A fresh look required for S&T indicators survey?

In surveys of scientific literacy, Americans are less likely than peoplein the rest of the world to believe that humans evolved from earlier species and that the universe began with a big bang.

But the 2010 edition of Science and Engineering Indicators , the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) biennial compilation of the state of global science, omits any mention of those two hot-button issues in its chapter on public attitudes toward science and technology reports Science .

A section describing the survey results and related issues was edited out by the National Science Board, NSF’s oversight body and the official publisher ofIndicators.

NSB officials counter that their decision to drop the survey question on evolution and the big bang from the 2010 edition was based on concerns about accuracy. The questions were “flawed indicators of scientific knowledge because the responses conflated knowledge and beliefs,” says NSB board member Louis Lanzerotti.

But the authors of the survey disagree, and those struggling to keep evolution in the classroom say the omission could hurt their efforts.

Both Lanzerotti and Lynda Carlson, director of NSF’s statistical office that manages the survey and produces Indicators, say it is time to take a fresh look at the survey questions. Last week, after his interview with Science, Lanzerotti asked the head of NSF’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate to conduct a “thorough examination” of the questions through “workshops with experts.”