NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/11/01
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2013-11-01 17:26.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Kentucky's governor reiterates his support for the Next Generation Science Standards. And a new poll reports on Virginians' attitude toward climate change.
GOVERNOR BESHEAR DEFENDS THE NGSS Kentucky's governor Steve Beshear (D) recently told WKU Public Radio (October 31, 2013) why he is supporting the state's adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards. "My job, Commissioner Holliday's job, and the Kentucky Board of Education's job is to make sure our children are college and career ready when they leave high school," said Beshear. "Part of getting them college and career ready is to make sure they study all the different scientific theories [that] are out there that everybody else in the world will be studying." As NCSE previously reported, the NGSS faltered in Kentucky on September 11, 2013, when the legislature's Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee voted 5-1 to find the standards deficient, despite the fact that they were recommended by the state department of education and the state board of education. Governor Beshear promptly announced that he planned to implement the NGSS under his own authority, and (as WFPL in Louisville reported on October 15, 2013) officially notified the Legislative Research Commission of his intention to do so. Eight states including Kentucky have adopted the NGSS so far, but the process was most contentious in Kentucky, as NCSE's Joshua Rosenau told WFPL in Louisville (October 22, 2013). "If Kentucky had backed away from it or turned it into a political controversy it would have shaped perceptions in other states as well," Rosenau commented. And the controversy is not necessarily over: as WKU reported, "The General Assembly might consider legislation in January [2014, when it reconvenes] that would kill the new teachings." In the meantime, one science teacher offered a passionate defense of the NGSS in the Lexington Herald-Leader (October 25, 2013). "I am excited about Kentucky's new standards for science education and flabbergasted that anyone could take umbrage with them," wrote Roger Guffey. "After reviewing the standards and the objections raised against them, I realized the fundamental problem. The naysayers cannot separate their religious and political ideologies from science. Of all the standards, these are the only ones that are intimately related to humans and their activities." For WKU's story, visit: http://wkyufm.org/post/kentucky-governor-defends-new-science-curriculum For WPFL's 10/15/2013 story, visit: http://wfpl.org/post/kentucky-education-committee-passes-hearing-science-standards-official-adoption-near For WPFL's 10/22/2013 story, visit: http://wfpl.org/post/kentucky-leads-charge-next-generation-science-standards-despite-challenges For Roger Guffey's column in the Lexington Herald-Leader, visit: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/10/25/2893947/roger-guffey-of-lexington-is-a.html And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Kentucky, visit: http://ncse.com/news/kentucky POLLING CLIMATE IN VIRGINIA A new poll conducted by the Old Dominion University Social Science Research Center included a question about climate change -- and while a majority of respondents accepted the fact that human activity is a major contributing factor in climate change, the responses varied to a remarkable degree by political preference. Asked, "Do you believe human activity is a major contributing factor in climate change?" 62.7% of respondents said yes, 34.5% said no, and 2.7% said that they didn't know. There was a political split in the responses: 66.4% of respondents supporting the Republican candidate for governor answered no, while 88.5% of respondents supporting the Democratic candidate and 68.1% of respondents supporting the Libertarian candidate answered yes. According to the report, "The poll was conducted using a random digit dial landline and cell phone number sample of 670 likely voters with quotas by Congressional district. Results were weighted by phone use and by demographic characteristics (income, gender, and age). The margin of error for the survey was 5 percent." For the poll report (PDF), visit: http://al.odu.edu/ssrc/doc/2013OldDominionPollAnalysis_corrected.pdf And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate change, visit: http://ncse.com/polls/polls-climate-change 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 Check out NCSE's new blog, Science League of America: http://ncse.com/blog Read Reports of the NCSE on-line: http://reports.ncse.com Subscribe to NCSE's free weekly e-newsletter: http://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news NCSE is on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd http://twitter.com/ncse NCSE's work is supported by its members. Join today! http://ncse.com/join
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