Arizona bill seeks to include NGSS-style climate change in state standards

Arizona's Senate Bill 1368, introduced on January 29, 2020, by Juan Mendez (D-District 26), would, if enacted, revise the state science standards to "include instruction on climate change using the 2013 Next Generation Science Standards."

Climate change is already part of one of the "Core Ideas for Knowing Science" in Arizona's current state science standards: "The composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the natural and human processes occurring within them shape the Earth's surface and its climate." Climate change, and anthropogenic climate change in particular, is mentioned elsewhere in the standards.

Arizona's current state science standards were adopted in October 2018, after attempts by the then superintendent of public instruction Diane Douglas to undermine the treatment of evolution and, to a lesser degree, climate change were thwarted, as NCSE previously reported.

Glenn Branch
Short Bio

Glenn Branch is Deputy Director of NCSE.

branch@ncse.ngo