Ohio voters last week elected three people to the state’s 17-member Board of Education who support teaching evolution in the public schools, defeating candidates who advocated teaching “alternatives” to the widely held theory that scientists consider the cornerstone of biology.

The defeated candidates included an incumbent, Deborah Owens Fink, a faculty member at the University of Akron. She was a leading advocate of a model curriculum — which the board adopted in 2002 and rescinded in February — that encouraged students to challenge evolution. Critics called the curriculum a backdoor attempt to teach “intelligent design,” which holds that scientific evidence indicates that life is so complex that it must have been the work of a creator.

In an October interview with The New York Times, Ms. Owens Fink described as “laughable” the idea that there is a scientific consensus on evolution. She was beaten by Tom Sawyer, a former Akron mayor, congressman, and teacher.

The three victorious pro-evolution candidates were supported by a statewide coalition, Help Ohio Public Education, that included 75 faculty members at Case Western Reserve University.