New K-12 science curriculum scrutinized; December vote by Board of Ed expected

Education Commissioner Henry Mack spent part of Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting trying to set the record straight on the department’s initiative to re-write science standards for public schools.

The standards, which have not been updated since 2008, are undergoing public review. A stop on a “listening tour” for the standards is scheduled for the end of the month in Orange County.

“Our goal has always been straightforward. Develop standards that are clear, that are rigorous, that are grounded in the scientific method, that value evidence and rationality above ideology,” Mack said.

“We don’t want, again, to allow in our standards any kind of ideology. We want to equip students with the ability to think deliberately, dispassionately, objectively about the natural order and how in the natural order we can ferret out or unearth truth,” Mack said.

The department held a virtual public discussion Sept. 30. The day before, it hosted another event in Hillsborough County. The effort is labeled by the department as “a comprehensive rewrite.” Earlier this month, the department hosted a discussion in Walton County. 

Mack, who holds a master’s degree in philosophy, said he does not want “scientism.”

“Scientism is the idea that all other disciplines like philosophy, or religion, or history are either reducible to science or don’t admit of any knowledge at all,” Mack said. “We want to safeguard certainly against of any kind of ideology, religious ideology, and or the belief that science is, again, the only path to knowledge.”

Skepticism

Mack made an appeal to academic skepticism.

“Also, we want to safeguard against the idea that science is often settled. It’s the very nature of science to always question, to always doubt and, again, to sort of unearth the assumptions that might need to be revisited,” Mack said. 

“I may regret this at the end of the day, but I mean it when I say it — I’m inviting the entire state of Florida to Orange County to engage in a listening session with me,” Mack said.

The Orlando public comment opportunity will be Oct. 27 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Lake Buena Vista High School. 

“I would love to engage in a free-flow dialogue about the future of science education, the future of nutrition, education, and health education; it is so critical that we get this right,” Mack said. 

The state board will vote on science standards in December, he said. 

Opposition

The National Center for Science Education opposes the proposed science standards.

“I would like to say something nice about the new standards, but I can’t,” the organization’s deputy director Glenn Branch told the Orlando Sentinel.

“In addition to the shortcomings with climate change and evolution, Branch said many of the proposed units boil down to fun-fact-style trivia that lack depth beyond memorizing definitions,” the Sentinel reported.

According to a Sentinel report of a previous public discussion, dozens of public commenters took complained the standards are vague about climate change and evolution.

The Department of Education, via Facebook, attempted to defend its proposed curriculum against news reports quoting experts in opposition to the standards.

Mack has said on social media that this is not an attempt at “smuggling a Sunday-school lesson into Biology.”

“We are teaching climate science,” Mack said Wednesday. “I want to disabuse and dissuade people from believing the idea that we want to cull evolutionary biology or Charles Darwin from the standards. We don’t want to do that. My kids are reading Charles Darwin. We want evolutionary biology in the standards, they are in the standards. We want climate science in the standards, it is in the standards. Sea level rise is in the standards.”

“It’s just remarkable to me, Mr. Chair, again how sort of this has been co-opted into something that it’s certainly not, so I felt the need to correct the record,” Mack concluded.

The Board of Education approved Mack as education commissioner this summer. He previously served in President Donald Trump’s administration and before that in the Florida Department of Education.

Board member Grazie Pozo Christie supported Mack’s sentiment.

“Keeping science true, keeping science non-ideological, is important but also always remembering that the human part is in the end the important part, that science exists to promote the human, to promote human flourishing,” Christie said.

The proposed standards are posted on the department’s website.

The Florida Education Association issued a statement regarding the standards.

“Florida’s revision of K-12 science standards must be driven by research and scientific evidence, not state politicians’ ideological or religious beliefs. When educators are forced to teach outside established science, students receive an incomplete, inaccurate education and miss the facts, critical thinking skills, and knowledge they need to succeed, placing them at a disadvantage,” the FEA wrote.

“Parents, educators, and community members should be part of meaningful discussions about what belongs in the standards. With over 1,000 pages and hundreds of benchmarks, public discussion cannot be reduced to 90-second soundbites or limited to in-person town halls. If the Florida Department of Education is committed to public collaboration, it should provide more time for review and revision and hold additional virtual town halls to expand participation.”

This story was updated to include comment from the FEA.