{"id":976,"date":"2009-03-28T19:04:25","date_gmt":"2009-03-28T23:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=976"},"modified":"2009-04-30T19:25:04","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T23:25:04","slug":"and-in-other-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=976","title":{"rendered":"And in other news …"},"content":{"rendered":"

News dump time.<\/p>\n

— Should public school teachers have tenure? This story in the St. Petersburg Times<\/a> points out how hard it is to fire a horrible teacher. What interests me about this story? Evolution, of course.<\/p>\n

When teachers earned workplace protections in the early 20th century, tenure was intended as a shield against overbearing parents and heavy-handed school boards.<\/p>\n

Supporters say the need remains. Just imagine, they say, what could happen to tenure-less science teachers in stretches of Florida where evolution is ridiculed.<\/p>\n

But critics say tenure’s shield is too often extended to teachers who don’t deserve it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Budget slashing is hitting everyone hard. Science class field trips are no exception<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It’s sad,” she said. “I just had a child tell me, ‘Mrs. Franta, this is a glorious day.’ This kind of experience can affect students the rest of their lives. It makes them aware of their environment. It makes them want to care for it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— A 14-year-old student laments the loss of the gifted science class in a good letter to the editor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I am an eighth-grade student at Gifford Middle School. I am currently enrolled in the gifted program and have recently been informed of the school district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intention to discontinue the gifted subject of science.<\/p>\n

I was very distraught when I received this news, having seen my science teacher, Jennie Flynt, cry over the emotional weight that this carried.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— A high school junior wants to know what is up with the science FCAT<\/a>. Her peers just “Christmas treed” it.<\/p>\n

When our administrators told us that the science portion of the FCAT only counted to grade our school, several students decided they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to bother showing up. Several more did show up but only because their parents required them; however, they in no way took the test seriously but instead \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christmas treed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Phil Plait does a good summary<\/a> of the Texas science standards situation. And the Texas Freedom Network<\/a> covers the situation from all angles. And here is a story at Salon<\/a>. Feel free to add more informative links in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News dump time. — Should public school teachers have tenure? This story in the St. Petersburg Times points out how hard it is to fire a horrible teacher. What interests me about this story? Evolution, of course. When teachers earned … 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":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-fK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1093,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1093","url_meta":{"origin":976,"position":0},"title":"Grossly misleading story","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Fox News station in Tampa probably meant well, but they went about doing this story about the Controversial Issues Workshop going on this week all wrong. I mean really wrong. Florida science teaching standards didn't allow the word \"evolution\" to be used. Instead teachers had to say the phrase,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1093#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1251,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1251","url_meta":{"origin":976,"position":1},"title":"Teachers in U.S. Reluctant to Endorse Evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Headline: High School Biology Teachers in U.S. Reluctant to Endorse Evolution in Class, Study Finds From the news story writeup of the journal article: \"Considerable research suggests that supporters of evolution, scientific methods, and reason itself are losing battles in America's classrooms.\" ... Berkman and Plutzer say the nation must\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":756,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=756","url_meta":{"origin":976,"position":2},"title":"Tears over evolution in Georgia","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a story out of Georgia (h\/t to PZ) that is mighty interesting. As part of a two-day public symposium event, area teachers attended a workshop focused on the challenges of teaching evolution. There are quite a few war stories to swap out there! Some students burst into tears\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=756#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1191,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1191","url_meta":{"origin":976,"position":3},"title":"Florida isn’t alone in science testing woes","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is an interesting article about Massachusetts high school students failing required science exams needed for graduation. If I'm reading the story and associated graphic correctly, more students failed science than either math or English, resulting in no diploma. I admit I know nothing about Massachusetts' science test and requirements,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1191#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1025,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1025","url_meta":{"origin":976,"position":4},"title":"Biology students do pay attention","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, high school biology teachers, students are paying attention to you. What you teach and how you teach it really can influence how kids view evolution and creationism, according to a recently published study. The study questioned introductory biology students at the college level concerning their views on evolution and\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1025#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1178,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1178","url_meta":{"origin":976,"position":5},"title":"New study: How do Florida teachers feel about evolution?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida science teachers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 jobs are in jeopardy if they dare challenge biological evolution in the public school classroom, claimed state senator Ronda Storms when she filed her Academic Freedom bill in 2008. The bill says that \"in many instances educators have experienced or feared discipline, discrimination, or other adverse consequences\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 6 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 6 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1178#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976"}],"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=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}