Evolution and climate education update: September 28, 2018

[Glenn Branch]

Dear friends of NCSE,

UPDATE FROM ARIZONA

"Parents and teachers on Monday [September 24, 2018] rallied outside
an Arizona Board of Education meeting, and then took turns during the
meeting blasting a proposal to remove references to evolution and
climate change from state science standards," reported the Arizona
Republic(September 24, 2018).

The criticisms of the draft standards were prefigured by a letter
(PDF) from the American Institute of Biological Sciences, a statement
from leading Arizona scientists published in the Arizona Republic
(September 24, 2018), and a petition from the Sierra Club's Climate
Parents, signed by hundreds of Arizona parents.

Interviewed by the Arizona Republic (September 22, 2018), NCSE's Glenn
Branch emphasized the significance of the deletion of a middle-school
standard addressing speciation: "What [creationists] don't like is
[explanations of] the origin of a new species, because it implies that
human beings share a common ancestry with other living things."

At the meeting, the Arizona Science Teachers Association requested a
set of specific changes to the draft standards to rectify their faulty
treatment of evolution and climate change. Sara Torres, ASTA's
executive director, asked the board not to put science teachers "in
the position of teaching non-scientific teaching," the Arizona
Republic reported.

Meanwhile, as KNAU (September 21, 2018) previously reported,
Superintendent Diane Douglas was putting her weight behind a charter
school scope-and-sequence document developed by Hillsdale College
rather than the standards developed by her department. The proposal
"drew another round of outrage" at the rally, according to the Arizona
Republic.

As expected, the board of education took no action with regard to
either the draft standards or the scope-and-sequence document at the
meeting. Video of the meeting is available on-line. The board is
currently expected to vote on the draft standards -- or a revised
version -- at its October 22, 2018, meeting.

For the Arizona Republic's 9/24 story, visit:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2018/09/24/arizona-teachers-science-standards-evolution-climate-change-hillsdale-diane-douglas-district-charter/1412037002/

For the letter from AIBS (PDF), visit:
https://ncse.com/files/AIBS_Arizona%20Science%20Standards%20letter.pdf

For the op-ed from Arizona scientists, visit:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2018/09/24/arizona-evolution-teaching-standards-intelligent-design-creationism/1408582002/

For a press release about the Sierra Club's Climate Parents petition, visit:
https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2018/09/az-parents-call-ed-board-reject-curriculum-denies-climate-science

For the Arizona Republic's 9/22 story, visit:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2018/09/22/arizona-superintendent-diane-douglas-proposes-academic-standards-hillsdale-college-betsy-devos/1374060002/

For ASTA's letter to the board, visit:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D5CHoN_Uhe3KohIJu3Soigsa_EZB2wV3/view

For KNAU's story, visit:
http://www.knau.org/post/dept-education-backs-away-controversial-science-standards

For video from the board's 9/24 meeting, visit:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsNwAaD9tyciKskyp0R2e5A

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Arizona, visit:
https://ncse.com/news/arizona

Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website --
https://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on
evolution and climate education and threats to them.

--
Sincerely,

Glenn Branch
Deputy Director
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
1904 Franklin Street, Suite 600
Oakland CA 94612-2922
510-601-7203
fax 510-788-7971
bra...@ncse.com
https://ncse.com

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