I don't know how I've gotten through life not considering those subjects important.
Posted on 10/01/2026 4:23:03 PM PDT by karpov
I had a simple question: What are teachers learning at schools of education? I wanted to examine what books these institutions assigned, what instructional practices they promoted, and what their assignments required.
In the course of that investigation (the results of which you can read about here), I requested the syllabi of required courses from 10 different universities. Eight gave me the requested documents promptly. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor has yet to provide the syllabi over a year later but assures me that it will do so…one day…eventually. Maybe?
The University of California, Los Angeles, however, declined to fulfill this basic public records request. In a letter justifying their decision, they wrote that the public interest in not disclosing the requested documents “outweighs the public interest served by disclosure.” The letter explains that doing so:
“would devalue a State asset, undercut the ability to attract and retain faculty, lecturers and instructors, chill academic inquiry, intrude on academic freedom, and impermissibly interfere with the University’s ability to carry out its statutory duties. Further, the public interest in knowing about the University’s business is already served by the publicly available course directory.”
The case for syllabus transparency has been a popular policy initiative on the right recently, and the Martin Center has done much of the yeoman’s work for that cause. In place of another piece laying out the case for syllabus transparency, I thought it might be useful to interrogate the arguments against it as proffered up by an actual institution when it has been pressed to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
All California schoolteachers need to know is in “The Communist Manifesto”.
UCLA obviously has something to hide.
Federal funding (including research grants) should be halted until they decide transparency is a better approach.
(Colson once explained it something like this: “The best way to win their hearts and minds is to grab them by the b^%$s.”)
Lol.
Even when there is a syllabus, some professors don’t fellow it. They’ve got their favorite canned lectures and you get them no matter the course title.
DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
In order to be eligible to receive a bachelor’s degree from the UCLA College of Letters and Science, students must satisfy the following requirements:
The University Requirements
Entry Level Writing Requirement (formerly Subject A/ESL Subject A)
American History and Institutions
The College Requirements
Writing I and Writing II
Quantitative Reasoning
Foreign Language
Diversity Requirement (for Freshman admitted Fall 2015 and thereafter, and Transfers admitted Fall 2017 and thereafter)
General Education (also known as Foundations of Knowledge)
Preparation for the Major, and the Major
Students must satisfy the College Residence Requirements (senior and major residency)
Students must attain a minimum of 180 quarter units, and graduate within their time to degree
Scholarship: students must have an overall GPA of 2.0 in all of their UC coursework, and a 2.0 GPA in the major coursework
Students in the College are held to the degree requirements from the catalog year that they were admitted to UCLA. Students are held to major/minor requirements from the term in which they were admitted to that major/minor.
https://caac.ucla.edu/academic-planning/degree-requirements/
The quantitative reasoning requirement may be satisfied by completing one approved UCLA course (see list below) or an equivalent course within the first seven terms of enrollment. The course must be taken for a letter grade, and students must receive a C or better grade (a C− grade is not acceptable).
The requirement may also be satisfied by achieving an SAT Mathematics section score of 620 or better, or an SAT Subject Test in Mathematics score of 550 or better, or an ACT Mathematics Test score of 26 or better.
Approved courses include
Biostatistics 100
Life Sciences 20, 30A, 30B, 40
Mathematics 3A, 31A, 31AL
Philosophy 31
Political Science 6
Program in Computing 10A, 10B, 10C
Public Affairs 60
Statistics 10, 12, 13
“Students in the College satisfy the diversity requirement by completing one course from a faculty-approved list of diversity courses.”
Course Title College/School
106B Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Education and Law
M108 Sociology of Education
C124 Theory and Practice of Intergroup Dialogue: Building Facilitation Skills
126 Language, Literacy, and Academic Development: Educational Considerations for School-Age Multilingual and English Language Learner Students
M136 Working Families and Educational Inequalities in Urban Schools
M142 Introduction to Arts Education for Multiple Publics: Theory and Practice
CM178 Critical Media Literacy and Politics of Gender: Theory and Production
https://sa.ucla.edu/ro/Public/SOC/Search/DiversityCoursesMasterList
TRANSLATION: "We know that what we are doing is evil, and you can't stop us."
Upper Division Courses
https://registrar.ucla.edu/academics/course-descriptions?search=Education
some examples:
107A. Race, Class, and Education Inequality in U.S.
Units: 5.0
Lecture, two hours; discussion, two hours. Focus extensively on understanding educational experiences of following groups in U.S.: African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Chicanas/Chicanos/Latinas/Latinos, and low-income white Americans. Examination of how historical development of public education in U.S. has influenced its present form. Critical look at some current issues and policy debates in education, including debate over school reform, bilingual education, and affirmative action. Letter grading.
107B. Race and Education: Access, Equity, and Achievement
Units: 5.0
Seminar, four hours. Social/psychological perspective on education, with particular attention to race, ethnicity, and inequality. Study of structural, social, and personal determinants of educational outcomes. Consideration of relationship of schools to social context and other societal institutions. Examination of how education sets life trajectory in America and effects of race/ethnicity on access to educational opportunity in our society. Letter grading.
It's psychological conditioning to induce panic attacks when faced with opposition.
I don't know how I've gotten through life not considering those subjects important.
Mao would be very proud of UCLA.
The ‘C’ in UCLA stands for Communism, right?
A “Skool of Eddikashun” is the ultimate oxymoron in the multiverse. Actually, it is little known, but “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” was not originally about Mos Eisley, but about those loathsome and putrid “Skoolz).
I always thought a syllabus was public information.
At the non-disclosure schools, don’t students get to see syllabi? Don’t faculty colleagues compare notes, both to make sure essentials are covered in all overlapping courses while still reducing pointless redundancy? Putting a good course together is an art. Assembling a coherent core cannon across a department is also an art.
Everyone shouldn’t be reading the same Spiderman comic book in ten different courses in the Contemporary American Lit department.
Why should you know what future teachers are being taught? After all school students don’t belong to you, they belong to the state. /s
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.