NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/05/03

(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)

Dear Friends of NCSE,

The repeal effort in Louisiana fails again. Congratulations are in
order for James E. Hansen. And a look at the state of evolution
education in the Keystone State.

REPEAL EFFORTS FAILS AGAIN IN LOUISIANA

Louisiana's Senate Bill 26 was tabled on a 3-2 vote in the Senate
Committee on Education on May 1, 2013, which effectively kills the
bill in committee, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune (May 1,
2013). The bill, introduced by Karen Carter Peterson (D-District 5),
would, if enacted, repeal Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:285.1, which
implemented the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, passed and
enacted in 2008, and thus opened the door for scientifically
unwarranted criticisms of evolution and climate science to be taught
in the state's public schools. It was the third bill of its kind,
following SB 374 in 2012 and SB 70 in 2011.

The law targeted for repeal calls on state and local education
administrators to help to promote "critical thinking skills, logical
analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories
being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of
life, global warming, and human cloning"; these four topics were
described as controversial in the original draft of the legislation.
It also allows teachers to use "supplemental textbooks and other
instructional materials to help students understand, analyze,
critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner" if so
permitted by their local school boards.

Since 2008, antievolutionists have not only sought to undermine the
law's provision allowing challenges to unsuitable supplementary
materials, but have also reportedly invoked the law to support
proposals to teach creationism in at least two parishes -- Livingston
and Tangipahoa -- and to attack the treatment of evolution in biology
textbooks proposed for adoption by the state. Recently, speaking to
NBC News on April 12, 2013, Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal (R), who
signed the bill into law over the protests of the state's scientific
and educational communities, acknowledged that the LSEA allows
teachers to "teach our kids about creationism."

Among those testifying in favor of the repeal was Zack Kopplin, who
was quoted by the Associated Press (May 1, 2013) as describing the
LSEA as "about going back into the Dark Ages, not moving forward into
the 21st [c]entury," adding, "Louisiana students deserve to be taught
sound science and that means the theory of evolution, not
creationism." Tammy Wood, a Zachary-area science teacher, highlighted
the failure of the LSEA to provide "the necessary restrictions,
standards, and guidelines" to avoid its misuse to promote "mere
nonsense masquerading as a viable alternative." The complete video of
the hearing is available on-line.

In advance of the hearing, Kopplin published two op-eds arguing for
the repeal. Writing in the Guardian (May 1, 2013), he emphasized (in
the words of the headline) "the cost of teaching creationism -- in
reputation and dollars" to the state: "Any state that passes a
creationism law will harm their students and drive scientists -- and
business -- away." Writing at MSNBC (May 1, 2013), he addressed
Governor Jindal directly: "it's time to take your own advice and
actually lead the Republican Party toward being a smarter party by
endorsing evidence-based science, and the repeal of Louisiana?s
creationism law."

Among those endorsing the repeal effort are 78 Nobel laureate
scientists, the National Association of Biology Teachers, the
Louisiana Association of Biology Educators, the Louisiana Coalition
for Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
the American Institute for Biological Sciences, the American Society
for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society for Cell
Biology, the Society for the Study of Evolution together with the
Society of Systematic Biologists and the American Society of
Naturalists, the Clergy Letter Project, the New Orleans City Council,
and the Baton Rouge Advocate.

For the text of Louisiana's Senate Bill 26 as introduced (PDF), visit:
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=828787&n=SB26%20Original 

For the story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, visit:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/la_creationism_science_educati.html 

For NCSE's story on Jindal's connecting the LSEA with creationism, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/2013/04/jindal-connects-dots-0014809 

For the Associated Press story (via the Alexandria Town Talk), visit:
http://www.thetowntalk.com/viewart/20130502/NEWS01/305020026/Louisiana-senators-reject-repeal-Science-Education-Act 

For the video of the committee's hearing, visit:
http://senate.la.gov/Video/2013/May/050113EDUC.asx 

For Kopplin's op-eds in the Guardian and at MSNBC, visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/01/louisiana-cost-teaching-creationism 
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/01/as-creationism-law-comes-up-for-repeal-an-appeal-to-bobby-jindal/ 

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Louisiana, visit:
http://ncse.com/louisiana 

HANSEN RECEIVES RIDENHOUR COURAGE PRIZE

NCSE is delighted to congratulate James E. Hansen on receiving the
Ridenhour Courage Prize for 2013. Hansen was recognized "for bravely
and urgently telling the truth about climate change, even when the
Bush administration tried to silence and penalize him as director of
the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Rather than giving in, or
giving up, Dr. Hansen -- one of the world?s most tireless and
articulate activists -- has courageously and continuously led the
fight to save the planet ever since." A member of NCSE's Advisory
Council, Hansen recently resigned as the director of NASA's Goddard
Institute after thirty-two years.

