Climate Change Education in State Science Standards

This study is an evaluation of the extent to which climate change is written into the fifty states' public education systems. By searching each state's high school (grades 9-12) science content standards for climate change key phrases (climate, global, human, and temperature), we found that while over half of the states include direct references to climate change, other states are silent or vague about the changing climate and the influence of human activities. State science standards and other supporting documents catalog the scientific concepts, themes, and practices students are expected to learn and thus represent both (1) students' minimum exposure to anthropogenic climate change and (2) a state's acceptance of the considerable evidence for anthropogenic climate change. Results from the content standards analysis were compared to statewide average scores on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress eighth grade science test. Commonly known as "The Nation's Report Card," NAEP scores provide a measure of students' content knowledge. This secondary analysis is ongoing, and it is unknown what, if any, relationship exists between a state's decision to include climate change in their science standards and their NAEP scores.