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First some general information, in case you missed the notes section. State standards do not always reflect what is actually taught since often there are no repercussions for not adhering to the standards. Whether evolution is taught and how many vary from district to district, within a state. Many states mention evolution in general, (in textbooks or standards) but most do not mention human evolution. Only a few incorporate the concept of evolution as a central organizing principle. Most states that mention evolution focus on biological evolution, but a few mention geological or cosmological evolution. No state standards can require that creationism be taught. In general, northern states handle the teaching of evolution much better than southern states. Sometimes concepts of evolution are taught, but because of political pressure (from creationists), the word evolution is omitted. Other states use textbook disclaimers, that say evolution is "just a theory, not fact" for example. About 1/4th of American public school teachers teach anti-evolution ideas.
Eight states have state education standards that include evolution without euphemisms or disclaimers (Arizona, California, Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina and Texas), although pending "equal time" legislation has been introduced in Arizona and Indiana, and Texas standards are not enforced.
Two states include disclaimers that evolution is "theory not fact", (Alabama and Nebraska), and Oklahoma biology textbooks now have a disclaimer saying, "human life was created by one God of the universe".
At least four states, including Alabama with uses a disclaimer about evolution, have standards that include teaching the concept of evolution, but avoid the word "evolution" and/or replace it with euphemisms such as "adaptation" or "change over time" (Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina).
Five states (Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, and Tennessee), avoid evolution in their state standards altogether. One of these states, Colorado, has a school district, Poudre, which had banned all teaching of evolution for a while before it was forced to reverse the ban.
In Melvindale-Northern Allen Park school district in Michigan, the school board voted to teach creationism along with evolution, while in Kanawha school district of West Virginia, a similar move was defeated by a vote of 4 to1.
Kansas had temporarily removed evolution from its state standards, but the November 2000 election resulted in some creationist school Board members being ousted, and the new board voted evolution back into the standards in February, 2001.
This leaves about 27 states, and D.C., for which I do not have specific information, although Americans United has reported (as of 04/00) that 6 states have pending legislation that would weaken evolution education and introduce creationist concepts. However, Northern states (and also North Carolina) are generally more likely to do a good job teaching evolution, with some exceptions. In addition, I now have Lawrence S. Lerner's grades for the treatment of evolution (see table below), so now every state page on this site has at least some information regarding the teaching of evolution.
In the July/August 2000 issue of the Reports of the National Center for Science Education, Vol. 20, No. 4 on page 44 there is a table of grades given to states for the treatment of evolution in the public schools. It is part of the article Evolution: How Does It Fare in State K-12 Science Standards? by Lawrence S. Lerner, who had been asked by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation to assess the quality of state science education standards for public schools. The criteria used in grading were: the presence of the word evolution; proper treatment of biological evolution; treatment of human evolution; treatment of geological evolution; treatment of cosmology; treatment of connection among the historical sciences; the use of creationist jargon (decrease in grade); and whether there is a mandated textbook disclaimer (decrease in grade). *Please note that Kansas was given its grade of F-minus before the new school board put evolution back into the state science education standards again. Iowa was not included because Iowa does not publish its state science education standards.
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CA, CT, IN, NJ, NC, RI, SC, DE, HI | CO, MN, VT, WA, MI, AZ, ID, MA, MO, MT, PA, OR, SD, UT, DC | MD, NM, NV, NY, NE, LA, TX | AR, KY, WI, VA, AK, IL | WY, ME, OH, OK, NH, FL, AL, ND, GA, MS, TN, WV | *KS |
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