Evolution, Creationism, and the Battle to Control America's Classrooms

Who should decide what children are taught in school? This question lies at the heart of the evolution-creation wars that have become a regular feature of the U.S. political landscape. Ever since the 1925 Scopes “monkey trial” many have argued that the people should decide by majority rule and through political institutions; others variously point to the federal courts, educational experts, or scientists as the ideal arbiter. Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer illuminate who really controls the nation’s classrooms. Based on their innovative survey of 926 high school biology teachers they show that the real power lies with individual educators who make critical decisions in their own classrooms. Broad teacher discretion sometimes leads to excellent instruction in evolution. But the authors also find evidence of strong creationist tendencies in America’s public high schools. More generally, they find evidence of a systematic undermining of science and the scientific method in many classrooms.

Michael Berkman is Professor of Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University. He is the author (with Eric Plutzer) of Ten Thousand Democracies: Politics and Public Opinion in America's School Districts (2005) and articles appearing in such journals as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, and PLoS Biology. He currently serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Education, and is a graduate of the Ardsley and the NY public school system.

Eric Plutzer is Professor of Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University, where he also serves as the Academic Director of the Survey Research Center. A product of New York City's public schools, he has travelled widely, including as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Malaya and as a guest scholar at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB). In addition to Ten Thousand Democracies, he is the author of articles appearing in the American Political Science Review, the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Political Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Geography, and many other journals. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Politics and Gender, American Politics Research, Social Science Quarterly, and the American Journal of Education.