National Center for Science Education

The NCSE is based in Oakland, California. As of 2012, its membership included more than 4,500 "scientists, teachers, clergy, and citizens of varied religious and political affiliations."

The NCSE is a member of the National Coalition Against Censorship and is affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

History

In 1980 Stanley L. Weinberg, a high school teacher in Iowa, began to organize statewide Committees of Correspondence "committed to the defense of education in evolutionary theory," based upon the committees of correspondence in pre-Revolutionary America. Their purpose was to keep interested parties informed about creationist efforts and to coordinate local political response. This grew into volunteer networks in most states that were coordinated by theCreation/Evolution Newsletter . By 1983, these committees and the Newsletter had been incorporated as the NCSE. In 1987, author and lecturer Eugenie Scott became the NCSE's first Executive Director and first full-time employee.

In the 1990s, based upon its monitoring of creationist efforts, it issued warnings of high levels of official anti-evolutionism and a "sharp surge upwards" in creationist attacks on evolution, including attempts to downgrade evolution from "fact" to "theory" (see evolution as theory and fact) or present the "evidence against evolution" (see objections to evolution).

In 2003, the NCSE gained international attention with Project Steve, a tongue-in-cheek response to the Christian creationist Discovery Institute's publication of A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism. The 2001 "Dissent" statement is signed by more than 100 (over 1,000 as of 2019) scientists, professionals, and degree-holders professing skepticism of the tenants and findings of Darwinian theory. In order to demonstrate the overwhelming scientific consensus in support of Darwinism, Project Steve collected several hundred signatures of active scientists with only the given name or nickname Steve (in honor of then-recently deceased paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould). Project Steve's signatory list rapidly outpaced that of the Discovery Institute's statement, and as of 2025 it has more than 1,500 signatories.

In 2005, the NCSE assisted the plaintiffs in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the most prominent case testing the constitutionality of intelligent design in public school science classes. The plaintiffs were suing Dover Area School District, a public school district in Pennsylvania, over changes in its biology curriculum to include the creationist textbook Of Pandas and People and requiring teachers to read a statement criticizing evolutionary theory. Nick Matzke, the NCSE's Public Information Project Director at the time, served as liaison to the legal team, and was responsible for uncovering the substitution of "intelligent design" for "creationism" within drafts of Of Pandas and People, which became a devastating part of the testimony of Barbara Forrest (also an NCSE Director), and was cited extensively in Judge John E. Jones III's decision. Kitzmiller v. Dover remains a landmark case in United States constitutional law, and is considered to have effectively ended attempts to introduce intelligent design into public school science curricula. Eric Rothschild, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, is a member of NCSE's Board of Directors as of 2025.

In April 2008, the NCSE launched Expelled Exposed, a website critical of the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed starring Ben Stein. The website received press attention and a large amount of traffic.

In 2012, the NCSE announced they would be engaged in efforts to keep climate change education, and global warming issues, safe from threats from special interests. They developed a series of lessons addressing climate change misconceptions and offered teacher training through a Teacher Ambassador program. That year, the organization also announced that it had reached 4,500 members who were "scientists, teachers, clergy, and citizens with diverse religious and political affiliations."

Beginning in 2010, the NCSE began a policy shift towards direct educational and material support for teachers in K-12 classrooms. The first "Teacher Ambassadors" were named in 2017, and the program of recognizing teachers dedicated to evolution and climate change education continues to the present. In the early 2020s, the NCSE developed and published a series of lesson sets on the "Nature of Science." These materials are designed to provide students and educators with a fundamental understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry and the ability to distinguish between scientific and pseudoscientific claims.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw efforts by the NCSE to combat misinformation and promote trust in medical research and vaccination.

Amanda L. Townley has been the organization's Executive Director since December 2023. She replaced Ann Reid, who had been appointed to the position in 2013. Previously, Eugenie C. Scott served as executive director for 27 years, from 1986 to 2013.