Arizona official waters down state’s science education standards

Arizona official waters down state’s science education standards

6 years ago
Anonymous $CLwNLde341

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/arizona-official-waters-down-states-science-education-standards/

In Arizona, the state's Superintendent of Public Instruction has led a campaign to remove evolution from the state's science education standards. Diane Douglas has taken the standards, written by educators, and selectively replaced instances of the word "evolution" with euphemisms like "change over time." The alterations come less than a year after Douglas publicly advocated for introducing religious ideas into biology classrooms. Arizona residents still have roughly a week to submit comments on the changes.

Most states develop educational standards that define their expectations for what students should know at different stages of their time in school. These standards then govern things from the mass purchase of textbooks to the design of instructional plans by individual teachers. For large states like California and Texas, the decisions involved in the formation of educational standards can dictate the structure of textbooks that are released nationwide, as publishers try to develop one book that they can sell everywhere.