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November 12 marks the 50th anniversary of Epperson v. Arkansas, the Supreme Court decision that overturned a state ban on evolution education and set a precedent for the unconstitutionality of similar laws.

A spate of scientifically accurate and pedagogically appropriate teaching materials about climate change is arriving, according to Frontline (November 2, 2018) — hopefully in time to stymie a new propaganda campaign rumored to be under way.

Sean Patrick Cooper, writing in Undark (November 2, 2018), reports, "Conservative groups are working hard to challenge the teaching of mainstream climate science in schools" — and cites NCSE as helping to prepare science teachers to resist the challenge.

The fiftieth anniversary of Epperson v. Arkansas, the 1968 Supreme Court case that struck down Arkansas's ban on the teaching of evolution, was celebrated in "She Stood for Science," published in the November 2018 issue of Church & State, the monthly magazine of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

NCSE’s founding executive director Eugenie C. Scott will receive the John and Mary Lou Pojeta Service Award from the Paleontological Society at a banquet during its annual meeting held in Indianapolis on November 4, 2018.

"If it's difficult to believe that people embrace a flat Earth, it's going to be difficult to trust a poll that claims to validate that belief," wrote NCSE's Glenn Branch and Craig A. Foster of the US Air Force Academy in a blog post for Scientific American (October 24, 2018).

The Arizona state board of education voted 6-4 to adopt a new set of state science standards at its October 22nd, 2018, meeting.

NCSE is pleased to announce its new monthly e-newsletter, describing our most recent work supporting teachers and communities in their efforts to provide accurate and effective climate change and evolution education. 

Watch as Ann Reid delivers a talk at Clemson University: "Capturing a Killer, Capturing the Imagination: The Power of Bringing Real Evidence into the Science Classroom."

The textbook watchdog William J. Bennetta died on September 26, 2018, at the age of 79, according to a notice from the Cremation Society of Virginia.

NCSE's deputy director Glenn Branch contributed "Why Is It So Hard to Teach Climate Change?" to the October 2018 issue of Earth magazine, published by the American Geosciences Institute.

NCSE is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Reports of the National Center for Science Education is now available on-line. The issue — volume 38, number 4 — is the twelfth issue in the newsletter's new, streamlined, and full-color format.

"Parents and teachers on Monday [September 24, 2018] rallied outside an Arizona Board of Education meeting, and then took turns during the meeting blasting a proposal to remove references to evolution and climate change from state science standards," reported the Arizona Republic (September 24, 2018).

In a September 20, 2018, letter (PDF), the American Institute of Biological Sciences called on the Arizona state board of education to reject draft science standards that are to be presented to the board at its September 24, 2018, meeting.

As the latest draft (PDF) of a new set of state science standards for Arizona is apparently on its way to the state board of education for its approval, concerns about the compromised treatment of evolution remain — and have been now joined by concerns about the deletion of material about climate change.

The National Science Teachers Association issued a position statement on the teaching of climate science on September 13, 2018.

In a column (September 11, 2018) for Education Week, NCSE's executive director Ann Reid warned of the obstacles to effective climate change education — campaigns to promote doubt and denial, inadequate preparation provided for teachers, and the ideological polarization o

NCSE is delighted to congratulate Michael E. Mann on his selection to receive the 2018 Climate Communication Prize from the American Geological Union. The prize is conferred annually in recognition for communication of climate science.

The distinguished geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza died on August 31, 2018, at the age of 96, according to La Repubblica (September 1, 2018).