Volume 78, Issue 5, 1 May 2024

The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE)’s diversity statement commits to “foster[ing] a broader understanding of evolutionary biology,” appropriately identifying disciplinary understanding as a relevant diversity topic. Disciplinary understanding is a fundamental component of disciplinary interest, degree attainment, and career participation. Yet, in the ~6 years since SSE drafted this statement, little discussion has focused on how to measure, interpret, track, and improve evolution learning in a way that broadens participation in evolutionary biology. Our results show the urgency with which evolutionary biologists must address learning inequities; we report that students from Historically Excluded Communities (e.g., marginalized racial/ethnic groups, females, first-generation students, low-socioeconomic status, etc.) were characterized by lower evolution knowledge at course entry in all 11 semesters studied, reflecting the “educational debt” owed to students by society. Because evolution is a central organizing principle for biology and a mandated topic of public high school education, there is no acceptable reason for disparities in evolution understanding by demographic variables. Measuring, tracking, and ultimately mitigating these disparities as students move through our courses and degree programs will require the adoption of equity frameworks and indicators. The enhanced educational debt framework proposed here outlines an approach that faculty, departments, and degree programs can use to better understand their roles in mitigating or perpetuating inequities in evolution learning.