I sometimes thought that Iowa Department of Education staff members Stefanie Wager and Chris Like wanted to be anywhere else but Room B100 of Des Moines’ Grimes State Office Building on Thursday afternoon, January 23.
The Iowa science standards review forum’s rules, Like told a (eventually) standing-room-only audience, forbade him and Wager from answering questions. They were there to listen and take notes. (It appears that the forum, broadcast via Zoom, wasn’t recorded for review or transcription. That’s strange.)
So the pair sat in silence from 4 to 6 p.m. as speaker after speaker blasted the DOE and their bosses, director McKenzie Snow and Gov. Kim Reynolds. Each criticized changes someone at the department made to a draft of the revised standards submitted by a panel of 37 experts and stakeholders, including educators from Iowa universities and schools, plus parents.
No one, in person or on Zoom, defended the edits, which eliminated the word “evolution” (although “evolve” was intact in some cases) and changed “climate change” references to “climate trends.” There were other substantial changes that downplayed climate change and evolution, too.
It was the last of five forums held around the state, but you can still comment via a survey through February 3. (See this post for a suggestion on how to register your thoughts.)
Maybe the anonymous education department officials who were directed to or decided to cut politically charged terms from the document thought the changes would slip through unnoticed. But review panel members complained about the changes at an Iowa City forum last week. Reporters jumped on the conflict. And dozens of people responded by attending the Des Moines forum. They were philosophical, practical and sometimes angry.
The NGSS represented a major change in how elementary and secondary students learn about the world. The standards focus less on rote learning and more on developing skills to evaluate evidence and reach conclusions – just as scientists do.
At first, I was skeptical about whether Iowa would adopt the standards without substantial changes – even though educators from the state helped develop them. I feared right-wing or religious voices would overrule sound science on issues such as the evidence that humans are causing climate change or that evolution is the best explanation for Earth’s biological diversity.
Some conservativesdid attempt to influence the standards, and even urged state officials to reject them.
They failed. In 2015, the Iowa Department of Education adopted the standards with intact climate change and evolution references. Educators and the department held strong against critics who wanted to remove or rewrite those elements.
Now, 10 years later, it appears those detractors may get their way, at least partially – thanks to the Department of Education itself. Read on to learn how you can help block these alterations.
A postcard to President Trump from Deborah Bunka, via the March for Science Iowa Facebook page.
I authored this post, which first appeared on the Iowa Starting Line blog. – TRO
Even before he was elected, commentators and experts noted a strong anti-science streak in Donald Trump’s rhetoric. Now that he’s been inaugurated, they’re calling him the most anti-science president ever. Trump is enacting an agenda that, at best, selectively supports scientific evidence and research.
With the appointment of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to run the Environmental Protection Agency, it’s clear that climate change will be downplayed or dismissed in the Trump administration. Pruitt took a moderate stance in his nomination hearings, but now is proudly revealing his anti-science views. Earlier this month he said he disagrees with the overwhelming evidence that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global climate change.
Trump and Pruitt are putting their words into actions. The administration has offered a plan to cut the budget for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development by 40 percent. The EPA as a whole would get a 24 percent cut. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a major climate research agency, also would get a severe reduction. Other proposals under consideration would roll back Department of Energy financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy and for research on reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Trump’s disdain for sound science goes beyond climate, however, and spans political parties. He’s given credence to the disproven notion that vaccinations cause autism and met with noted anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (of the famed Democratic family).
It’s easy to pick on Trump, but in truth his election and views are just the culmination of years of attacks on science, evidence and research – attacks that aren’t solely from conservatives. Now, scientists and those who value research and evidence as a foundation for sound public policy are fighting back.
A March for Science Iowa comic by designer Miles Greb (@goldrushcomic) via the March for Science Iowa Facebook page. I think the model looks like a dark-haired Scarlett Johanssen.
Jordan Shaw was a lab technician working in food safety a few years ago when one of his supervisors, a researcher working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, published a study comparing eggs from organic and free-range chickens to standard eggs.
Time published her results: there was little difference in terms of safety or quality between the different eggs.
When the magazine posted the story on line, Shaw was stunned. “The comments on that were just unreal, like ‘you can’t trust the USDA because they’re the idiots who made the food pyramid,’” said Shaw, now a food safety consultant living in West Des Moines.
That made Shaw consider how to help the general public better understand science. “What we’re seeing now, really badly, is that science is elite, it’s liberal, all this stuff, and the problem is our populace just doesn’t understand, honest and truly, what is peer-reviewed science.”
His alarm increased when he read reports that the Donald Trump administration was suspending research grants and communications from key government science offices, especially those associated with the environment.
