A lIthough most biology teachers are aware of the public's strong support for the teaching of creationism, we assume that our fellow biology teachers understand the overwhelming evidence supporting evolution, and therefore share our commitment to emphasizing evolution as the foundation of biology. We also assume that our colleagues do not include creationism in their biology classes because creationism-regardless of which of the hundreds of creationism stories one would promote-is not science. But how valid are these assumptions? To estimate the prevalence of creationism among biology teachers, we studied the evolution-related attitudes and actions of Minnesota high school biology teachers. We chose Minnesota for a variety of reasons: * Minnesota has strong state standards for evolution education. For example, the Minnesota K-12 Framework for Science (2003) requires that "the focus of instruction in life science for all students at the high school level is on developing an understanding of cell structure and function, the relationship of matter and energy in biological systems, heredity, biological evolution, [and] the behavior and interdependence of organisms" (p. 3-192). The Framework also includes the National Science Education Standards, which discuss evolutionary topics such as common descent, similarities among organisms, and natural selection.

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