AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas State Board of Education has given its final approval to supplemental high school science materials after a brief flare-up over some lessons teaching the principles of evolution.
The board's social conservatives compromised with supporters of evolution and agreed to have state Education Commissioner Robert Scott continue working with the publisher to find an acceptable middle ground.
A group of scientists had objected to changes the board ordered the publisher to make after a tentative vote of approval on Thursday. The changes were to materials including a lab comparison between human and chimpanzee skulls, the fossil record and lessons on cell complexity.
Those lessons were flagged as errors by a board-appointed review panel, but the scientists said they were scientifically correct.