You earned an A!

A new study examining the mention of evolution in states’ science standards spotlighted us here in Florida for the huge turnaround from a grade of F to a grade of A!

Florida   Over the past decade, Florida has improved its standards more dramatically than perhaps any other state. The 1999 standards received an F from Lerner (2000) for their (lack of) treatment of biological and geological evolution and scored zero in the Fordham Foundation’s 2005 report, “The State of State Science Standards.” As both reports observed, evolution was not even mentioned by name at the time. However, after several months of public discussion and debate, the Florida Department of Education’s writing committee developed a vastly superior set of standards in 2007. Biological evolution became prominent, human evolution was explicitly discussed, and geological and cosmological evolution were covered as well. In February 2008, after fierce creationist opposition, the Board of Education approved a revised version in which evolution was persistently referred to as “the scientific theory of evolution.” A similar label was used for plate tectonics, cell theory, atomic theory, and electromagnetism (this tactic of protecting creationist-opposed topics by textually grouping them with less “offensive” areas of science, in order to imply that all are equally legitimate, is also used in the Minnesota standards; we discuss below why we believe it may be largely ineffective). However, the standards also explicitly required that students be able to “recognize and explain that a scientific theory is a well-supported and widely accepted explanation of nature and is not simply a claim posed by an individual. Thus, the use of the term theory in science is very different than how it is used in everyday life.” This does an excellent job of heading off “just a theory”-style attacks on evolution, and Florida’s current standards score a solid A.

Congratulations, everyone. YOU are the ones who helped earn this A for Florida. (h/t NCSE)

About Brandon Haught

Communications Director for Florida Citizens for Science.
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4 Responses to You earned an A!

  1. James F says:

    Take THAT, Ronda Storms and Stephen Wise! Congrats, guys!

    New Jersey got an “A” too…in your FACE, New York! 😀

  2. Jonathan smith says:

    The gradebook now at a link on it’s blog, well done to everyone.
    http://blogs.tampabay.com/schools/

  3. Joe Wolf says:

    The people who wrote these new standards deserve a special round of thanks from all of the people of Florida. Thanks guys.

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