Creationism in the Classroom

Two researchers from Penn State University have published an article in the January 28th issue of Science in which they claim that only 28% of High School Biology teachers were what they termed “Advocates of Evolutionary Biology” while 13% were “Advocates of Creationism.” The other 60% they concluded were neutral.

Needless to say this created a bit of a stir.

Personally however I found the conclusions a little hard to accept so I downloaded and reviewed the raw data.

The article was based upon a survey of 926 science teachers conducted between March and May of 2007. The survey consisted of a series of multiple choice questions. The Penn State Researchers focused in on a group of questions related to the teaching of Evolution and Creationism.

I understand their approach but I’m not sure it’s valid. In order to be categorized as an Advocate of Creationism, one had to devote at least some classroom time to teaching it and agree with (1) Creationism or Intelligent Design is presented as a valid scientific theory or (2) it is presented that many reputable scientists view Creationism or Intelligent Design as a valid alternative to Evolution or both.

On the other hand, in order to be classified as an “Advocate of Evolutionary Theory,” one had to agree with (1) the broad consensus that Evolution is fact is presented and (2) Evolution serves as the unifying theme of the course and disagree with (3) it is possible to offer an excellent biology class with no mention of Darwin or Evolution. In addition, at least two of the three answers had to be the strong position of “Strongly Agree” for (1) and (2) and “Strongly Disagree” for (3).

I’m amazed that 28% met that criteria.

When one looks at the raw data, the picture is perhaps not as bleak but still a bit concerning.

Let’s start with the fact that 14% of the respondents declared that they personally believed that “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.”

Given that, is the 13% number so surprising?

All the following statements only include states with at least 10 respondents.
States that had the most teachers saying that they believed God created humans as is within the last 10,000 years were Oklahoma with 54%, Tennessee with 45% and Louisiana with 40%. States with 0% that believed that man was created in the last 10,000 years were Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Oregon. Of the larger states the percentage of High School Biology teachers that said they believed man was created as is within the last 10,000 years was, in California 6.7%, in New York 7.7%, in Texas 27%, in Florida 13% and in Michigan 9.3%. In Indiana it was 16% and In New Jersey 0%.

Of all respondents, 74% agreed that they emphasize the broad scientific consensus that Evolution is fact. The only state where 100% of the respondents said that they teach Evolution as fact was Utah (Utah? WTF?). Other states over 80% were Ohio 90%, Minnesota 89%, Kentucky 86% (Kentucky? WTF?), Massachusetts 85%, South Dakota 85%, New Jersey 83% and Kansas 82% (Kansas?).

The states where the fewest teachers taught that Evolution was considered a scientific fact were Alabama with 54%, followed by Nebraska with 55% and then Arizona with 60%. In Indiana 65% taught it as fact compared to 83% in New Jersey.

This brings us to how many teachers teach that Creationism or Intelligent Design is valid science. Of all respondents, 15% said that they teach Creationism as science and a valid alternative to Evolution. The states where the most teachers taught Creationism as valid science were Alabama 39%, Georgia 28%, Kansas 27% and Texas 26%.

The states where the fewest taught that were Connecticut 0%, Oregon 0%, Virginia 0%, Missouri 4.2% and California 6.7%. In New Jersey 16.2% taught Creationism was science and in Indiana 16.1%. Now isn’t that embarrassing?

As for whether Creationism or Intelligent Design is viewed by many reputable scientists as a valid scientific alternate to Evolution, 17.6% overall said they taught that. The states where the most teachers taught it were Arkansas 44%, Texas 37%, Alabama 31% and Louisiana and Maryland both 30%.

The states where the least teachers taught it were Oregon 0%, Virginia 4.0%, Illinois 5.9% and Ohio 6.5%. In New Jersey 18.9% taught that Creationism or Intelligent Design is recognized by many reputable scientists and in Indiana 22.6% taught that.

Now, like all surveys, there are two types of questions here. Some are related to your opinion and some are related to your knowledge of facts. The question as to whether Creationism or Intelligent Design is valid science, asks for an opinion and, apparently, 17.6% of the science teachers in the survey think that it is. Personally, I think they’re wrong but they’re entitled to their opinion.

However, the question about whether many reputable scientists recognize Creationism or Intelligent Design as valid science is really a matter of fact. I don’t know of any reputable scientists that accept Creationism as valid science; there are a handful that appear to accept Intelligent Design as valid science. Therefore when students are taught that “many reputable scientists” recognize Creationism or Intelligent Design as valid science, they are being given false information.

The fact that these are supposedly Science Teachers gives one pause doesn’t it?

Even in states like Massachusetts 15.4%, New York 11.5%, New Jersey 18.9% and California 8.9%, students are being told that “many reputable scientists” view Creationism or Intelligent Design as valid science and this is just flat out not true.

While I may not agree with the articles numbers and categorization, I can’t help but agree with its conclusion that we still have a ways to go here. Winning in the courts is not the same thing as winning on Main Street.