Defeated Conservative AZ Ed Chief: on Evolution & Climate Change Curriculm

Defiant Ariz. Schools Chief Proposes Swapping Standards for Conservative Charter Curriculum Plan

Arizona schools chief Diane Douglas may have lost her bid for re-election in the state’s GOP primary, but she is not leaving her post without trying to leave her mark on the state’s education system.

A conservative who has been open about her Christian faith, Douglas defended a controversial draft of the state’s science standards that critics say minimizes the teaching of evolution and climate change at a board meeting on Tuesday.

And then, in a surprise move, Douglas proposed another option for those still unhappy with those standards: The state could scrap them (alongside math and language arts) and replace them with a “scope and sequence” plan used by the Barney Charter School Initiative, an incubator started by a Christian liberal arts college (Hillsdale College) with ties to the Trump administration.

Hillsdale College, located in Michigan, has long been culturally conservative but has been in the news more recently for its ties to key officials in the Trump administration. Vice President Mike Pence gave the commencement speech there in 2018, and the school has received financial donations in the past from the family of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Politico reported in May. It’s well known for an emphasis on a classical liberal arts curriculum celebrating Western values.

The document contains many more references to Christianity compared to Arizona’s current standards. Christianity is taught alongside other world religions as early as 1st grade, as it is in Core Knowledge. But in other cases, the teaching goes further, including a number of specific stories or sermons from the Old and New Testaments, not all of which appear in the Core Knowledge Sequence. Arizona law does allow the Bible to be taught as part of history and literature classes, however.

In offering the Hillsdale document as a possible alternative to the current state standards, Douglas noted the state’s below-average performance on the Nation’s Report Card as well as other gauges of the state’s education system, including Education Week‘s annual Quality Counts report, suggesting that the state’s modest gains indicate it’s time to try a new approach.

Science Still a Flashpoint in Arizona

Still, the surprise introduction of this option took a back seat to the science standards. Most of the public comments at the meeting focused on these standards, which have been mired in controversy since the spring.

Earlier this month, the science standards were thrust into the spotlight again when the Phoenix New Times reported that a creationist, Joseph Kazele, sat on the panel that put finishing touches on the most recent draft of the standards.

In a nearly 10-minute speech at the board meeting, Douglas mounted a defense of the standards—and said she had been the subject of vicious personal attacks.

The Arizona Science Teachers Association has recommended that, at the very least, the department reinstate four sections relating to climate change and evolution as they were originally worded. That will ensure “teachers are not put in the position of teaching nonscientific ideas and concepts,” said its executive director, Sara Torres.

It was not clear whether the Arizona Department of Education would seek to begin a formal public comment period on the Hillsdale/Barney Charter School Initiative expectations, as is typically the case for standards revision in the state, or whether they would be presented as a separate option for the board next month.

A state board of education spokeswoman said she did not know whether the standards would be put out for comment, while a spokesman for Douglas didn’t immediately respond to an email query.

Photo: Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas speaks with members of the media in Phoenix. —Ross D. Franklin/AP-File

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