New Checkology features make news literacy easier to teach

The News Literacy Project has released updates to the Checkology® digital classroom that make it easier for educators to find the resources they need and customize their instruction, saving them valuable time in the 2026-2027 school year. 

• Updates to the Checkology digital classroom make it easier to navigate and customize lessons for the 2026-2027 school year. 
• Bob Schulz, Product Director at the News Literacy Project, says the changes will save time for busy educators who want to help students become skilled in news literacy. 
• More improvements are expected in response to educators’ needs. 

Improvements include numbered slides, preview thumbnails and lesson chapters that allow educators to move back or forward in lessons, and a new button that connects them directly to resources aligned with each lesson. 

“By providing this improved visual navigation and these connections inside the lesson, we’re aiming to give teachers back time, and that’s the most important commodity we can give,” said Bob Schulz, Product Director on the News Literacy Project’s growing product team, which has brought vital, specialized expertise to the organization.

Designed for grades 5-12, Checkology is a free resource library with quizzes, posters, downloadable lesson plans and classroom slides. It includes interactive lessons on topics like algorithms, evaluating health and wellness claims and identifying misinformation. 

Educators consistently give Checkology high marks — 97% rated it as good or excellent, according to the News Literacy Project’s most recent independent evaluations. But teachers are busy, and they asked for ways to break up lessons into smaller chunks and the ability to navigate within lessons to material they want to focus on. 

“Our navigation wasn’t transparent. You had to work to find the part that you wanted,” Schulz said. 

The navigation improvements became possible after the News Literacy Project built an in-house product team that continues to grow. With deep expertise now on staff, the organization has even bigger plans to improve Checkology for educators and track what’s working. 

“We’re looking at feedback and measuring more information to guide us to creating more solutions and value for educators,” Schulz said.