minority workers and outreach to minority communities in its 10-K filing with the SEC made January 29, CNN previously reported.

But not every business leader agrees. Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman and minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, pushed back on Musk’s posts in a thread defending DEI as good for businesses and their workers.

“The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain,” Cuban wrote. “Having a workforce that is diverse and representative of your stakeholders is good for business.”



What’s next in the fight over DEI?

Texas, North Dakota, North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah each have at least one anti-DEI bill that has been signed into law, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

In Nebraska, Republican State Sen. Dave Murman proposed a bill in January that would prohibit state colleges and universities from dedicating public money and staff time to DEI efforts.

The bill is currently with the Nebraska legislature’s education committee which will decide whether to move it to the full legislature.

Murman’s office did not respond to a request for an interview.

Nebraska Democratic state Sen. Danielle Conrad told CNN she opposes the bill in part because the broader effort to ban DEI has become “divisive.” She said it also “distracts from the real issues” colleges are facing, such as families who can’t afford tuition.

DEI, she said, is valuable to colleges and universities.

“We absolutely know from common sense and research that when we have more diverse perspectives in discussion or as part of our education, it helps us to have more thoughtful results,” Conrad said. “It helps us to be more well-rounded, active and engaged citizens.”

CNN’s Athena Jones contributed to this story.


UH education professor suspends course in protest of HISD's rigid lessons

This is scandalous, my friends. University of Houston Distinguished Professor Alberto Rodriguez calls foul in the preparation of science educators in HISD and the response by the university is not only disappointing but also over the top by threatening this distinguished professor's tenure who is speaking truth to power. Check out this Click2Houston video where he expressed well the problem and the ethics behind his decision to discontinue sending pre-service teachers into the school district.

One doesn't have to dig too deeply into the news to learn just how punishing HISD Superintendent Mike Miles' scripted curriculum is on students and teachers. There have been protests about this. Check out the pages of Houston Community Voices for Public Education to get a solid accounting of what's up in what used to be HISD but which has been taken over by Miles' education management organization called the New Education System (NES)/Third Future Schools. Also check out this earlier blog post on the matter for more information: Welcome to the Houston's No longer Independent  School District. Bilingual Education and Special Education are also on the rocks. See People's Report of HISD takeover at State Board of Ed, as well as Support for Houston ISD’s Spanish speakers has dwindled under state-appointed leader, parents say. Considering the accumulating evidence, Professor Rodriguez is not at all out of line with respect to his assessment of Miles' science curriculum.

It's true to form in an authoritarian regime, regardless, that the school district's spokesman, Jose Irizarry, responds to this outing of the science curriculum by Dr. Rodriguez by deciding to gaslight the Houston community. He states that the curriculum amounts to "high-quality instruction and curriculum" when nothing could be further from the truth. Don't drink the Kool-aid, my friends. And let's protect tenure. This is exactly what tenure allows one to do, to talk back to the corporation and call out injustice. Schools should never be used to organize principal, teacher, and student disaffection and failure. 

Moreover, let's not participate in our own miseducation in our understanding of freedom. By this, I mean that we should not be comfortable with conditions like those called out by Dr. Rodriguez. We need to take back our power, beginning with advocating for a quality public education that honors our communities' and students' right to one. We must not become apathetic about this.

Along with the accreditation agencies that require quality, research-based best practices in the preparation of future educators, the Houston community would do well to stand solidly behind this professor. Too many people's lives and well-being are at stake, as is the future of our democracy.

-Angela Valenzuela

By 

A University of Houston education professor stopped teaching his course last week in protest of his student teachers' placements in Houston ISD schools, where he said the "scripted curriculum" used in HISD classes made it impossible for them to complete their assignments. 

Alberto Rodriguez, a distinguished professor of science education at the University of Houston College of Education, informed students in his "Science in the Elementary School II" course of the decision in a Feb. 14 email.

"I regret to inform you that I am suspending my teaching of this course in protest of the impossible school placements to which some of you have been assigned," Rodriguez wrote. "I feel it is unethical and unprofessional for me to continue teaching this course when you have been placed in school settings that make it very challenging for you to complete field-based assignments as expected in the effective preparation of teachers." 


