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Teaching Evolution in the States GOOD SCIENCE, BAD SCIENCE: TEACHING EVOLUTION IN THE STATES LAWRENCE S. LERNER PROFESSOR EMERITUS, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH Published by The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation September 2000 Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures . .v Foreword . .vii Executive Summary . .xi Introduction . .1 The Key Role of Evolution in the Sciences . .1 How Do Good Standards Treat Biological Evolution? . .3 Controversial vs. Consensual Knowledge . .3 What Students Should Learn About Evolution . .4 Extrascientific Issues . .6 The Diversity of Anti-Evolutionists . .6 Anti-Evolutionism from the Left . .7 Why Anti-Evolutionism Persists . .7 The Evolution of Anti-Evolution Pressures on the Public Schools . .8 How Do Science Standards Reflect Creationist Pressures? . .9 Evaluation of State Standards . .10 A. Very good to Excellent . .10 B. Good . .11 C. Satisfactory . .11 D. Unsatisfactory . .11 F. Useless or Absent . .16 F-minus. Disgraceful . .16 Sample Standards . .18 Further Analysis . .24 Grades for Science Standards as a Whole . .24 Conclusions . .25 Appendix A: Two Model Treatments of Evolution: Excerpts From the California and North Carolina Science Standards . .27 Appendix B: Evolution and Its Discontents . .33 Appendix C: State Documents Examined . .37 Appendix D: Ratings of State Science Standards as a Whole . .40 Annotated Bibliography . .44 Endnotes . .46 iii Tables and Figures Table 1. What the Grades Mean . .xii Figure 1. Treatment of Evolution in Science Standards: A State-by-State Evaluation . .xiii Table 2. National Report Card on the Treatment of Evolution in Science Standards . .xiv Table 3. Distribution of Grades for Treatment of Evolution . .10 Table 4. Scoring Summary for Treatment of Evolution . .12 Table 5. State Report Cards on the Treatment of Evolution . .14-15 Table D1. Detailed Grades for Science Standards as a Whole . .43 v Foreword Trouble in Kansas cal evolution as a continuing problem in many places. We wanted to know more and felt the When two state school board members were public would want to know more. unseated in the August (2000) Republican prima- ry election in Kansas, the story made national For example, to what extent is weak handling of news. Indeed, the media spotlight had shone on evolution simply a manifestation of generally the Kansas race for months. And the school weak science standards and to what extent does it board contest itself was fought harder than such reflect something more complicated? So we races generally are. One candidate raised over asked Lerner (now emeritus professor of physics $90,000 and purchased the first TV ad in school and astronomy at California State University, board election history. Long Beach) to revisit the science standards of the fifty states yet again (using the latest version Why so much attention? Because this election of these oft-revised documents). This time, the hinged on perhaps the touchiest issue in the specific focus was on how they treat evolution; school curriculum, one that has drawn headlines the present report is the product of his investiga- at least since the celebrated Scopes trial in 1925: tion. whether and how the public schools will teach evolution. When the votes were counted, the Structure of this Report defeated candidates included two of the incum- bent board members who a year earlier had voted The report begins by explaining the role of evolu- to erase evolution from the state's academic stan- tion as an organizing principle for all the histori- dards. cal sciences. Lerner then outlines the compo- nents of good science standards that don't shrink It was not just Charles Darwin and biological from expecting children to learn evolution's cen- evolution that vanished in August 1999 (by a 6-4 tral role. He recounts the main arguments that vote) from the list of topics that young Kansans are advanced against the teaching of evolution. are expected to master as they pass through the (This discussion appears in the report's text, in an state's public schools. So did the "Big Bang" and appendix, and in an annotated bibliography.) And all references to the age of the earth itself. he characterizes various ways in which states have responded to anti-evolutionist pressures. Putting All Fifty States Under the Microscope The core of his report is a state-by-state evalua- tion of the treatment of evolution in science stan- All this came as a shock to Americans who dards. The good news is that thirty-one states do assumed that the political debate over teaching an adequate-to-excellent job of this. They do not evolution in the public schools had itself evolved all have exemplary standards, but they handle into generalized acceptance of this central princi- evolution pretty much the way they handle the ple of biology. But we were not very surprised. rest of science. (There are a few interesting Since 1998, when the