NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2017/12/15
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2017-12-15 17:00.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, A new poll confirms the conventional wisdom on the relationship between acceptance of climate change and political views in the United States, while a new report suggests that the public is funding science miseducation in private schools.
A NEW POLL ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND POLITICAL VIEWS A new report from the Yale Program on Climate Communication offers new data on Americans' beliefs and attitudes about climate change, with a particular emphasis on the influence of political views. Asked "Do you think that global warming is happening?" 72% of registered voters responding answered yes, 12% answered no, and 15% answered don't know. According to the full report, those answering yes included "97% of liberal Democrats, 89% of moderate/conservative Democrats and 63% of liberal/moderate Republicans, but only 37% of conservative Republicans. Belief that global warming is happening has declined among Republicans since the 2016 election." Presented with "Assuming global warming is happening, do you think it is ..." and asked to complete the sentence, 54% of registered voters responding preferred "Caused mostly by human activities," 33% preferred "Caused mostly by natural changes in the environment," 6% volunteered "Caused by both human activities and natural changes," and 5% preferred "Neither because global warming isn't happening." Opinion was politically divided, with a majority of Democrats but a minority of Republicans accepting human responsibility. Presented with "Schools should teach our children about the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to global warming," 79% of registered voters responding agreed (41% strongly, 38% somewhat) and 21% disagreed (10% somewhat, 11% strongly). Agreement was the majority position among all political positions, except for conservative Republicans, who split about evenly between agreement (49%) and disagreement (50%); liberal and moderate/conservative Democrats were almost unanimous in agreement (97% and 95%). The data were based on a nationally representative survey of 1,304 American adults, aged 18 and older, 1109 of whom who were registered to vote. The survey was conducted October 20-November 1, 2017. The average margin of error for the full sample and the registered voter subset was +/- 3%. For a press release about and the full report (PDF) of the survey, visit: http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/politics-global-warming-october-2017/ http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Global-Warming-Policy-Politics-October-2017.pdf And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate change, visit: https://ncse.com/library-resource/polls-climate-change PUBLICLY FUNDED SCIENCE MISEDUCATION IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS? A new study suggests that textbooks that miseducate students about evolution and climate change may be in wide use in private schools that receive public funding through voucher or tax-credit schemes, according to Rebecca Klein in a lengthy article in the Huffington Post (December 7, 2017). In researching the article, Klein explains, she and her colleagues focused on the 42% of the 8000-odd schools participating in private school choice programs that identify as Christian but not Catholic ("since there is already a large body of research on the outcomes of students who go to [Catholic] schools"). By searching those schools' websites and e-mailing their administrators, they ascertained that "many of the non-Catholic Christian schools (32 percent) were using Abeka, Bob Jones [University Press,] or ACE [Accelerated Christian Education] textbooks in at least one subject or grade," with Abeka the most and ACE the least popular. "The ideas in these textbooks often flout widely accepted science and historical fact," Klein observed. Creationism and climate change denial are among those ideas: a former student told the Huffington Post that she was told that climate change was a hoax, and the article quotes an ACE textbook as claiming that evolution "has no real scientific basis." Similar studies and critiques of the materials used in Christian schools participating in private school choice programs have been offered before, e.g., by Zack Kopplin writing about the Responsive Education Solutions charter school system -- which, he alleged, was connected with ACE -- in Slate in 2014. "It is difficult to ascertain exactly how many students use taxpayer funds to attend schools with evangelical curricula," Klein wrote, "but we do know that over 400,000 students nationwide currently attend school using money from a voucher or tax credit program, according to the education reform group EdChoice." For Rebecca Klein's article in the Huffington Post, visit: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/school-voucher-evangelical-education-betsy-devos_us_5a021962e4b04e96f0c6093c And for Zack Kopplin's article in Slate, visit: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/creationism_in_texas_public_schools_undermining_the_charter_movement.html WHAT'S NEW AT NCSE'S BLOG? Have you been visiting NCSE's blog recently? If not, then you've missed: * Brad Hoge discussing how teachers can use extreme weather events as teachable moments: https://ncse.com/blog/2017/12/hurricane-tales-how-teachers-teach-extreme-weather-events-part-1-0018639 https://ncse.com/blog/2017/12/hurricane-tales-how-teachers-teach-extreme-weather-events-part-2-0018643 For NCSE's blog, visit: http://ncse.com/blog 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. 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 600 Oakland CA 94612-2922 510-601-7203 fax 510-788-7971 branch@ncse.com http://ncse.com Check out NCSE's blog: 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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