National Center for Science Education

NCSE promotes and defends accurate and effective science education, because everyone deserves to engage with the evidence.

For 35 years the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has worked to ensure evidence-based science is taught in public school science classrooms. Focused initially on preventing creationism from being taught alongside or instead of evolution, the organization added climate change to its mission in 2012 when it became clear that politicization of the topic was affecting how it was being taught. NCSE is unique in its recognition that societally, but not scientifically, controversial topics are challenging to teach. For these topics, accuracy alone is not enough to change minds.

NCSE works to help local communities block legislative and other efforts forcing, allowing, or encouraging teachers to miseducate students on these critical topics. NCSE also supports teachers directly by providing them the training and resources they need to teach the topics of evolution and climate change even when the risk of community opposition is high. And NCSE conducts targeted research in relevant areas of science education.