The Iowa Department of Education (DOE) wants to remove references to climate change and biological evolution from the science education standards in the state's middle and high schools. The state's current science teaching standards were adopted in 2015, and closely follow the Next Generation Science Standards that are in use in 20 states and the District of Columbia.
Conservatives opposed to students being taught about the role of human activity in climate change, and those who favor teaching Bible-based versions of human origins instead of science-based lessons about human evolution, have objected to the current standards since the DOE began considering them 10 years ago.
The DOE's new proposed standards eliminate the term "climate change," replacing it with "climate trends," and remove references to the role played by human activity in driving climate change.
The new standards also eliminate the term "biological evolution," replacing it with "biological change over time." The new standards for teaching biology to middle and high school students call for changing "evolutionary relationships" to "relationships," and "simultaneous coevolution" to "simultaneous change." Language encouraging science teachers to "communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence" has been removed from the new standards.
DOE defends the changes, saying they were approved by the Iowa Department of Education Science Standards Revision Team, a 37-member committee of science educators. That's not true. The document approved by the revision team retained the current standards on climate change and biological evolution.
KCRG "obtained a copy of the documents that committee sent to the Department of Education, and it doesn't match the documents released" by the department.
"For example, on a section of 8th grade standards, the committee's document has a section titled 'Global Climate Change', and it discusses humans' impact on the Earth's temperature through practices like burning fossil fuels," KCRG reported on Tuesday.
"The document the Department of Education released removes the mention of humans' impact and fossil fuels entirely, and it adds a sentence saying the Earth has experienced natural warming and cooling throughout history."
KCRG's reporting has been confirmed by members of the revision team.
"The document that was presented for public input was not what we had voted on and came to consensus," Angie Breitbach, a team member from the Dubuque Community School District, told the Gazette.
DOE maintains the changes it wants to make won't undermine the teaching of science in Iowa. The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) disagrees.
In a statement, the NCSE said the changes "lessen the scientific accuracy and the pedagogical usefulness of the standards. If the proposed standards are adopted, it will be harder for Iowa's teachers to present evolution and climate change forthrightly."
The public comment period for DOE's proposed alteration of the science standards is still ongoing. NCSE is encouraging concerned Iowans to submit a comment through the DOE's online survey, telling the department to maintain its current standards, which are based on the Next Generation Science Standards.
The Next Generation standards were first published in 2013, the result of a three-year-long collaboration between the education departments of 26 states, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Research Council and the National Science Teachers Association.
The public comment period on the DOE's proposal remains open through Monday, Feb. 3. There will be a DOE public forum on the science standards for Iowa schools on Thursday, Jan. 22 in Room B100 of the DOE's Grimes Building in Des Moines (400 E. 14th St). The forum is scheduled to last two hours, and will be accessible via Zoom.