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Evolution Loses and Wins, All in One Day

Kansas adopts standards critical of topic; Dover, Pa., voters dump ‘Intelligent Design’ board.

The forces seeking to subject the theory of evolution to greater criticism tasted both victory and defeat last week. Kansas officials approved an overhaul of their state science standards to do just that, while voters in a rural Pennsylvania district ousted advocates of “intelligent design” from the school board the same day.

Those two high-profile battles were just the latest in a series of skirmishes over evolution in states and school districts nationwide.

In Kansas, the scene of a number of acrimonious debates over evolution in recent years, a conservative majority on the state board of education voted 6-4 to revise the science standards with new language that attempts to raise questions about various...