The University of Texas at Tyler — Attraction in Tyler

Marxist Indoctrination Disguised as “Equity” — Beware the School of Education at UT Tyler

If you’re considering a degree in education at the UT Tyler School of Education, be warned: this isn’t education—it’s ideological programming.

The required reading list includes Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman, a book that doesn’t just critique grading practices. It pushes full-blown Marxist ideology under the Trojan horse of "fairness." I enrolled hoping to improve education. What I found was a classroom version of the Communist Manifesto—with lesson plans.

Grading for Equity is the cornerstone of the program’s philosophy. At first glance, it looks like it’s about helping students. But dig deeper, and you'll find:

🔴 The abolition of merit Grades, deadlines, and performance? Feldman says they’re tools of oppression. His system doesn’t fix inequality—it just pretends it doesn’t exist by inflating grades and removing accountability.

🔴 The redistribution of academic capital Forget earning an A. You’re given one, as long as you vaguely orbit the classroom. Effort is “privilege.” Standards are “white supremacy.” In other words: the only thing graded is how well you conform to the new ideology.

🔴 Equity = Outcomes, Not Opportunity The goal isn’t to elevate students. It’s to equalize them—by bringing the top down. And if you disagree, you're labeled racist, classist, or worse.

INDOCTRINATION, NOT EDUCATION The School Improvement program at UT Tyler integrates this book into its entire framework: Faculty meetings revolve around equity rubrics, not educational outcomes. Resistance to these ideas is framed as “defensiveness” and “implicit bias.” You will be trained to implement these ideologies in your district, with mandatory “equity audits” and grading reforms that remove deadlines, retakes, and consequences.

This is not an opinion. This is what’s literally written in the Grading for Equity professional development materials: “Dilute the fairness seeker's voice by using other people in the room.” That’s code for mob rule—shut down any dissenting voice by swarming them with ideology.

SOUND REBUTTALS TO THIS GRADE-SINKING MADNESS Let’s be clear: Accountability is not oppression. It’s preparation for real life. Grades matter. They reflect knowledge, not privilege. Deadlines exist for a reason. Try missing one at your job and see what happens.

Feldman argues students shouldn't be penalized for missing assignments because “poverty” makes deadlines hard. But this is a soft bigotry of low expectations. It doesn't respect students—it cripples them.

In every district that adopted this “equity” grading model, minority students fell further behind—some by a factor of 4X. The achievement gap didn’t shrink. It ballooned. Why? Because you can’t lie to reality forever. Kids know when they’re being patronized.

WHO PROFITS? Joe Feldman does. He charges $10,000 a day to sell this garbage to school districts, and forces every teacher to buy his book.

UT Tyler isn’t educating teachers. It’s churning out ideologues trained to destroy academic standards in the name of “equity.”

FINAL WARNING If you want to become a real educator—one who believes in high standards, responsibility, and preparing kids for the real world—look elsewhere. This program will bury you in guilt, jargon, and re-education seminars.

It’s not “school improvement.” It’s academic demolition wearing a woke disguise.

UT Tyler School of Education is selling Marxism with a mortarboard on top. And if you don’t fall in line, they’ll label you a bigot, dilute your voice, and hand your job to someone more “equity-minded.”

🛑 Avoid this program like a zero on a test—except here, they’d still call it a C. You've been warned.

—A former educator who read the syllabus and...

Cons: this school loves to throw away money for stuff nobody asks for (concerts every Friday, a park that removed half the parking at this university, an ugly alumni house at the front of the university, etc). Meanwhile, their internet is God-awful, the library doesn't have books for specific classrooms ready to check out like other universities, they have no calculators ready to check out or laptops. Every computer in the entire school is extremely slow and sticky. The food provided at the MET is bad most of the time plus they close everything too early. The gym has an unnecessary amount of cardio machines that take up 1/3 of the gym. The people that run the intramural sports are very poorly-trained individuals that aren't consistent with the rules and will sometimes make stuff up. One time, I overheard the ladies that work with financial aid, cashiers, general questions, etc. giggling at the fact that they had somebody on hold for 50 minutes already and they were all snickering at each other to keep them on hold to see how long they go for. The mascot is kinda lame but that's just my personal opinion. At this point, I've realized I'm just ranting cause of the new construction there is going on and I couldn't find parking nearby cause of it and the wifi is acting up again. But really, this school does offer good stuff such as:

Pros: The professors are amazing The students are amazing The school is growing The new parking garage is convenient. The environment feels safe. Believes in free speech. Many many other things can be listed.

Overall, this school is alright. You'll get your education, which is what mostly matters in the end. It's just little things that are...

I was planning on going to this school to get a masters degree and probably a doctorate in mathematics, but after speaking to advisor Dr. Davis from the department of mathematics I changed my mind. I asked for a simple transfer plan catalog and he said there was no such thing. Then I asked him if he could review my transcript to make sure all the credits were transferable and he replied ”sure! considering the fact that you have an AS degree from a college from Texas we should be able to transfer all the credits, but I will review it and email you which classes you should take when you start your first semester here”. Four days later he didn’t send me anything, and he had the right email address. Then I spoke to him again and he said he did receive my transcript. And I haven’t received anything yet, and I found the transfer plan catalog! a couple of my classes are not transferable. This school is just like a dealership they just want your money and don’t care about your credits! “ And yes, one team member can mess up the...