Iowa science standards edits raise questions

Unlike so many students in Iowa schools, the Iowa Department of Education, apparently, doesn’t have to show its work.

So, we don’t know exactly why the department changed draft science education language approved by the 37-member Iowa Department of Education Science Standards Revision Team.

In the final standards released by the department, “climate change” has been omitted and replaced with “climate trends.” Elsewhere in the standards “biological evolution” has been deleted and replaced with “change.”

Climate trends mean the Earth has experienced “natural warming and cooling throughout history, such as during the ice age.”

Also, “evidence of evolution” is replaced by “change,” with new language saying genetic testing “gives important clues about how species have evolved.”

“There was language in that document that referred to the Earth’s age as 4.6 billion years — that has been removed. I don’t know how that happened. I don’t remember being informed that was going to happen,” University of Iowa education professor Jeff Nordine told The Gazette’s Vanessa Miller. He’s a member of the standards team.

Since then, the team has been discharged so a second team now can review public feedback and recommend changes based on the input, according to the Iowa Department of Education.

“The team serves in an advisory capacity to the department,” department spokeswoman Heather Doe told Miller. “It does not finalize the second proposed revised draft standards.”

Doe suggested the team didn’t understand its role. Only the State Board of Education has the power to adopt final standards.

That role should have been made clearer. And discussions over potentially polarizing topics should have been hashed out by team members.

But why did the deletions happen?

It’s hard not to deduce these deletions were made against the backdrop of a Republican-controlled Statehouse that has taken a keen interest in K-12 curriculum. The Legislature has, for example, already altered K-12 curriculum to include more patriotism and limits on lessons that involve LGBTQ Iowans.

But regardless of what you think of the changes, it’s a bad idea to bring expert Iowans together to revise standards, then alter language they approved. We should have more respect for their expertise and willingness to serve. At the very least, the team should have been involved in changes.

This isn’t a new issue. History is full of instances when academics clashed with politics. The famous Scopes trial is an example, when a Tennessee teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution.

It’s a bad idea to censor real-world issues and concepts to somehow, protect students. We hope this is the last time we see this sort of dispute. But with the polarization of all things educational, we’re not optimistic.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com