The Florida state board of education's vote to adopt a new set of science standards on February 19, 2008, is continuing to attract comment, due largely to the board's decision to adopt, not the final draft of the standards as submitted by the writing committee, but a revised version in which the…
The Florida state board of education voted 4-3 at its February 19, 2008, meeting to adopt a new set of state science standards in which evolution is presented as a "fundamental concept underlying all of biology." The adopted standards differ from those developed by the writing committee in adding…
In a letter (PDF) to the Texas Commissioner of Education and the members of the Texas state board of education dated February 13, 2008, the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study expressed its opposition to actions in the state of Texas that "compromise the integrity of science and the…
As the Florida state board of education prepared to consider a final draft of a new set of state science standards, Floridians offered their opinions at a last-minute meeting held in Orlando on February 11, 2008. Over eighty speakers addressed the state commissioner of education, Eric Smith, and,…
In a recent statement, the Texas Academy of Sciences expressed its support for teaching evolution -- which it described as "the primary unifying cognitive framework in the biological sciences" -- and its opposition to including creationism (including "intelligent design") in the state's…