Where Evolution Is Taught In the US

[ObscureReferenceMan]

I came across this item via digg.com:
Where Evolution Is Taught In the US (http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/04/03/97-%e2%80%93-where-and-how-evolution-is-taught-in-the-us/)

(I don't usually come into the Politics forum, but I didn't think this was appropriate for "General Skepticism".)

[Freddy]

Hell yeah, my home state is green. I took high school biology in a Christian school, and we covered evolution thoroughly and as fact.

[MajorOrgan]

Every once in awhile the Texas government manages not to embarrass me.

[Tony]

Lake Michigan and Iowa need to get their acts together.

[Tailgater]

Yay. I evolved in a green state. Exemplary!

[TragicMonkey]

States are not homogenous. I attended high school in Virginia and Tennessee, both of which are red on that map, and evolution was taught to me in both places.

[hgc]

States are not homogenous. I attended high school in Virginia and Tennessee, both of which are red on that map, and evolution was taught to me in both places.


Agreed. This has got to be misleading. It must vary by school district, by school and by biology teacher.

[Alt+F4]

I'd be curious to know how the data for that map was collected. I would think surveying science textbooks would be the most unbiased approach.

New York State is given only a "satisfactory/good" yet it contains the largest school district in the country where evolution is definitely taught.

I teach high school social studies and evolution v. creationism comes up on occassion. I would say 99% of the kids had some knowledge of evolution but the vast majority had NO idea what creationism is.

[ponderingturtle]

But I honnestly can't remember the extent of evolution I learned in high school biology.

[hgc]

I'd be curious to know how the data for that map was collected.


My guess: They looked at state guidelines -- for text books and for class instruction. I'm not surprised that there are many states without actual guidelines for this, considering that in a rational world it wouldn't be necessary. Any qualified biology teacher knows how central evolution is to his lesson plan. State guidelines wouldn't really have the kind of impact on how it's taught in individual classes that many would think.

[WildCat]

States are not homogenous. I attended high school in Virginia and Tennessee, both of which are red on that map, and evolution was taught to me in both places.
Illinois is also red, and I was taught evolution in public schools.

[drkitten]

Agreed. This has got to be misleading. It must vary by school district, by school and by biology teacher.

Not as much as you might thing, esp. in light of the NCLB requirements.

Remember, state standards don't just define what should be taught, they also define where and when it should be taught. One of the things that that does, for example, is keep lower-performing school districts from simply defininging standards downwards out of existence ("Well, yes, over there they teach subtraction in 2nd grade, but in this district, we teach it in 10th!")

I think it's quite reprehensible that a subject as central as evolution is, at best, left to the whim of the individual biology teacher about when and how to introduce.

[Cello Man]

I was lucky enough that my mom used to teach biology. She also realizes that referring to evolution as a "belief" makes as much sense as calling gravity a "belief" as well.

[Alt+F4]

Not as much as you might thing, esp. in light of the NCLB requirements.

No Child Left Behind prohibits the federal government from mandating curriculum content. Even Rick Santorum's admendment didn't outright call for the teaching of creationism, rather it tried to put "intelligent design" on the same scientific level as evolution.

[drkitten]

No Child Left Behind prohibits the federal government from mandating curriculum content.

Yes. But it also mandates very strict state-established curriculum content standards and widespread testing.

Trying to set up curriculum content standards for science (or more specifically for biology) without addressing evolution is, um, problematic. Like the proverbial elephant in the room, it requires more effort to avoid than to discuss....

[Steven Howard]

My guess: They looked at state guidelines -- for text books and for class instruction.

Here's (http://scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?colID=19&articleID=0006D234-4BE9-1CC6-B4A8809EC588EEDF) the original article from Scientific American. The map is based on each state's education standards as of 2002.

There is little information on what is actually taught in individual classrooms and school districts, so it is not clear what effect state standards have on the quality of evolution teaching. The influence of the standards is, however, potentially great because they are likely to affect the content of textbooks and lesson plans.

[skeptifem]

we never got to it in my schooling, i read plenty on my own though. and my mom took a lot of zoology and biology in college so her books were laying around for me to read.

[Dustin Kesselberg]

I don't remember Evolution being taught at my high school (which is in one of the red states listed) and I distinctly remember one of my teachers saying that she could not answer my questions on Evolution or else she might get fired.

[gnome]

I was taught evolution at my school in Florida, but quite reluctantly by the EARTH SCIENCE teacher who admitted he preferred the biblical explanation.

Neither was gone into in great depth.

[Alt+F4]

What each state currently requires as part of their K-12 science curriculum is a separate issue then what individual teachers are or are not teaching in their classrooms.