Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Decision on Science Curriculum
Seattle WA On March 25 - 27 the Texas State Board of Education will meet to update its academic standards known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) in the area of science.
Writing committees working for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) proposed revised TEKS that would largely eliminate the strengths and weaknesses language found throughout the existing science curriculum in regards to evolution making critical thinking of the theory obsolete as an essential part of learning.
The removal of this language would be seen as a big victory for many Darwinian scientists but it would be a huge loss to science biology and American students" says Casey Luskin Program Officer for Public Policy and Legal Affairs at The Discovery Institute.
The TEKS should not include pejorative or inaccurate language in their definition of science but it should encourage students to understand how scientists think skeptically and critically and engage in scientific debate in problem solving. Looking at the strengths and weakness of a theory is essential to scientific reasoning."
If the Texas State Board of Education removes the word weaknesses" from the TEKS science curriculum when studying evolution classrooms nationwide will likely follow since Texas is the second-leading textbook buyer in the country.
The Discovery Institute maintains that the TEKS should not only retain the strengths and weaknesses language but strengthen critical thinking skills by explicitly applying this approach to the study of specific scientific theories and hypotheses including biological and chemical evolution.
The Discovery Institutes mission is to make a positive vision of the future practical. The Institute discovers and promotes ideas in the common sense tradition of representative government the free market and individual liberty. Their mission is promoted through books reports legislative testimony articles public conferences and debates plus media coverage and the Institutes own publications and Internet website (
http://www.discovery.org ).
