STUDY: Half of Civics Teachers Devote Little Time to News Literacy

[Frank W. Baker]

Education Week reports: 

A new report finds that just half of high school civics and American government teachers devote one or more units to teaching students how to critically analyze the news.

The study, conducted by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), included responses from 720 teachers of those subjects. It asked participants to refer to courses they taught in the fall of 2012.

Overall, the study indicates that teachers view news-literacy skills as critical—99 percent said they believed students "should know what is credible in a sea of information." More than 90 percent of teachers spent at least one class session on this skill. However, just 51 percent of teachers spent a unit or more teaching it.