Ohio Science Standards Update

Ohio HB 481, was introduced by Representative Reidelbach and fifteen other co-sponsors on January 24, 2002. The bill requires Ohio schools to do three things:

• Encourage the teaching of origins science objectively and without religious, naturalistic or philosophic bias or assumption.

• Provide appropriate explanation about any material assumption that is used as a basis for an explanation in origins science; and

• Encourage curriculum development that will promote critical thinking and help students understand the full range of scientific views regarding origins and why the subject is controversial.

The bill has attracted a firestorm of political and media attention. We have collected copies of the legislation, comments, testimony and news articles and will post updates as they are available.

For further information on the Ohio Science Standards, you can also visit the IDNet website at: http://www.intelligentdesignnetwork.org/.

Legislation

• House Bill 481 and related Technical Explanation

• Senate Bill 222

Information

• Information on proposed Ohio Science Standards and Science Excellence for All Ohioans (SEAO) web site.

• February 4, 2002 Report on Comments on the Modifications.

• Press Release regarding February 4, 2002 Report on Comments on the Modifications.

• Remarks of John H. Calvert, J.D. to the Science Standards Committee of the Ohio State Board of Education on January 13, 2002.

• Memoranda From John Calvert to the Science Standards Committee of the Ohio State Board of Education, Regarding the Freiler Case, dated February 4, 2002

News Articles

• For a bird's-eye view of the origins debate in Ohio, go to this entire page at the Cleveland Plain Dealer devoted to the "Intelligent Design Debate."

• A Majority of Those Surveyed Want Evolution, Intelligent Design to Get Equal Time in School June 9, 2002 article by Scott Stephens and John Mangels for the Cleveland Plain Dealer discussing recent opinions about teaching evolution and intelligent design in the public schools. File Date 06.11.02.

• Illiberal Education in Ohio Schools March 14, 2002 article by Rick Santorum for The WashingtonTimes. File Date 03.14.02.

• Darwin or Design? February 20 Christian Science Monitor One of America's longest-running dramas is being revived in Ohio. There, the state school board is wrestling with whether to give the theory of evolution sole billing in its revised science curriculum, or to make room for an alternative theory called "intelligent design." File Date 02.19.02.

• In Ohio School Hearing, a New Theory Will Seek a Place Alongside Evolution February 11, New York Times The latest challenge to evolution's primacy in the nation's classrooms — the theory of intelligent design, not the old foe creationism — will get a full- scale hearing next month before Ohio Board of Education members, who are in a heated debate over whether established science censors other views about the origins of life. File Date 02.11.02.

• Evolution vs. intelligent design: Experts to Weigh in on Science Standards February 5, Columbus Dispatch Scientists from throughout the nation are being summoned to help the Ohio Board of Education decide whether students should be taught that life on Earth is the result of evolution or intelligent design. File Date 02.06.02.

• Students and Intellectual Freedom: Challenges to Naturalistic Evolution Link to Chuck Colson's Breakpoint transcript, February 14, 2002.

Commentary from Phillip Johnson

• More from Ohio (1.31.02) In this Weekly Wedge Update, Phillip Johnson (with the help of John Calvert) discusses the Ohio School Board situation in greater depth. He cites, in particular, the interest in intelligent design shown by the Science Standards Committee of the Board.

• Curriculum Controversy in Ohio (1.17.02) Unhappy with an early draft of the proposed science curriculum for grades K-12, several members of the Ohio State Board of Education are pushing for a rewrite that would present evolution as "an assumption, not fact," and would include an alternative explanation for how humans and all other living things came to exist.