After nearly 20 years, Florida is changing its science standards for public K-12 schools.
The state Department of Education held its first listening session at Armwood High School in Seffner on Tuesday after publishing the proposed standards on its website on Friday.
A virtual session took place Wednesday night. Another in-person session is planned for Monday at Walton High School in DeFuniak Springs in the Panhandle.
The current round of updates would be implemented over the 2028-29 school year for kindergarten through second grade and in the 2029-30 school year for older grade levels.
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In a Sept. 25 press release, state Education Commissioner Henry Mack wrote that the new standards would be "grounded in facts and evidence" and not "ideology."
"Science begins in wonder, not in ideology. The classical tradition taught that nature is intelligible because it is ordered — that the book of creation can be read by reason," Mack said. "Florida's new science standards will form students who observe carefully, reason rigorously, and treat the natural world as something given to be known, not invented."
During Tuesday's meeting, several educators brought up concerns that topics related to evolution and the word "evolution" were missing from the documents for review.
"I noticed that there were, like, references to evolution but without actually, lik, stating evolution," said Lindsey Craven, a science specialist for Grades 9-12 for Pinellas County Schools.
Charlotte Bernhardt, a biology teacher at Durant High School in Plant City, said she noticed some standards were missing as well.
Read the documents here: Science Standards Review
"If they're going to be studying things like biology, medicine or science, how are they going to be on the level playing field with students from other states, especially if they go out of state for university?" Bernhardt asked.
After the public comment session, educators spoke with Patricia Duncan, senior education manager with the state Department of Education.
Duncan told the group that it was not intentional that certain topics or words were left out and that the meeting was the first of many steps in updating the science standards. She encouraged people to give feedback on the department website.
The state last updated science standards in 2008. The process was mired in debates about evolution vs. creation, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
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The update also comes as an investigation by WUSF and the Hechinger Report found that in the summer of 2024 the state had asked textbook publishers to water down information on climate change's impact.
The Education Department reviews new textbooks about every five years.
It's not clear if the newly proposed standards include topics about climate change. The words "climate change" were not in any documents published for review.
Standards did mention "weather and climate," "climate systems" and "climate impacts on biodiversity."
Current standards require students be taught about human-caused climate change in several high school electives — including Earth science, marine science and environmental science — and leaves room for the subject to arise in other classes.
WUSF reached out to the department asking if topics related to climate change and evolution would be included in the final version of standards but did not receive a response.
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