About the fellowship
Educators and policymakers agree: students need help spotting credible information and avoiding false or misleading content online. Yet many schools don’t teach these skills. The News Literacy Project’s District Fellowship gives districts the funding and expert guidance to change that.
Your team decides what implementation looks like for you. In some districts, the school librarians lead news literacy lessons. Other districts add a unit on the First Amendment and the role of a free press to their required government classes. And others integrate lessons from Checkology® — our one-stop shop for teaching news literacy — on the characteristics of credibility across middle schools in English language arts. A few districts have developed standalone news and media literacy courses for every student in a particular grade. We provide the framework and funding to bring your unique plan to life.
The goal of our fellowship program is to help districts ensure that every student receives news literacy instruction before graduating from high school. During the three-year program, NLP experts work closely with districts to build plans that make their commitment to news literacy sustainable for years to come.
What fellows receive and accomplish
Our fellowship is grounded in NLP’s framework for teaching news literacy. We offer professional learning, curriculum guidance and a strong educator community to help you meet the program’s goals and bring meaningful news literacy education to your schools.
$30,000 (over three years) to help fund your work.
Free courses, resources and assessments to support student achievement.
Expert guidance from our team at every step.
A nationwide network of passionate educators and leaders.
Professional development for your teachers and training for fellows to lead sessions themselves.
Support engaging stakeholders across the board – classroom teachers, administrators, parents, school boards and local media.
While NLP’s award-winning Checkology, RumorGuard® and newsletters are free to all, as a fellowship district, you receive exclusive access to no-cost train-the-trainer sessions that equip you with the materials and knowledge to prepare your educators to achieve your fellowship goals. Our Research & Design team also offers your teachers professional development sessions to help them confidently bring news literacy lessons to their classrooms. Beyond these features, you’ll experience something you won’t find anywhere else: a passionate community of active news literacy champions and alums.
At our annual convening, fellows from each active district gather to share resources, ideas and expertise. This brain trust of educators is one of a kind in the world of news literacy education. NLP fully funds the travel and participation of two fellows, and many districts elect to send more educators to this invaluable experience. The inspiration and learning are catalysts that accelerate programming to bring news literacy to every student in your district.
To fulfill the fellowship goal of districtwide implementation, you will build a team of colleagues to:
- Empower your stakeholders to make sustainable, long-term change.
- Learn about your students’ needs and your community’s interests in news literacy.
- Define what successful implementation of a curricular guarantee looks like.
- Train your educators to use NLP’s award-winning news literacy resources, like Checkology and The Sift® newsletter and connect it to what they already teach.
- Build student excitement for news literacy skills.
Success stories
Hear from a fellowship district in Utah
#image_titleYear One · Budget Comparison
Model budgets
Three districts, one fellowship, three different plans
Each district gets the same $10,000 for its first year, spent against a different goal. The bar under each goal is always the whole $10,000 — split into segments sized by dollar share, darkest for the biggest line item and lightest for the smallest. Scan the shape of the bar for how concentrated or spread out a plan is; the list below it has the figures.
District A
“Learn about their community in year one.”
- Bring two additional fellows to the annual fellowship convening.$3,000
- Train 20 teachers to use the InfoZones lesson in Checkology.$2,500
- Rollover to year two.$1,500
- Gift cards for educators who complete a needs analysis survey.$1,000
- Out-of-school time for three fellows to analyze the needs-analysis results with NLP staff.$750
- Pay substitute teachers so classroom-based fellows can write a professional development strategic plan.$750
- Staff time and refreshments for an after-school parent and caregiver news literacy open house.$500
District B
“Excite students and empower teachers.”
- Staff time in professional development led by fellows, for middle school homeroom teachers.$2,750
- Time with NLP R&D to train fifteen 12th-grade government teachers on the First Amendment and the role of the free press.$2,700
- Staff time in professional development led by fellows, for elementary librarians to teach news literacy lessons with the newly purchased books.$2,000
- Sets of library books for all elementary school sites to teach news literacy.$1,500
- Middle school staff time to write lesson plans aligned to the documentary.$750
- Rights to screen a news literacy documentary at all middle school sites.$300
District C
“Train educators and write curriculum.”
- Staff time in professional development led by fellows, plus planning time, for 20 teachers across all high schools in the district (including breakfast and coffee).$7,500
- Time for the fellowship team to revise professional development materials.$1,500
- Time to score student work on the districtwide news literacy assessment and revise teaching materials for the following year.$1,000
Figures are reproduced from the fellowship’s year one budget plan. Each district’s total is exactly $10,000.
