Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Who Should Decide What Children Are Taught?
- 2 The Public Speaks: “Teach Both”
- 3 A Nation Divided by Religion, Education, and Place
- 4 Is Evolution Fit for Polite Company? Science Standards in the American States
- 5 Teachers and What They Teach
- 6 State Standards Meet Street-Level Bureaucracy
- 7 When the Personal Becomes Pedagogical
- 8 Teachers in Their Schools and Communities
- 9 The Battle for America’s Classrooms
- Appendix to Chapter 2
- Appendix to Chapter 3
- Appendix to Chapter 4
- Appendix to Chapter 5
- Appendix to Chapter 6
- References
- Judicial Opinions and Court Cases Cited
- Index
Appendix to Chapter 6
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Who Should Decide What Children Are Taught?
- 2 The Public Speaks: “Teach Both”
- 3 A Nation Divided by Religion, Education, and Place
- 4 Is Evolution Fit for Polite Company? Science Standards in the American States
- 5 Teachers and What They Teach
- 6 State Standards Meet Street-Level Bureaucracy
- 7 When the Personal Becomes Pedagogical
- 8 Teachers in Their Schools and Communities
- 9 The Battle for America’s Classrooms
- Appendix to Chapter 2
- Appendix to Chapter 3
- Appendix to Chapter 4
- Appendix to Chapter 5
- Appendix to Chapter 6
- References
- Judicial Opinions and Court Cases Cited
- Index
Summary
Coding state content standards in 2007
Two undergraduates comfortable and familiar with basic biology and evolution were hired to code each state's biology or life sciences standards that applied to grades 9 and 10. On their first pass through the standards, the coders answered four specific questions that were intended to assess the prominence of evolution in the curriculum (2 questions), the extent to which evolution served as the or one of several guiding themes, and degree to which standards were sufficiently specific to guide teacher behavior.
On two additional passes through the standards, coders then looked specifically for presence of eleven evolution benchmarks. Benchmark analysis identifies “an existing statement of academic content knowledge” (Swanson 2005) and then determines how closely the standards align with that content and we will use these codes to assess the validity of our measure.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010