Thursday, December 08, 2005
Kansas Gets an F
Science education in America is under attack, with "discovery learning" on one flank and the Discovery Institute on the other. That's the core finding of a just-released comprehensive review of state science standards, by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, based in Washington, D.C. The Fordham Foundation supports research, publications, and action projects of national significance in elementary and secondary education reform.
Here's what the Fordham Foundation has to say about the standards recently adopted in Kansas:
On the standards adopted in November, Fordham says:
Here's what the Fordham Foundation has to say about the standards recently adopted in Kansas:
In the prior report on state science standards, issued in 2000, Kansas received the grade of “F.” Creationists on the State Board of Education had disfigured an otherwise acceptable standards draft in order to expunge all reference to evolution and to all other historical science in support of evolutionary ideas...
On the standards adopted in November, Fordham says:
Kansas has adopted standards whose treatment of evolutionary material has been radically compromised. The effect transcends evolution, however. It now makes a mockery of the very definition of science. The grade for Kansas is accordingly reduced to “F.”You can read "The State of State Science Standards 2005," here. A pdf of the Kansas report is here.
