Topeka ? Kansas is among 20 lead states chosen to help write science standards that could be used as a national model for public schools.

The state-led collaboration announced Tuesday was assembled by the National Research Council, part of the National Academy of Sciences, and a nonprofit education reform organization called Achieve.

States have used standards co-developed by the council in the past. The new effort attempts to coordinate what’s being taught in states to improve science education nationally.

The Kansas State Board of Education will have to consider adopting the new standards, which are used to determine the content and process students need for learning science.

Kansas drew national attention when conservatives on its education board pushed through testing standards skeptical of evolution in 2005. Those standards have since been changed.