Chapter 7: Teaching Controversial Issues

In this chapter we discuss the role of U.S. state education departments in science education policy formation. The chapter is organized into three sections. We begin with a brief overview of the development of schooling in the United States and state responsibility for education. In the second section, we use New York state as a case study to describe in more detail the increasingly complex nature of educational systems, the increasing control that states have exerted over education, and the intersection of state and national concerns. In the final section, we step back and look more broadly at the role of state education departments in school reform, the effectiveness of those efforts, and reasons for this success or failure. All of this is presented in the context of science education when possible and appropriate.