The Ridenhour Courage Prize is presented to an individual in
recognition of his or her courageous and life-long defense of the
public interest and passionate commitment to social justice, and
carries with it a $10,000 stipend. The prize is awarded by the Fertel
Foundation and the Nation Institute in memory of the investigative
journalist Ron Ridenhour, who brought the horrific events of the My
Lai massacre to the attention of the American people in 1969. Previous
recipients include John Lewis, Russ Feingold, Howard Zinn, Bob
Herbert, Bill Moyers, Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem, Seymour M. Hersh,
and Daniel Ellsberg.

For the prize citation, visit:
http://www.ridenhour.org/prizes_courage_2013.html 

EVOLUTION IN PENNSYLVANIA

In a wide-ranging article, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (April 28,
2013) discussed "the ill-kept secret about public school biology
classrooms nationwide -- that evolution often isn't taught robustly,
if at all." In Pennsylvania as around the nation, "[f]aith-based
belief in creationism and intelligent design continues to be discussed
and even openly taught in public school classrooms, despite state
curriculum standards."

In a poll of Pennsylvania's science teachers conducted by the paper in
early 2013, 89.5% of respondents said that they believed in the theory
of evolution, 13.3% in intelligent design, and 19.1% in creationism;
4.76% were not sure or expressed a different view. (Respondents were
allowed to chose more than one option.) There were 105 respondents;
further details of how the poll was conducted were not provided.

Michael Berkman of Pennsylvania State University, who with Eric
Plutzer and Julianna Pacheco conducted a rigorous national study of
high school biology teachers on the topic of evolution in 2007, told
the Post-Gazette that between 17 and 21 percent of teachers introduce
creationism into the classroom, but added that the most alarming
finding was the prevalence of teachers who "throw doubt [on] and
downplay evolution" without introducing creationism.

G. Kip Bollinger, who retired as scientific education consultant for
the Pennsylvania Department of Education in 2004, observed that "Many
school districts shy away from the controversy and many teachers don't
want to be the center of the controversy ... So it's not surprising
that evolution is not given its due as an important theory of science.
... I would receive letters written by congregations around the state
decrying that evolution was included in the state's science education
standards."

David Lampe, a professor of biology at Duquesne University, regularly
polls his first-year biology students about their high school
experience with learning evolution before his class begins. "His
results indicate that a quarter to a third of freshmen claim to have
had no instruction in evolution, with another third saying that only
two class days or fewer were devoted to the topic. Only a third
received three days or more of instruction on the topic."

Yet there are efforts underway to introduce a bill in the Pennsylvania
legislature that "would allow teachers to teach alternative theories
of evolution and climate change and other controversial topics,
without facing sanctions." As NCSE previously reported, these efforts
follow on the heels of a series of presentations from young-earth and
"intelligent design" creationists in a Murrysville, Pennsylvania,
church. No such bill has yet been introduced, however.

At the end of the presentations, the Post-Gazette noted, "a teacher in
the audience submitted a written question asking ... how a teacher can
introduce creationism into the classroom without facing sanctions."
The answer, from the chief counsel from the Pennsylvania Family
Institute, "which is spearheading the campaign for a Pennsylvania
academic freedom bill," was "There is a lot that a teacher can get
away with in the classroom if you do it wisely and gently."

NCSE's Joshua Rosenau described the bill as "a permission slip for
teachers already teaching creationism to say that they are just
encouraging critical thinking," and Duquesne's David Lampe challenged
the "academic freedom" slogan directly, explaining, "It's not freedom
to say anything you want in the classroom. In the classroom, you are
obligated to teach scientific facts and methods. It's not a forum for
teachers to go off and talk about whatever they want to."

Later, the Post-Gazette offered its editorial view, writing (April 30,
2013), "A science teacher who doesn't accept evolution is like a math
teacher who denies calculus," and adding, "The ones who suffer from
this breach in the wall of separation between church and state are the
nation's children. The urgent effort to promote STEM (science,
technology, engineering and mathematics) education are undone every
time a teacher banishes scientific facts from a classroom."

The last antievolution legislation in Pennsylvania was House Bill
1007. If enacted, the bill would have allowed school boards to add
"intelligent design" to any curriculum containing evolution and
allowed teachers to use, subject to the approval of their board,
"supporting evidence deemed necessary for instruction on the theory of
intelligent design." The bill received a hearing in the House
Subcommittee on Basic Education in June 2005, but proceeded no
further.

For the article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, visit:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/is-evolution-missing-link-in-some-pennsylvania-high-schools-685389/ 

For Berkman, Pacheco, and Plutzer's 2008 article, visit:
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060124 

For the editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, visit:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/reason-not-evolving-creationism-has-no-place-in-science-classes-685576 

For the text of Pennsylvania's House Bill 1007 in 2005, visit:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2005&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billNbr=1007&pn=1153 

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Pennsylvania, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/pennsylvania 

Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website --
http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on 
evolution and climate education and threats to them.

--
Sincerely,

Glenn Branch
Deputy Director
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
420 40th Street, Suite 2
Oakland, CA 94609-2509
510-601-7203 x305
fax: 510-601-7204
800-290-6006
branch@ncse.com 
http://ncse.com 

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