Thomas B. Fordham exceptions, which Lerner discusses.) Foundation published its first appraisal of state science standards by Dr. Lawrence Lerner, we The bad news is that nineteen states do a weak- have known that a number of states treat evolu- to-reprehensible job of handling evolution in their tion in less than competent (and sometimes less science standards. Twelve of them shun the word than forthright) fashion. When Lerner reviewed "evolution" and four avoid teaching biological state science standards a second time for this evolution altogether. (Several of the nineteen Foundation (see The State of State Standards don't "discriminate" against evolution; they sim- 2000), he identified slipshod treatment of biologi- ply have weak science standards across the vii board.) Tables in the body of the report show the Debate over Evolution not so Simple areas in which various state standards are lack- ing—and also allow for easy comparison of a This dispute, however, turns out to be more com- state's "evolution grade" with Lerner's evaluation plicated, more interesting and more nuanced than of its overall science standards. many people suppose. Secular liberal intellectuals tend to simplify it into a battle between truth and Politicization of Science superstition. People of deep religious faith are more apt to see it as a contest between God and Besides reporting this mixed news, can we help atheism. Political analysts are inclined to depict to explain what is going on? Part of the explana- it as a clash between left and right. In fact, it con- tion is contained in another (April 2000) tains all those elements and more; it is not easily Foundation report, Politicizing Science put into a little explanatory box. Education, by Paul Gross, University Professor of Life Sciences emeritus at the University of As Gross and Lerner both attest, there is no seri- Virginia. Gross found that evolution is just one of ous debate among today's scientists over whether a number of domains where science education is evolution occurs, though there are disagreements beset—from both left and right—by efforts to over how it occurs. But even as evolution is bend it to advance the enthusiasms, viewpoints, accepted as the central concept of biology by or doctrines of particular groups. This was dis- almost all scientists, a 1999 Gallup poll found concerting to learn. While anyone following the that 68 percent of Americans favor teaching both K-12 education scene has become accustomed to creationism and evolution in the public schools. efforts to manipulate standards and curriculum in In an early-2000 survey by People for the other subjects, we might not have expected them American Way, half the respondents said that in science. But they are there in plenitude—with evolution is "far from being proven scientifical- grave consequences for our children's scientific ly." literacy. The public, in other words, is not nearly so ready With respect to evolution, Gross was as blunt as as the scientists to mandate that all schools teach one would expect from a distinguished biologist. evolution and only evolution. This important He dismissed as pure propaganda the claims political fact begins to explain the dilemma that made by creationists and others trying to discredit state policymakers encounter when they set about the theory of evolution or shield children from to promulgate standards for science education. learning it. "No evidentiary claim against 'Darwinism' has so far withstood testing," Gross Role of State Standards wrote. "On the other hand, the evidence in favor of natural selection grows exponentially and To be sure, state standards do not single-handedly meshes ever more tightly with the rest of sci- determine what is taught and learned in U.S. ence.…Any scientist who found a basic flaw or a schools. Many factors come into play, including genuine, deep gap in evolutionary theory would the selection of textbooks, the adequacy of teach- be an overnight celebrity." ers' own knowledge, the organization of the cur- riculum (e.g., how much time is devoted to sci- Gross's report, particularly the case study of evo- ence), what is included on statewide tests, and lution, provoked a strong reaction from some of whether the tests' results bring consequences for our readers, including people with whom we ordi- children, teachers, schools, or others. We're also narily agree about education issues. As their calls, mindful that some states with low marks for aca- letters and, especially, e-mails and web postings demic standards have nonetheless embraced bold revealed, the dispute over teaching evolution in and imaginative education reform strategies that U.S. schools is far from over. appear to be bearing fruit. Standards are obvious- ly not the whole story. viii Yet the knowledge and skills set forth in state fore must have been created by some outside standards are supposed to form the core of "stan- force or prior intelligence.
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