{"id":330,"date":"2007-11-30T07:46:35","date_gmt":"2007-11-30T11:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=330"},"modified":"2008-08-04T10:23:18","modified_gmt":"2008-08-04T14:23:18","slug":"standards-are-getting-a-thumbs-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=330","title":{"rendered":"Standards are getting a thumbs up"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article in the St. Petersburg Times<\/a> does what every good article should do: talk to the experts. The real experts. This gives such writing proper balance without resorting to the “equal balance” fallacy. The paper commissioned their own reviewer to render an opinion about the new draft of the science standards with good results.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, an influential national think tank concluded in a scathing report that Florida’s science standards – which outline what students need to know to be well grounded in the subject – were sprawling, superficial and deserving of a big, fat F.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, the Fordham Institute noted, the standards didn’t even mention the word “evolution.”<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to now.<\/p>\n

Proposed standards are more focused and better organized. They not only mention evolution, they dub it a “big idea.” And this time, they get a thumbs-up from the chief author of the Fordham report.<\/p>\n

“Much better,” said biologist Paul Gross, a former provost at the University of Virginia, who reviewed the draft at the request of the St. Petersburg Times.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The current standards were adopted in 1996, when some education officials were concerned that direct mention of Darwin’s theory of evolution – the keystone of modern biology – would spark a cultural firestorm.<\/p>\n

This time, state officials haven’t flinched. And though it remains to be seen how much of an uproar there may be from religious conservatives, the proposed standards are garnering strong support from teachers and scientists.<\/p>\n

“Nothing like that is ever perfect,” said Gerry Meisels, a University of South Florida chemistry professor who directs the state’s Coalition for Science Literacy. “But they are a very big step forward.”<\/p>\n

“They’re good science,” said Joe Wolf, president of Florida Citizens for Science.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There obviously is a lot of controversy when it comes to evolution. Mention the “e-word” and people come out of the woodwork. The article says that as of early this week, 7,069 have left comments on the standards at the public review website<\/a>. The good news is that comments in favor of evolution are winning out by a 2-to-1 margin.<\/p>\n

Now the real question is whether the Florida Board of Education, which has final say over the fate of the new standards, will do the right thing or turn this into a circus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article in the St. Petersburg Times does what every good article should do: talk to the experts. The real experts. This gives such writing proper balance without resorting to the “equal balance” fallacy. The paper commissioned their own reviewer … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-5k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":300,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=300","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":0},"title":"Article on science standards\/evolution in The Ledger","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ledger ran an article today about the new draft science standards and predictably focused entirely on the inclusion of evolution. As I've mentioned before, I think that is irresponsible and sensationalist. I understand that evolution garners high interest, but the real story is that the standards are being improved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":347,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=347","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":1},"title":"More positive evolution opinions. Is anyone listening?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"An opinion column in the Daytona Beach News-Journal points out how silly Florida looks when state leaders advocate science but then turn right around and denigrate science. Talk about a love-hate relationship! And once more the state is in a fight over evolution, creationism and its big-city cousin, \"intelligent design.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":444,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=444","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":2},"title":"More support for evolution in science standards","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Thank you, Volusia County! A local newspaper, The Beacon, polled the members of the school board to see where they stood on the issue of evolution in the state science standards. All of them were in agreement that science belongs in the science classroom, separate from religious beliefs. Just to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3419,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3419","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":3},"title":"Will Florida science standards be revised?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Gov. Ron DeSantis is making good on a campaign promise he made to launch a revision of the state's education standards. The headlines have been making a big deal out of his targeting of Common Core, such as this one: \"Florida governor Ron DeSantis orders state to get rid of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":336,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=336","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":4},"title":"It’s hitting the fan now","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The issue of evolution in the state science standards, and the fate of those standards because of evolution, made the headlines today. Florida Citizens for Science members and the National Center for Science Education were very busy yesterday with interviews for these stories. The main strategy being used here by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2397,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2397","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":5},"title":"Florida Citizens for Science News Release","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"News Release Lawmakers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Instructional Materials Proposal: Costly Headache for School Boards Jan 11, 2016 Florida Citizens for Science Florida Citizens for Science opposes companion bills filed in the Florida House and Senate, HB899 and SB1018, both entitled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Instructional Materials for K-12 Public Education.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We assert that these bills are in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '16"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '16","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=31"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}