University of Houston spokeswoman Shawn Lindsey said the college immediately assigned another faculty member, who teaches the other section of the course, to Rodriguez's class, ensuring the course continued uninterrupted. Lindsey declined to say whether Rodriguez, who is tenured at the university, would face any disciplinary action, saying they do not comment on personnel matters. 

"As districts across the state and nation have moved to varying degrees of curriculum autonomy, our teacher education program works to ensure our student-teachers gain valuable, authentic classroom experiences," Lindsey said. "We teach our student-teachers to work within a district’s curriculum guidelines just as they would in the real world, and our student-teachers remain able to practice skills a successful teacher needs — such as keeping students engaged, checking for understanding and adapting as needed."

Students in the "Science in the Elementary School II" course, all of whom are seniors, receive student teaching assignments at schools in the Houston, Cypress-Fairbanks and Spring Branch school districts, which they rank in order of preference. 

Rodriguez said the spread of highly structured lessons that may include word-for-word scripts for teachers is a "national issue" that is not isolated to HISD. But this semester, roughly a dozen students placed at HISD schools were complaining to him, sometimes in tears, that the rigid expectations imposed under state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles made it difficult for them to complete their assignments for his course.

 

Among other directives, Miles expects teachers to use timers during their lessons, engage in "multiple response strategies" roughly every four minutes and, at schools in his New Education System, administer daily quizzes, while school administrators and district officials go from room to room to monitor their work.

One key assignment in Rodriguez's course involved developing a lesson plan for students to teach in March or April, which would go through a series of revisions in Rodriguez's course before being delivered to children. Rodriguez's students at HISD, however, told him they were unable to plan that far ahead because the lead classroom teachers themselves did not know what they would be teaching at that point — the "script" had not yet been posted online. 

Rodriguez said such constraints violated accreditation standards developed by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP) and the Texas State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC), both of which require education students to be able to effectively lesson plan, among other things.

"They are being placed in schools that are following a scripted curriculum that totally contradicts everything that we're talking about in class," Rodriguez said. "There's no way you can make science inclusive and relevant to all students — especially students of color or bilingual students — when you have a teacher that is not allowed to carry out their craft." 

Representatives for the AAQEP and the Texas Education Agency, which oversees the SBEC, did not return a request for comment. The University of Houston noted that its education program is fully accredited by both bodies. 

Houston ISD spokesman Jose Irizarry, in a statement, said district leaders are "pleased that UH has identified an experienced professor to take over the course so that student teachers can continue their work in our schools, where they are seeing how high-quality instruction and curriculum lead to academic growth and gains in student performance." 

Rodriguez said he approached College of Education Dean Catherine Horn, University Chancellor Renu Khator and Provost Diane Chase with his concerns, and that Horn was the only person to respond, arguing that the university could not control the actions of its partners and asking him to continue teaching the course and making arrangements for his students like everybody else. 

The response disappointed Rodriguez, who said he'd hoped the university might try to work with HISD to reach a compromise. 

"That doesn't sound like much of a partnership to me. Partners don't watch teachers being pushed off a cliff and then just kind of look the other way," Rodriguez said. "You try to engage in conversations with school district officials to provide space for our students to practice what they're learning in the classroom."

Horn deferred comment to the University of Houston press office.

"We have found that all of our district partners are willing to work with us so our teacher candidates can complete their certification requirements, including teaching lessons for formal observations," Lindsey said. "In cases where a student-teacher is concerned about their school experience, our faculty work with campus leadership to make adjustments or, in rare cases, move placements."

The professor's future with the university is uncertain. The science education course was the only one he taught this semester, and though he is still engaged in a variety of research projects at the university, he no longer has access to his class files on Canvas, the learning management software used by the University of Houston. 

"I don't know what the next step is on their side, but I'm going to continue pursuing this because I feel like I cannot just sit by as the new generation of teachers are not well prepared," Rodriguez said. 


Sam González Kelly is an education reporter for the Houston Chronicle covering the Houston Independent School District. He can be reached at sam.kelly@houstonchronicle.com.

A Chicago native, Sam joined the Chronicle in 2021 to cover marginalized communities after two years covering breaking news at the Chicago Sun-Times. Sam has a bachelor's degree from Pomona College.