News & Views item - December 2005

 

 

The Problem Ain't Just Intelligent Design / Creationism. (December 16, 2005)

    Below we reprint in full a "Random Sample" from the December 16 issue of Science.

 

Although many [US] states have recrafted their public school science standards in the past 5 years, "we're no better off now than before," according to a report issued last week by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation in Washington, D.C. "Science education in America is under attack, with 'discovery learning' on one flank and the Discovery Institute on the other."

The foundation, which supports research on education reform, graded each state based on the clarity and quality of its standards. Seven states, led by California, got an "A." Virginia was most-improved, rising from a "D" in the foundation's 2000 report to an "A." Of the 13 that received an "F," all except New Hampshire are in the South or West.

Lead author of the report is biologist Paul R. Gross, former head of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Gross says the problem with precollege science education is much bigger than the debate over teaching evolution. "Certainly some states do an awful job addressing evolution, but for the most part these states also do an awful job addressing the rest of science," he says. See http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/Science Standards.Final (12-6).pdf for The State of State Science Standards 2005.