So Shaw – and others across the state – are taking action. They’re planning an Iowa version of a national march in Washington, D.C., to support science and research.
If you were in Waukee at a forum about the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) last Wednesday night and knew nothing about them, you may have come away thinking they’re a government plot to dumb down science for our kids and brainwash them.
Or you might have left thinking they’re evidence-based, objective guidelines that will help children understand how science works and how to apply those principles throughout their lives.
An Iowa Department of Education team is considering using the NGSS as a base to set new standards for what Iowa youths should learn about science.
To gather public input the team of educators is holding a series of forums around the state. I attended the first one, at the Waukee Community School District offices, on Feb. 11.
As I’ve written in previous posts, I fear conservative forces will attempt to scuttle the standards, at least in part because they teach evolution as the best explanation for Earth’s biological diversity and human influence as the best explanation for climate change.
What I heard on Wednesday did little to ease my fears and much to exacerbate them.
After dropping off the screen for more than a year, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are back in the spotlight.
A team of educators is reviewing Iowa’s science standards – what concepts they should know or what skills they should demonstrate. After considering several different criteria, ones either proposed or used elsewhere, it settled on the NGSS as the foundation for what kids will learn in science classes across Iowa.
Maybe more importantly, the NGSS outlines how students will learn, hoping to set them up to learn and work with facts and technology we can’t forecast.
Now the team is gathering feedback on the standards from educators, parents and students, through an on-line survey and four forums – the first of which is this Wednesday afternoon.
Like the last time a state panel considered the NGSS, the survey and the forums could be an opportunity for conservative opponents to come out and torpedo the effort.
It’s been six months since an Iowa Department of Education task force recommended the state adopt the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The group of educators, legislators, parents and others rejected conservative objections over local control and the inclusion of evolution and human-caused climate change and sent the standards on to the Iowa Board of Education.
The standards, formulated with input from 24 states – including Iowa – will set the agenda for science literacy and, more importantly, for teaching citizens to understand and interpret scientific data.
Since then, there’s been no news – which made me nervous. Was the board letting the NGSS die of neglect, hoping people would forget about them? Was the department getting objections from conservative officials in Gov. Terry Branstad’s administration?
It seems the former hasn’t happened and it’s doubtful the latter has, either. What is clear is that the drive to adopt the standards has stalled.
I also wrote about an important survey the task force is taking to get Iowans’ views on the standards. The survey ends Friday, October 11, and you must take it if you believe faux science like intelligent design (i.e., creationism) should be kept out of Iowa classrooms while fact-based science education, including evidence for anthropomorphic anthropogenic climate change, is kept in.
Because there are signs religious fundamentalists and conservative education activists will hijack the survey – as I feared. And there are signs I may be right about the smokescreen.
If want to help ensure Iowa kids aren’t fed creationism alongside evolution and aren’t told to forget the idea that humans are changing the world’s climate, I have a job for you.
I’ve written before about the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which 26 states, including Iowa, formulated. They’re designed to mesh with the Common Core State Standards, educational guidelines established through a similar process.
The science standards were published in April and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad immediately shunted them off to a task force to consider whether to adopt them.
The task force has been busy. This is where your job comes in.
Terry Branstad and his lieutenant, Kim Reynolds, have been pushing Iowa educators to do more to engage kids in STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The idea is to have a well-trained workforce for all those high-tech jobs they want to bring to the state.
So far, they’ve accompanied the drive with action, starting the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, handing out grants to scale-up activities, like FIRST LEGO League, that are designed to engage and attract students to technical fields, and holding annual summits of educators, administrators and business people.
Now, however, Branstad may face the biggest test of his resolve to make Iowans STEM leaders. His administration will have to decide if and how to adopt new science education standards – guidelines and goals that have prompted controversy elsewhere and could upset the conservative base of Branstad’s Republican Party.
For Iowans who support the standards, there have been reasons for despair – and perhaps for hope.
This team, however, isn’t receiving nearly the attention or accolades, although the competition was equally demanding and the culmination of years of work. It’s unlikely you’ll see these competitors on a Wheaties box, on “Dancing With The Stars” or making product endorsements.
But you may soon see them designing computers, teaching English or running a corporation. They crossed oceans – remotely – to reach the pinnacle.
There was a lot going on in downtown Des Moines on March 5. At the Wells Fargo Arena, the state boys basketball tournament was attracting droves of fans, screaming at the top of their lungs.
Next door, at the Veterans Memorial Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center (whew!), a couple hundred educators, industry representatives and state officials gathered for the second Iowa STEM Summit, organized by the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council.
There wasn’t screaming, but just as much cheering.
Iowa Science Interface 