Science in Texas schools given a 'C'

AUSTIN — Texas public school science courses “pay lip service” to critical content and largely ignore evolution in the middle grades, according to a national education foundation study that gives the state an overall “C” for science education.

The average grade for Texas science curriculum standards by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in a national report card today represents a step up from the “F” issued two years ago by the National Center for Science Education.

Texas standards are “just too vague,” said Kathleen Porter-Magee, a senior director at the Fordham Institute. “They cover a lot of the essential content, but they don't do it in a way that can actually guide curriculum or guide instruction in the classroom or can guide assessment development.”

The report offers a mixed review on how Texas teaches evolution. The evolution portion of the new Texas science curriculum standards provoked considerable controversy before the State Board of Education adopted them in 2009.

“In spite of the Texas Board of Education's erratic approach to evolution, the state's current high school biology standards handle the subject straightforwardly,” the report says

But the authors lament students' ability “to handle this course, given the insufficient foundations offered prior to high school.”

Texas middle school students are never exposed to the word “evolution” in the science standards, and the term “natural selection” is never explained, the authors said in the report.

Some State Board of Education members who tried to dilute the evolution portion of the science curriculum standards emphasized the positive portions of the report.

“As a science teacher, I am pleased that our standards received a score of 5 out of 7 for content and rigor,” said board chairwoman Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands. “We look forward to continuing to work with Texas teachers to bring the best instruction to the classroom with our excellent science standards.”

Former board member Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, lost his chairmanship partially because Senate Democrats believed that he injected his strong religious beliefs in curriculum development, and they blocked his nomination three years ago.

McLeroy said he was pleased that the report described the high school evolution teaching as “exemplary.”

“The report confirms what I have always insisted: that the creationists inserted real scientific rigor into the teaching of evolution,” McLeroy said.

The Texas Freedom Network and many scientists tangled with the board's social conservative members over the evolution-related standards.

“I'm sure most parents want more than a C-grade education for their kids because they know that competing in a 21st-century economy will require much better than that,” Freedom Network President Kathy Miller said. “But the weak score here isn't surprising, given that board members replaced so many recommendations from teachers and scholars with revisions that simply lined up with their own personal beliefs instead.”

Josh Rosenau, programs and policy director at the National Center for Science Education, credited the Fordham Institute study for giving Texas high marks for its high school earth and space science standards.

But Texas didn't have enough money for new science textbooks, so the standards show up in supplemental material, and not all students have access to those lessons.

“The fact that there's not an approved textbook has to be holding back on the teaching of the course that Fordham is praising most of all,” Rosenau said.

Board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, wondered if “the Fordham folks have an agenda against elected officials in Texas who question the premise that evolution is not a fact and should be properly treated as a debatable theory.”

“In Texas, we require students to analyze and discuss all theories,” Bradley said.

The Fordham Institute is a conservative-leaning think tank that supports school choice.

The 50-state report concluded that science curriculum standards across the country are “woefully inadequate” and place America's scientific leadership “in grave jeopardy.”

California, Indiana, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Virginia are the only states to score higher than a “B” in the study.

The study gives a “D” or an “F” to 27 of the 50 states

gscharrer@express-news.net