Science of Evolution Questioned by Utah Education Board Member

Science of Evolution Questioned by Utah Education Board Member

During a hearing of the Utah State Board of Education in November 2017, the vice-chairwoman, Alisa Ellis, argued that Utah should not adopt the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) because they “have little to do with science and a lot to do with what is politically expedient.” The NGSS were developed by a consortium of 26 states, in collaboration with various education groups. They are widely considered to reflect the “best practice” for science education.

In 2015, the Utah State Board of Education approved the adoption of middle-school science standards, based on the NGSS. Vice-chair Ellis was a vocal critic of that decision and has stated that the NGSS should not be used for elementary and high school students. At the November 2017 meeting, she complained that climate change and evolution receive “heavy emphasis” in the NGSS. She expressed particular concern that evolution is presented “as a fact and not a theory” and argued that teachers should be required to discuss alternative explanations for the origins of life, including “intelligent design.” That theory, which is unproven, asserts that the universe and living things were created by some intelligent entity and cannot have arisen through an undirected process such as natural selection.