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Could this be partly to blame for the drops in American high school test scores?

Most high school biology teachers don't endorse evolution

The central theory of biology is evolution, yet a new study shows that most high school biology teachers are reluctant to endorse it in class.

In the same week we learned that most American students did not do well in science on a test known as "the nation's report card," a study about biology teachers in public high schools was published that said:

About 28 percent consistently implement National Research Council recommendations calling for introduction of evidence that evolution occurred, and craft lesson plans with evolution as a unifying theme linking disparate topics in biology.

About 13 percent of biology teachers "explicitly advocate creationism or intelligent design by spending at least one hour of class time presenting it in a positive light." Creationists do not believe in Darwin's theory of evolution.

The rest, about 60 percent, "fail to explain the nature of scientific inquiry, undermine the authority of established experts, and legitimize creationist arguments."

These teachers, the researchers said, try to avoid controversy by using one of several different strategies that include :

Teaching evolutionary biology as if it applies only to molecular biology and failing to to explain evidence that one species gives rise to other species.

Telling students they don't have to "believe" in evolution but they have to know it for tests.

Telling students to make up their own minds -- even though scientists say that they are as certain of the validity of evolution as they are of other scientific principles taken as fact.

The research was conducted by Penn State political science professors Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer and published in the newest issue of Science magazine. They examined data from the National Survey of High School Biology Teachers, a representative sample of 926 public high school biology instructors, to reach their conclusions.

More high school students take biology than any other science course, the researchers said. They also said that for as many as 25 percent of them, biology is the only science course they will ever take,

In related news, the details released this week about student performance on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress was not stellar: 34 percent of 4th graders and 30 percent of 8th graders were deemed proficient or better in science.
Could this be partly to blame for the drops in scores in America's high schools?
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