Brief case studies
The program is structured to support fellows diving deep into their district’s unique news literacy needs and designing a tailored comprehensive strategy. While certain elements, such as conducting a needs assessment and completing end-of-year reports, are common for all fellows, action plans and implementation will differ by district. Here are four examples to illustrate equally successful and distinct approaches:
The librarian-led fellowship team designed a professional development curriculum that incorporated news literacy into what teachers were already doing in their classrooms. Supported by the district-level Instructional Supports Department, Checkology and other NLP resources were integrated into a variety of secondary-level courses, including Health, Biology and English Language Arts. While their first year focused on high school, over time the fellows included educators from all grade levels so that students would receive news and media literacy education multiple times throughout their years in the district.
Fellows began their time in the program by conducting a districtwide needs assessment of students and faculty. The results led the fellows to focus their news literacy curriculum on how artificial intelligence affects the ways teens and their teachers interact with information. They leveraged existing district practices, such as common planning time on Wednesdays, to empower social studies teachers in grades 6-12 to provide direct news and media literacy instruction in their classes. NLP’s stipend funded a three-week “News Literacy Week” celebration with events for all grade levels at the district’s K-12 school site. As an alumnus district, the work continues with plans to expand news literacy instruction to middle school health courses districtwide
With the passage of Assembly Bill 873 in California, educators statewide are looking to enhance news and media literacy instruction. In the state’s largest public school district, the secondary English language arts coordinators who oversee middle and high school curricula are working closely with NLP staff to lead a news literacy-focused professional development course that will not only enhance teachers’ skills but will lead to a permanent salary increase as well. The fellowship team will use the stipend to support development of materials that integrate Checkology lessons into English language arts throughout the district. In addition, LAUSD staff are partnering with NLP’s community engagement team to deliver webinars for families on trending topics in news literacy.
The fellows in Avonworth, outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are creating a cohesive K-12 pathway that will provide students with meaningful news literacy touchpoints throughout their education. In elementary schools, students learn to create their own types of news media and explore how to use this content to tell a story. Lessons on podcasting and video production have expanded into middle schools within “exploratory enrichment mini courses.” The learning doesn’t stop there. In high school, students evaluate sources, investigate misinformation and examine media bias. They use a studio to record, edit and produce news media for their school community. All middle and high school staff receive multiple trainings on how to best use Checkology and make connections between what they’re already teaching and news literacy. Reaching students districtwide, the Avonworth fellows have made the most of this opportunity to create learning experiences that build on one another to equip students with 21st century news literacy skills.
Our fellows
Fellowship in action
Amid AI summaries and misinformation, Pittsburgh-area schools teach students to check their facts
District fellowship drives news literacy instruction at Colorado school
Utah school district develops a model for news literacy professional training
North Salem Central School District is pioneering student standards for news literacy
Fellowship road map
Each year, we admit new fellows who are ready to rethink how news literacy is taught, creating a lasting impact in their district. The program, now in its fifth year, comprises 44 districts (38 active and 6 alumni) in 16 states. Here’s what you can expect during your time as a district fellow:
Year 1
In the first year, you’ll design your program with guidance from our team of experienced educators.
Year 2
During year two, you’ll test the program in select classrooms and train colleagues in teaching news literacy.
Year 3
In the third year, you’ll refine your program and expand it across your district.
- Perform a needs assessment of faculty, staff and/or students to identify grades and disciplines best suited for implementation of a unit of news literacy instruction districtwide.
- Establish a team within your district and train educators to pilot your action plan.
- Collaborate with NLP experts, mentors and colleagues from across the fellowship program.
- Engage with district stakeholders and establish relationships with school-site, discipline-specific and/or community partners.
- Complete any necessary legal procedures (e.g., Memorandum of Understanding or Data Privacy Agreement) and technological processes (e.g., Clever integration).
- Create an action plan to guide Year 2 of the fellowship.
- Expand professional development to a wider group of educators, deepening existing engagement with NLP’s world-class news literacy curriculum.
- Support and communicate regularly with the pilot educator cadre.
- Observe and measure the success of your district’s plan to integrate news literacy instruction, celebrating student and educator achievement along the way.
- Continue to collaborate with NLP experts and share learnings with other district fellows.
- Create an action plan to guide Year 3 of the fellowship, reaching more students and community members in meaningful ways.
- Reach or continue to build toward districtwide implementation in the grade level(s) and discipline area(s) you have decided to target for integration of news literacy instruction.
- Design systems to ensure the longevity of the district’s commitment to news literacy instruction and to withstand factors such as natural staff turnover.
- Serve as a thought leader within the District Fellowship program and at conferences.
- Continue to learn from measuring the success of your district’s plan and to celebrate student and educator achievement along the way.
Questions?
Contact our directors of the District Fellowship program, Brittney Smith and Elliott Goodman.
Applying for a fellowship
Eligible applicants include current public school district leaders, administrators or curriculum directors. Districts from all states are encouraged to apply. We are accepting applications for our sixth cohort of fellows through Dec. 1, 2026.
-
Alumni
-
Fellowship