Iowa science standards return ‘climate change,’ ‘biological evolution’ terms after feedback (2025)

Following vocal criticism of an initial revision to Iowa’s science education standards that stripped away phrases like “climate change” and “biological evolution” from what K-12 students should learn, a second draft now has returned references to those terms.

Where one high school standard initially advised instruction on “global or regional climate trends and associated future impacts on Earth systems,” for example, the standards have changed the language back to “global or regional climate change.”

Where another of the revised high school standards had urged teachers to “communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological change over time are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence,” the second updated version of the revised standards returns the language “biological evolution” to the guidance.

The Iowa Board of Education on Thursday held its first consideration of the updated proposed 220-page new science standards — after an initial 37-member “science standards revision team” first began meeting and discussing revisions in October.

A first draft of revised standards went out for public feedback in January, when some members of the public — and of the revision team credited with creating them — criticized the document for dropping climate-change and biological-evolution language.

“My recollection in the committee was that we had come to consensus to maintain the current standard statements that are adopted by Iowa and to add additional context,” University of Iowa education professor Jeff Nordine said at the time about his service on the revision team.

“Our document was different, and it was different in substantive ways,” Nordine said about the erasure of climate change and biological evolution, among other things. “I don’t remember the term ‘climate trends’ in the document that we saw.”

‘Take another look’

Where existing standards — adopted in 2015 — used the phrase “climate change” at least 15 times at the high school level, three times at the middle school level and two times at the elementary level, that phrase was replaced by “climate trends” in the first iteration of the revised standards.

Where “biological evolution” in the current standards was used at least 20 times across all grades, it, too, was erased from the first version made public.

Netting 5,330 responses via a public survey and bringing 230 people to public forums, the first version of revised standards was reviewed by a second team, which began meeting and considering comments earlier this year — producing a final draft that went to the board Thursday.

Without mentioning the climate change and evolution controversy, Chris Like — an education program consultant with the Bureau of Learner Strategies and Supports — said a majority of public survey respondents supported keeping 95 percent of the proposed standards.

Of the 259 standards under consideration, members of the public urged “we take another look at” 12 standards — or about 5 percent, according to Like.

“This was really encouraging data for that first team — that they did a really nice job in outlining their standards,” Like said.

When asked whether the second team made revisions based on concerns with those 12 standards, Like said, “yes.”

And to another question about whether public feedback is now being accepted on the final proposed revised standards, Department of Education officials said the final opportunity for that was Thursday during the state Board of Education meeting.

‘Should be tossed out’

Despite updated language in the second version of the revised standards, some concerns remained among members of the public — including from several UI science faculty whose feedback went beyond semantics.

Submitting his thoughts as personal views and not representative of the university, UI chemical and biochemical engineering professor Charles Stanier said, “80 percent of our recommendations were ignored.”

“The Department of Education’s proposed changes, out for public comment now, are anachronistic and misleading,” he and a group of colleagues wrote in an op-ed in late January. “They should be tossed out. A standards review committee, with extensive participation from practicing K-12 educators, submitted final wording to the Department of Education in 2024 that retained accurate language regarding climate change. Their wording should be adopted.”

UI professor Nordine was among those on the first committee that submitted that language that was changed, and he said — despite the state’s insistence the group was only advisory — that his review team was “told explicitly that our document would be shared with the public for comment.”

Initial information shared about the state’s science standards review team in November charged the team simply with “revising the current science standards.”

“Following this work the department will seek public input on the proposed changes,” according to an archived version of the Department of Education’s website.

After members of the team called out the department for changing the language, the department updated its website to say, “The Iowa Department of Education Science Standards Revision Team (first team) is charged with revising the current science standards and making proposed draft recommendations to the Department. This team serves in an advisory capacity to the department.”

After hearing a presentation on the updated standards Thursday, Board of Education member Cindy Dietz of Cedar Rapids said, “Overall, when I look at this, I think it's amazing, and I think it will be very helpful for our educators and students.

“So thank you very much for your work.”

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